How To Build The Perfect Burger
Whether you’re heading out to your grill to flip a party’s worth of burgers or pulling out your HexClad Hybrid Double Burner Griddle for a family-sized batch of patties, there are a few things worth keeping in mind for building the perfect burger. Whether you’re opting for a classic beef burger or venturing into homemade veggie patties, keep these tips in your back pocket to make great burgers.
TAKE TIME TO MEASURE AND SHAPE YOUR PATTIES
One of the reasons burgers at restaurants come out so well is because they prioritize consistency in the kitchen. If you’re going to be cooking several burgers at once, take the time to divide the meat or mixture into equal pieces (use a scale for precision) and shape them into round, flat patties. This means that the burgers will cook at the same rate so you can avoid ending up with one super rare and the others too well done. Don’t overwork them or mess with them too much, either, which can make the meat tough.
GET YOUR TOPPINGS READY BEFORE YOU COOK
This might sound like a simple tip, but taking the time to get your ingredients in place, including condiments like ketchup, mustard, and mayonnaise, before the patties hit the heat means you can assemble the burger while it’s still piping hot. If you’re serving for a crowd, place any vegetables on a platter for easy assembly and the condiments on a tray to avoid mess. If you’re making a special sauce for your burgers or another custom sauce, place it in a small pitcher or a bowl with a spoon near the rest of the condiments.
TAKE THE TIME TO TOAST YOUR BUNS
There’s nothing sadder than a perfectly griddled burger that’s topped with an untoasted bun. Taking the time to briefly cook the buns over medium heat coaxes deeper flavor out of them and gives them more structural integrity when adding sauces and other juicy ingredients. Rest assured, if you’re following one of the recipes below for making burgers on your HexClad Hybrid Double Burner Griddle, this step is included in the recipes.
CONSIDER THE GRIDDLE
While the picture of summer is a grill topped with charred burgers and a bucket of ice-cold beers, if you like a well-crisped burger that has extra flavor, go for the griddle, which offers more surface area for cooking the patties. Plus, it’s a more reliable way to cook non-beef patties that are not as sturdy and could break or fall through the grill grates.
4 delicious burger recipes to make on your HexClad Hybrid Double Burner Griddle:
There’s no need to trek to your local greasy spoon for a classic griddle burger, thanks to this easy recipe for the California classic. You’ll start with a smaller patty than most beef burgers, which is topped with onions before quickly griddling until the patty is crispy and the onions are golden. This gets topped with special sauce and the classic burger fixin’s like tomato and iceberg lettuce, plus slices of avocado, because…California.
Crispy White Bean & Sweet Potato Veggie Burger
There’s no need to mess around with frozen veggie burgers when you can make bangin’ bean and sweet potato ones with very little work. You’ll start by sautéing red onion and sweet potato before mashing them up with white beans and toasted panko breadcrumbs. These get topped with an easy avocado lime sauce, spring greens, and quick pickled onions for a healthy and satisfying vegetarian burger dinner.
When you’re investing over a pound of gorgeous fish for salmon burgers, you’re going to want them to be good. Thanks to this flavorful, easy salmon burger recipe, that’s assured. You’ll stir chopped salmon together with scallions, grated fresh ginger, chopped cilantro, lime zest, egg, breadcrumbs, and some Primal Kitchen Yum Yum Sauce (if you can’t find it, substitute mayonnaise).
Fried chicken meets burger in this epically delicious take on a chicken burger recipe. You’ll start by coating chicken in a sesame-flecked flour mixture to create a craggy crust before quickly frying them to perfection. Then, toast the buns and layer up with an easy cabbage slaw and serve with Primal Kitchen’s Chicken Dippin’ Sauce (or with your favorite spicy mayo if you can’t find it).
