Kick-ass grilled burger recipe

BBQ season calling? Kickstart it with this delicious grilled burger!

I don’t mess around when it comes to burgers. Liz’s usual complaint is that I make the patties too large. As if there’s such a thing! 😂

I love a good grilled burger at a restaurant, and we have a few favourite burger joints that we love to visit, but there’s no reason you can’t enjoy a top notch grilled burger at home.

Making a great grilled burger is easy!

Have you ever been eating a burger out and thought to yourself, I wish I could make a burger like this at home? Well you can! It’s as easy as buying some good ground beef, adding the right spices, cooking it right, using a good bun and fresh toppings. It’s not rocket science and restaurants don’t use tools you don’t already have at home.

A burger patty should be able to stand on it’s own

I love adding toppings to my burgers. But I feel that a great burger should be able to stand on its own. Meaning, if you bite into a patty with no bun or toppings, it should taste like an amazing piece of meat. I feel like some of the fast food chain restaurants try to hide their substandard burger patties with lots of toppings, so you think you’re having a good burger. Trust me on this one… try that patty on it’s own next time. Use toppings and condiments to enhance the flavour, not mask it.

Spring is in the air and lots of people are firing up their BBQs

If you’ve followed us for even a month, you know there’s no such thing as BBQ season for us. I use my BBQ all year–including days where I have to shovel a path to the grill. But for many folks, grilling only comes to mind when the weather gets warmer. So now that it’s officially spring, and we’ve been teased with a couple of warmer-weather days (at least where we live), I feel like lots of people are staring to fire-up their BBQs.

I always think of our BBQ as an extension of our kitchen. Our BBQ and our smoker are part of my culinary playground, and I just love to try things out and constantly improve my cooking skills. Wether it’s a grilled burger, a pizza, veggies, steak, or a brisket, I think there’s always room for improvement and I’m constantly out there trying to make our meals even better.

So, if you haven’t done so yet, it’s time for you to fire up that grill, give our grilled burger recipe a try, and make today yummy!

Print Recipe

Kick-ass grilled burger recipe

We really do mean kick-ass! This burger is juicy and full of flavour. This burger stands up to any restaurant burger any day!

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time15 minutes mins

Total Time30 minutes mins

Course: Main, Main Course

Cuisine: American, Canadian, North American

Keyword: Burger, Grilled burger

Servings: 5 large burgers

Ingredients

• 2.2 lbs or 1 kg quality ground chuck
• 3 cloves garlic minced
• 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• Brioche or other favourite buns
• Favourite toppings

Instructions

• Preheat the BBQ with the lid closed to 500 ºF.
• In a large bowl, break apart and spread out the ground beef from the packaging.
• Add the garlic, pepper, salt, paprika, chili powder, and olive oil.
• At first, loosely toss the ingredients with your hands to distribute the ingredients through-out the ground beef.
• Divide the mixture into 5 equal parts (or more if you prefer smaller patties).
• Form one of the portions into a ball, and then start flattening it with your hands until you have a decent looking patty. I always form my burgers by hand, and they don’t have to look perfect. A rustic looking patty has more character in my opinion.
• Repeat the last step until all your burger patties are formed.
• Let the burgers sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes.
• While the burgers are resting, open the BBQ lid and grease the grates. I like to use a scrunched up ball of paper towels in tongs, dipped in grape seed oil (or vegetable oil). This will prevent the burgers from sticking to the grill.
• Place the burgers on the hot grill, and press the centre of each one gently with your thumb, to create just a little dip. This will prevent the burgers from puffing up in the middle.
• Let the burgers cook for about 2 1/2 minutes.
• Use a spatula to rotate (on the same side) the burgers 90 degrees. This will create those beautiful criss-cross grill marks.
• After 2 1/2 more minutes, flip the burgers onto the other side.
• Cook for another 2 1/2 minutes, and rotate 90 degrees again.
• Cook for another 2 1/2 minutes and place them on the buns.
• Durning the last step, you can toast the buns and melt the cheese on the burger during the last minute of cooking.
• Add those awesome toppings and enjoy!

Notes

Use your favourite toppings. For our toppings, we used:

• sauce made from mayo and sriracha
• baby arugula
• tomato slices
• onion slices
• bacon
• sharp cheddar cheese slices
• pickled hot peppers