By Published Oct. 15, 2023.
This is Technique #17 from our 100 Techniques Every Home Cook Can Master.
Each technique is broken into three sections: why it works, key steps, and recipes that use it. Learn these recipe building blocks and you'll be set up for a lifetime of cooking success.
A tender, juicy burger with a flavorful, browned crust is the stuff summer-cookout dreams are made of. The frequent reality, though, is dry, dense burgers that vaguely resemble a squashed tennis ball. Here's our technique for turning out perfectly tender burgers.
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A prime reason for dense patties is excessive handling. The more you handle ground meat, the tougher and more rubbery it will become.
But it’s easy to prevent this. To ensure the gentlest touch, use only your hands rather than utensils to mix in seasonings. (Also, save salt for the outside of each burger patty; incorporating it toughens the meat.)
Then, again with your hands, remove a portion of meat from the bowl, form it into a loosely packed ball, and flatten that ball into a loosely packed disk, working it as little as possible. Since burgers typically bulge as they cook, using your fingertips to create a slight divot in the center of each patty helps deliver ideally flat cooked burgers.
Gentle handling is key. Notice the difference between the evenly cooked, flatter burger on the left versus the dense, rounded burger on the right.
It’s particularly important to treat prepackaged ground meat gently. Commercially ground meat has already been aggressively handled—sometimes it is ground multiple times. This causes soluble proteins to be released, which act like glue and cause the meat to stick together in a dense mass.
If your supermarket will grind meat to order for you, take advantage of that. Grocers who grind meat in-house usually use whole primal cuts, whereas commercially ground meat typically contains more greasy trimmings.
Whether cooking on the stovetop or the grill, flip your burgers only once. And—we beg you—resist the urge to press down on your burgers with a spatula. That only squeezes out the juices, which leads to dry patties.
Choosing a fattier ground meat option helps keep patties tender as well: 85 percent lean ground beef is our favorite for tender, juicy burgers. Leaner ground beef is more likely to turn leathery and tough.
For poultry, look for 93 percent lean ground chicken or turkey, which contains both light and dark meat. Ground chicken breast and ground turkey breast are generally 99 percent lean, and they will produce dry, chalky burger patties despite your best efforts.
Here are the key steps for the juiciest, most tender burger ever.
Break ground meat or poultry into small pieces and add to large bowl.
Add any mix-in ingredients and gently knead with hands until well combined.
Divide meat mixture into equal portions, then gently shape each portion into 3∕4-inch-thick patty.
Using your fingertips, press center of each patty down until about 1∕2 inch thick, creating slight divot.
Season exterior of patties with salt and pepper and grill or pan. Cook, flipping only once.
Use your newfound burger-making knowledge with any of these recipes.
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