What’s better than a great smashed burger? Two of them!
Today we’re featuring a delicious smashed burger recipe. Because they’re smashed and thinner than my usual burgers, why not stack a couple? of course you don’t need to stack yours, but I’m a huge fan of a meaty burger!
What is a smashed burger?
When I cook burgers, I like to change things up a little occasionally, wether it’s the seasoning, the protein or the cooking technique. Why not keep it interesting?
Smashed burgers are balls of seasoned ground meat that are placed on a griddle and then pressed down hard with a hard flat surface like a cast iron press or a large metal spatula. This creates a beautiful crust on both sides of the meat. Because they’re thin, they’re a great option for making double, or stacked, burgers.
How do you make smashed burgers?
Use a moist mixture
For smashed burgers, I like to use a fairly moist meat mixture. For this recipe I used ground chuck, ground pork, an egg, a little olive oil, and of course some seasoning. I divided the meat into portions and rolled them into balls.
Use a hot griddle
For my next step, I heated up a cast iron griddle on my BBQ. I got it nice and hot! Around 500 ºF. This recipe yields 6 single burgers. In order to have enough space between them after smashing, I cooked three at a time.
Use a well seasoned / greased surface
Once the griddle was hot, I added a drizzle of vegetable oil on the griddle and wiped it down with some scrunched up paper towel to make sure the surface was all greased up.
Press them hard, and create that beautiful crust!
I then placed three of the balls of meat on the griddle with plenty of space between them. I let them cook for about 30 seconds still in their ball shape. Then, with a greased large metal spatula, I smashed them by pressing the meat down hard to flatten all the balls. After about 3 minutes on the one side, I flipped them over and cooked them for another 3 minutes.
Remember, they’re quite thin, so don’t over cook them!
The Maillard reaction… that delicious crust on the outside of the burger!
Based on lots of reading and research I’ve done on this topic, it seems as though searing and creating that beautiful crust on the outside of meat, doesn’t actually contribute to holding in moisture. However, it does add an awesome contrast in flavour between the crispy surface and the meat inside. Also… it looks amazing!
How do smashed burgers taste?
They are awesome! Of course the taste will depend on the flavours you’ve added and the way you cook them, but if you follow our recipe, we’re pretty sure you’ll love the results and they’ll make your day yummy!
Double smashed burgers on cast iron
Ingredients
- .26 kg or 0.57 lbs lean ground pork
- .575 kg or 1.26 lbs lean ground beef
- 1/2 tsp chili powder
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
- 1 tsp coarse kosher salt
- 1 large egg beaten
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 3 burger buns
- Your favourite toppings. We used tomato slices, onion slices, lettuce, and sauce made from mayo and peri peri sauce.
Instructions
- Preheat the BBQ to 500 ºF with the lid closed. Place the griddle on the grates in the BBQ while it heats up.
- In a large bowl, break apart and spread out the ground meat.
- Add all the remaining ingredients, except for the vegetable oil, .
- Toss the ingredients with your hands to distribute the ingredients through-out the ground meat.
- Divide the mixture into 6 equal parts.
- Using your hands, form the 6 portions into balls.
- Let the burgers sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes.
- While the burgers are resting, open the BBQ lid and grease the griddle. Use a scrunched up ball of paper to rub the vegetable oil onto the griddle. This will prevent the burgers from sticking to the griddle.
- Place the burgers on the hot griddle. Make sure to have plenty of room between each of them because you’ll be flattening the portions, and this takes up a bit of space. I cooked three at a time. How many you can make at a time will depend on the size of your griddle.
- After about 30 seconds, press each burger down hard with a greased heavy metal spatula or cast iron press.
- Let the burgers cook for 3 minutes and flip them with a spatula.
- Cook for another 3 minutes. These burgers are thin, so be careful not to overcook them.
- During these last couple of minutes, you can toast the bread on the BBQ grates and melt the cheese on the burgers.
- Stack the burgers on the buns, add the toppings and enjoy!
Notes
- Try to not over handle the ground meat. Mix the ingredients loosely and make the balls without squeezing too much. Over handled meat tends to be tougher.
- If you plan on mixing the seasoning and meat a few hours in advance, leave out the salt, and sprinkle it evenly over the burgers while they’re cooking. Letting the salt sit in the burgers mixture for a long time will remove moisture and the burgers will be dryer.
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