The Best Smash Burger Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What makes a smash burger better? ›

Minced chuck steak is gold for Smash Burger. Secondly, it's the smash that really makes it. When you smash the burgers down on a super-hot grill, the fat has nowhere to go but back up into the burger patty meaning you're essentially cooking your burger in its own beefy juices.

For best results, ask your butcher to freshly grind beef for you, or do it yourself at home. You can use straight ground chuck, or for better flavor, use a blend of short rib, brisket, and chuck or oxtail meat.

After flipping the burger, a slice of American (or cheddar) cheese is added to one of the patties, and the second patty is placed directly on top. This way, the cheese gets heated from both sides simultaneously and rapidly melts, helping the patties stay together on their trip to the bun.

To Make the Patties:

Place a cast iron over medium-high heat. Preheat the pan until hot and then add about a teaspoon or two of oil. Add two patties, spacing them about 4 inches apart, and then smash them flat with a spatula to form patties that are 4-inches in diameter.

Use a very thin metal spatula to scrape and get under that edge before flipping. Once flipped, cook the patty on that side no longer than 1 minute, ideally 30 seconds or less, just enough to put cheese(optional) on and melt it. A proper smash burger should be well done in my opinion.

Juicy & flavorful: searing the chilled meat in a hot pan locks in the flavor and the juices. Melty, creamy American cheese: a classic choice for any smash burger! But you can always use something else like cheddar, pepper jack, etc.

To create the best smash burger at home, you'll want a loose ball of ground beef, preferably 80% beef, 20% fat. The fat is crucial for flavor and the recipe only needs salt and pepper to make beef sing.

Gently roll the meat into a ball, smash it, and grill it. This is key, because overworking the meat can make the proteins too tough, delaying the Maillard reaction and keeping the juices from soaking back up into the burger.

I've always determined how many ounces of beef I made my smash burgers with by whether I was making a single or a double. I estimated that 3 ounce patties were the best for a standard hamburger bun if I was shooting for a double cheese burger, and aimed for a 5 ounce patty if I was making a single.

How long should I cook a smash burger? ›

Season liberally with salt and cook, undisturbed, until outer edges are brown, about 2 minutes. Flip patties, season with salt, and place a slice of cheese on top of each patty. Cook until cheese droops and burgers are medium-rare, about 1 minute.

I press down on the spatula with a metal salt shaker at work but you could use about anything at home. A coffee mug would work well. Just place the blade of the spatula over the burger and press down on it with a coffee mug until the burger is smashed to your liking. That's easy enough, no smasher needed.

The non-stick surface of the parchment paper also allows the patty to keep its shape without tearing. Another benefit that makes parchment paper so convenient is that it's disposable, so you can simply throw it away after you've finished cooking your burger.

First, smash the burger within 30 seconds of hitting the pan. This keeps more juices inside the meat and sets more of the meat's surface area against the high heat of the pan (which will cool down slightly when the cold meat hits it).

Burgers have a tendency to swell up like a football as they cook. The edges of a patty cook faster than its center, causing the meat to puff up as it shrinks. You can avoid this problem through a few easy techniques, like pressing down on the raw burger patties with your thumb or by smashing them flat.

The traditional hamburger is typically cooked on a grill or griddle, and may be flipped once or twice during cooking. A smash burger, on the other hand, is made by smashing a meatball-sized portion of ground beef onto a hot griddle or frying pan, which produces a thin patty with a crispy exterior.

Smash Burger vs Regular Burger

As you can guess from the intro, a smash burger is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. A loosely packed ball of ground beef that's been placed on a hot pan or grill and then pressed firmly into a thin patty with a spatula or a cast iron press.

In-N-Out places its burger patties on the flat-top griddle then spreads about a teaspoon or two of yellow mustard on the uncooked side just before flipping. The mustard caramelizes on the griddle, softening that piquant quality mustard can have, and creating an even crispier crust as the burger patties get smashed.