The Best BBQ Hamburger Recipe You'll Ever Taste
Burgers are one of the most iconic barbecue foods known all across the world. Whether they’re store-bought, made in a fast food restaurant, or even made at home and barbecued, burgers are simple dishes that can easily be customised. It’s more than likely that each country has their own forms of burgers, each with their own unique cultural twists and ingredients.
In its base form, though, the best burger recipe for BBQ is simple but also incredibly flavourful. As simple as many burgers are, they can also be quite bland if not made and seasoned properly, making them harder to enjoy without a large amount of sauces. A good BBQ hamburger recipe only uses the most flavourful meat, so you only need some salt for a taste before barbecuing them.
This article shows you how to make the best BBQ burgers for lunch or dinner and a few tips to make them as close to perfect as possible. If you need a new barbecue grill or just a new bag of wood chips to add a deliciously smoky aftertaste, you can visit Dickson Barbeque Centre for all that and more.
Tips to make the best burger
Often many of the best burgers are surprisingly easier to make than it seems. The best BBQ burger recipe in its simplest form only needs two ingredients to be great. However, in order to make even the simplest of burgers delicious, there are a few tips and tricks that should be followed.
Use 80/20 percent ground meat
When looking to get the ground meat for your burgers, look for how much fat it has in it. As healthy as a lean ground beef burger might be, the end result won’t be as satisfying once it’s been barbecued. In a good BBQ hamburger recipe, look for an 80/20 mix in your ground meat, regardless of whether it’s chicken, pork or beef.
In a 80/20 mix of ground meat, 80 percent of it is lean meat, making the remaining 20 percent fat. The ratio of lean meat to fat is what makes sure that the meat isn’t overly unhealthy but also flavourful enough when it’s cooked. The fat from the ground meat is what will eventually render down into drippings and some of the juices you can get in a great burger.
Use your preferred seasonings but keep it light
In the best hamburger recipes for BBQ, it’s also important to use the types of seasonings you like the best. While many high class chefs just use salt and pepper to season their burgers, it can be quite unappealing to many people with different cultural backgrounds. So, when prepping your burgers for the barbeque, feel free to mince up some onions, garlic and even chilis if you and your family like that in your burgers.
However, be sure you don’t add too much to the ground meat. The most important part of seasoning and eating the burgers - once they’re cooked - is to actually be able to taste the meat. Too much seasoning will overpower the natural flavours of the meat. To avoid that, keep the seasoning light but just enough that you can taste the difference.
Make an indent in the middle of the patty
When you’re flattening the patties and prepping them to be barbecued, make sure you also leave a deep enough indent in the center of them as well. When burgers are grilled, they have a tendency to puff up at the center, forming a balloon-like hole there. Typically, when people see that, their immediate reaction is to push down against it. This can cause some of the juices inside to leak out, which isn’t what you need for a great burger.
Leaving a deep indent in the center of a thick burger makes sure that the ballooning is only enough to reach the height of the edges. When and if it does puff up more, it won’t need to be pressed down.
What ingredients to use
For the simplest types of BBQ hamburger recipes, you don’t need too many different ingredients. As mentioned above, you’ll need to get the kind of meat for your burgers in a 80/20 ratio. Additionally, you’ll need at least a teaspoon of both salt and pepper for every pound of ground meat.
If you want to add more seasonings or herbs, you’ll need to consider whether a teaspoon of each would be too strong or not for a pound of meat. Ideally, the stronger the flavour, the less you should put.
Adding onions and garlic works the same way. You’ll only need ¼ cup of chopped onions and 2 minced cloves of garlic to make a great burger, but feel free to add more. As mentioned before, do make sure that the combined flavours don’t overpower your ground meat’s original flavour.
How to cook the burgers
It’s finally time to cook some of the best burgers and the excitement is building up. However, there are two different ways you barbecue your burgers: either with a griddle plate for your grill or directly on the grates.
Using a griddle plate to barbecue the burgers can make sure that all those juices that may come out stay close to the actual meat you’re cooking, letting the flavours stay there. This does mean that they won’t be quite as healthy or have the same smokiness that you’d get with a grate.
Similarly, the grate does give the burgers the classic smoke and char that comes with barbecuing. However, the juices will more than likely drip off into the coals or onto your burners, leaving them not as delicious as they could be.
Takeaway
To some people, the best burger is simply a mix of a good quality ground meat and just a bit of salt and pepper for taste. However, what might be the best burger to some people may not be the same to others. As such, use the tips given to make a simple base for your burgers and add whatever seasonings and other ingredients that you want. Don’t add too much but just enough to add flavour to the meat and you have the best burger recipe for your household!