The Best Smash Burger Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the best blend for smash burgers? ›

Smashed burgers should have a higher percentage of fat in the meat as mentioned above. Accordingly, we have settled on using a fatty blend of short-rib brisket and sirloin for our burgers.

Minced chuck steak is gold for Smash Burger. Secondly, it's the smash that really makes it. When you smash the burgers down on a super-hot grill, the fat has nowhere to go but back up into the burger patty meaning you're essentially cooking your burger in its own beefy juices.

To create the best smash burger at home, you'll want a loose ball of ground beef, preferably 80% beef, 20% fat. The fat is crucial for flavor and the recipe only needs salt and pepper to make beef sing.

The mustard caramelizes on the griddle, softening that piquant quality mustard can have, and creating an even crispier crust as the burger patties get smashed. It is truly a thing of beauty.

The results? If you don't want to lose juices, you must smash within the first 30 seconds of cooking. When ground beef is cold, its fat is still solid and its juices are still held firmly in place inside small, chopped up segments of muscle fibers.

To Make the Patties:

Place a cast iron over medium-high heat. Preheat the pan until hot and then add about a teaspoon or two of oil. Add two patties, spacing them about 4 inches apart, and then smash them flat with a spatula to form patties that are 4-inches in diameter.

Gordon Ramsay hamburger recipe blend of brisket, chuck sirloin, and short rib ground beef with our exclusive chef's secret recipe, featuring a perfect meat blend and expert grill techniques.

Season the outside of the burgers right before cooking rather than adding the salt to the meat mixture. Without any binders in the meat mixture (like my steakhouse burgers have), salt will give the burgers a strange texture (read the scientific explanation on Serious Eats here).

Use a very thin metal spatula to scrape and get under that edge before flipping. Once flipped, cook the patty on that side no longer than 1 minute, ideally 30 seconds or less, just enough to put cheese(optional) on and melt it. A proper smash burger should be well done in my opinion.

For options to smash the burger, you can achieve it by pressing it down with a spatula, parchment paper, or a burger press. See video. I like to toast the buns on the griddle as soon as I flip the burgers and add the cheese. You can use melted butter to help toast or just the rendered meat fat in the pan or griddle.

Why are my smash burgers tough? ›

Gently roll the meat into a ball, smash it, and grill it. This is key, because overworking the meat can make the proteins too tough, delaying the Maillard reaction and keeping the juices from soaking back up into the burger.

Preheat on high heat for 10-15 minutes, looking for a surface temperature of 400-425 degrees F. To test the surface, sprinkle a few drops of water on top of the surface; they should “dance” rapidly across the hot surface, evaporating in moments.

To make a smash burger, start with a ball of ground beef that is just larger than the size of a golf ball (about 2 ounces is just right). Season each ball with salt and pepper, and set them on a hot cast-iron griddle.

For smash burgers, we recommend using high-quality beef with high-fat content, such as an 80/20 ground chuck for your burgers.

I use a salt shaker to press down on the spatula while smashing. Once smashed, they always stay that way, for me anyhow. If your smash burgers are balling up after you've smashed them, you might want to get an exorcism of your kitchen, or something, because that's otherworldly.

Because nothing melts like American cheese, and with a smashburger it's important to use the cheese as a binding agent to prevent the patties from falling apart. A good smashburger is held together with nothing but love and American cheese.

Use a very thin metal spatula to scrape and get under that edge before flipping. Once flipped, cook the patty on that side no longer than 1 minute, ideally 30 seconds or less, just enough to put cheese(optional) on and melt it. A proper smash burger should be well done in my opinion.

Ultimate Smash Burger

Use brisket trimmings and run them through MEAT! grinder to make an 80% meat to 20% fat grind for patties. If you have wild game to grind, use that as your meat. Otherwise, grinding fresh beef sirloin is also a great option.