Recipe Station

1. Choose the right meat. I recommend ground chuck or ground sirloin for a good fatty ground beef.  Check the label and ask your butcher, you want about 20% fat or so.
2. Use high heat and cook them fast! Like most thin meat products, it’s best to apply high and direct heat to your hamburger and cook it as fast as possible. Leave the lid open, crank up the heat and don’t cook them too long or they will dry out.
3. Be gentle with that meat! Most people really pack the patties tight and then flatten them down too much.  A loosely packed patty makes for a juicy hamburger!
4. Don’t “squish”! PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE don’t EVER flatten or squish your burgers with a spatula while they are grilling.
5. Flip only once! As meat cooks, the heat pushes the juices away from the heat source.  To achieve a juicy burger, you only want to flip the burgers once so that you don’t disrupt those juices any more than necessary.
6. Don’t skimp on buns.  I like to go with french hamburger buns from my grocery store’s bakery.

 Directions for making the Perfect Hamburger

1. Get the grill going. Go ahead and light the grill and set it up for direct grilling over high heat.

2. Divide your ground beef into equal portions, based on how many patties you are going to make. You want to end up with about a tennis ball sized portion of ground beef.

3. Now gently form each divided portion of ground beef into a tennis ball like shape.

4. Once you have your ground beef balls, gently flatten each ball to make your patty.

5. Now here is a secret. You have probably experienced the “bloat” phenomenon that makes most inexperienced grill masters try to flatten that patty during grilling. To lessen the bloat, simply use your thumb and create an indention in the middle of the patty before you put it on the grill.

6. For seasoning, I also suggest that you don’t over-think this one. Keep it simple for now, a little Kosher salt, some fresh ground black pepper and perhaps a little garlic powder and you are good to go, just gently rub the seasoning into your patties.

7. Ok, the fire is lit, your meat hasn’t been worked over too hard (other than a dent in the top) and you lightly seasoned your ground beef. Our goal here is to sear the outside of the hamburger to form a great crust, while keeping the insides nice and juicy. Take note of what time you put them on the grill so you can time this exercise.

8. After about 5 or 6 minutes you should start seeing juices starting to collecting on the top of your burger. This is a sure sign that the meat is cooking through in the middle, which pushes the juices to the top.

9. Flip the burgers over and grill for 1 – 2 minutes shorter than the time it took to start seeing the juices (about 3 – 4 minutes should do the trick for medium, but again, it depends on the grill). If you are making cheeseburgers, now is the time to slap the cheese on and close the lid just long enough to melt the cheese.

10. Remove the burgers from the grill and let them sit for about 5 minutes while you toast a few buns on the grill!

I'm sure you might think I'm a little crazy, but it seems my family is grilling burgers at least once a week! Whether we're tailgating at the local baseball game, spending a day at the lake, or just lounging on a Sunday nothing beats a tasty burger. Pair it with your favorite sides, and your definitely in for a treat. Your BBQ Awaits, after all it's Saturday somewhere.

For more about this amazing BBQ Recipe visit: Grilling Companion.