How to Grill the Juiciest Burgers Ever

I'm Matt Abdoo, Chef and Pitmaster,

and today, we're firing up the grills

to show you how easy and simple it is

to make the perfect grilled cheeseburger.

We're gonna walk you through all the steps

from seasoning it to cooking it

so that you can be the burger boss you wanna be.

This is Grilling 101.

[upbeat clapping music]

Burgers are simple,

and we just wanna show you the proper steps

to make it come out perfect every time.

For me, a burger that's gonna be grilled,

I like an 80/20 ratio.

80% of it's going to be lean meat,

while 20% of it is going to be fat meat.

That's going to bring together that perfect texture

for that juicy bite

without your burger getting too crumbly and too dry.

Now, lots of times people say they like to cook

with ratios that are like 75/25 or 70/30.

I think those certainly have a place,

but when your burger has that much fat in it

on a grilled hamburger,

all it does is create big flare-ups

and causes the burger to sometimes fall apart

on the grill during cooking.

Burgers can range anywhere from two ounce,

four ounce, six ounce, eight ounce,

to a 16 ounce burger.

All are gonna have different cook times,

but fundamentally, all the steps and all the processes

are still gonna be the same.

In our bowl here, we have our 80/20 ground beef.

You can see those white little specks.

That's the fat that's been ground up into the meat.

And oftentimes, too, guys, you can see

that sometimes the meat's gonna look a little darker

and a little more pinkish.

That's just the myoglobin reacting to the oxygen

in the air in the room.

The second you open it up and it's exposed to the oxygen,

it's gonna turn nice and bright pink on you.

This right here is roughly six ounces in my hand,

but I have 24 ounces of meat in this bowl,

So I'm going to do my best to evenly divide it

into four balls to get as close to six ounces each as I can.

Now, if you have a scale at home,

by all means, you can totally weigh it out

to the exact ounce.

I'm just gonna do my best to sort of eyeball it

into four even-sized balls.

If I'm making a burger patty from straight ground beef

from the grocery store,

I like to work the meat a little bit in my hands.

There's something in the meat called myosin,

and as you work this, it's gonna cause the meat structures

to kind of stick together a little bit.

If you work the meat too much,

it's gonna turn itself into sausage,

and we don't want that texture.

But if we don't work it at all,

the straight ground beef, when we put it on the grill,

might have a tendency to flare up

and fall apart as we're cooking it.

So just working it a little bit goes a long way

prior to making our patties.

And a really fun trick that I love to do,

get some of these deli container lids.

We're gonna brush it with just a little bit of oil,

and we're gonna take this patty

that we've worked with our hands a little bit,

and we're gonna put it right in the center,

and then we're just gonna press down.

We're gonna press down, press down, press down,

and kind of turn it a little bit as we press,

Push in the sides a little bit,

and then we're just gonna take it and check this out.

We're gonna release it,

and you have like a perfectly formed burger patty.

The deli container just kind of gives you an outline

of giving you that nice, perfect circle edge,

but you can still do it without it.

Press it down on a clean work surface,

using the palm of my hand, and there you have it.

Four uniquely sized six ounce burger patties

that we formed by hand.

I love doing this little added step.

I like to take them, cover it with some plastic wrap,

and put it in your refrigerator

for at least 20 minutes before you cook them.

It's gonna help the burger patties stay together.

So plastic wrap, in the fridge, and we'll be right back.

Our cheeseburgers have been chilling in the refrigerator.

Our grill is up to temperature.

We got everything set to high.

It's time to get cooking.

But before we these go to the grill,

we're gonna aggressively season the burger meat

with kosher salt.

Season from up high, always an important step.

We don't wanna get too close

'cause if we season too close,

you're gonna end up with pockets of seasoning.

When you season from up high,

it sort of naturally falls down in a better progression.

Some freshly cracked black pepper.

I like it to be a little bit more on the coarser side

just because I like that texture

and the flavor that it develops.

Flip it, season both sides.

Very important step, kosher salt, black pepper.

It's all you need to season

and make a super simple, delicious, perfect burger.

[upbeat clapping music]

Our burgers are seasoned, our grill is hot.

Let's get cooking.

We can see the smoke coming off those grill grates,

a great indication that our grill is nice and hot.

We're gonna take our burger patties

on the high, high hot side of the grill,

gotta hear the sizzle.

If we're not hearing the sizzle,

the grill isn't hot enough.

You're on grill grates.

There's no need to smash it down.

If you smash it, you're gonna push the meat to the grill.

You're gonna have all the juice

that we want inside the burger dripping into the fire,

creating flare ups and big flames.

Don't touch it.

Be patient and give it the proper time to have it cook.

It's been about five minutes

since we've had our burgers on the grill,

and you can start to see where it's leaching out

the moisture on the top side of the burger.

That means for me, it's a great time to flip it.

And we're trying to develop all that crust,

all that beautiful char on the grill,

it's also gonna start sending out those little flare-ups,

those tiny little fats that are dripping onto the flames.

It's usually a good tell when the burger's ready to flip.

But before I do that, I'm gonna take this side of my grill,

I'm gonna just turn it down to low heat.

The reason being that when I flip the burger,

it's gonna prevent some big flare-ups from happening

'cause there's all that fat and grease

on the top side of that burger.

It's gonna drip down on the flames.

If I do that on the high heat side,

it could potentially cause flare-ups

which you don't wanna do.

The burger's gonna tell you when it's ready to flip, guys.

If it's giving you any resistance, let it cook, let it sit.

But if you can take your spatula and just go underneath it

and it releases perfectly, we know it's ready to be flipped.

We're gonna take it, turn it over.

We have that gorgeous char, again, char is flavor.

We're cooking over live fire.

That's exactly what we wanna see.

Cook 'em until they're done to the way that you like them.

You could use a digital instant-read thermometer.

It's gonna be kinda hard on a burger

that's only six ounces big.

At this point, what I like to do

is take my American cheese slices,

and for me, it's always American

'cause it's never gonna break on you,

it's never gonna get oily, and it just melts so perfect.

Put the cheese on top, just like that.

And now, I'm gonna turn all the burners down to low,

I'm gonna close the lid, and closing the lid's gonna create

this beautiful, magical oven.

We're in about 30 seconds,

that cheese is gonna be perfectly melted,

and it'll be time to start assembling our burgers.

Look at that.

See how perfectly melted that American cheese ends up

being on those hamburgers?

It's silky, it's creamy, it's smooth,

it's perfectly draped itself over the hamburger.

That's everything we want with melting cheese.

Take our burgers right off the grill, put them on a rack.

Super important step.

Don't forget to let your burgers rest.

I don't know about you guys,

but if you've ever been out and you've had a burger

and you've been so excited to bite into it,

only to pick up the burger and find the bottom bun

has completely been sogged out,

that's because they didn't give it the minute or two

it needed to rest before they put it on the bun.

So this is a perfect time while our burgers are resting

for us to get our burger accoutrement,

make our sauce and get ready to assemble

our delicious cheeseburger.

[upbeat clapping music]

Quintessential in any burger, a delicious burger sauce.

Equal parts, ketchup, mayonnaise, yellow mustard,

and then into that I mix some chopped shallots

and a little bit of relish.

So right into our bowl, we're just gonna add our ketchup,

our mustard, and our mayonnaise.

If you don't like mayonnaise, don't add it in.

This is merely a template for you guys to have at home

to show you just how simple these things can be,

but there's really no specific rules here.

It's just cook what you like.

So we're just gonna take all this and mix it together.

Make this a hit if you want.

Put it in your refrigerator,

put it in a food safe container with a lid.

It'll last for a few weeks in your refrigerator.

Pull it out anytime you're making a burger

or if you wanna dip French fries in it

or chicken nuggets in it.

It's delicious, it's our secret sauce.

For me, the best bun on the planet

is that soft, squishy, slightly sweet potato roll.

Although I do love myself a toasted bun,

it's not a necessary step.

But if you like it, please do it.

I'm gonna take roughly a good tablespoon or so

of that burger sauce on the bottom.

I'm gonna add my well-rested cheeseburger

right off the grate and onto the bun with that sauce.

And then from here, guys, top off your burger.

I like to do it with a little bit more sauce

because for me, you can never really have enough

of this burger sauce on your burger.

I always love seasoning the tomato,

and this little step goes a really long way

when you're having your burger.

We're gonna take our thinly sliced red onion,

and then I like this leafy green lettuce

Doesn't that just look oh so perfect?

I mean, it almost looks like a picture.

Simple, beautiful perfection

in a classic grilled cheeseburger topped off

with that secret burger sauce, lettuce, tomato, and onions.

Doesn't really get any better or simpler than this.

And now time for my favorite part, saucy.

Love it.

It's everything you want in a cheeseburger.

You can see it's still got

a little bit of rose center to it.

For me, that's exactly what I want when I have a hamburger.

But notice, it's not dripping a lot of the juice

from the meat because we let it rest.

Everything comes together in beautiful harmony,

and I'm just in a super happy place.

I encourage you to get up there, fire up your grills,

make a cheeseburger, put whatever kind of toppings you want

because it is absolutely worth the bite,

and I promise you, you can do it too.