Description
Smoked Burgers – a simple, easy recipe for smoked burgers your whole family will love! Perfect for your next cookout!
Ingredients
Scale
Burger
- 1lb 80/20 ground beef
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder (optional)
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (optional)
Toppings:
- bun (regular, gluten-free or lettuce)
- cheese slices (dairy-free or regular)
- sliced tomato
- sliced red onion
- lettuce
- burger sauce (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat your Smoker: Ensure your smoker is clean and preheat to 225 degrees F.
- Mix Your Ground Beef: Place your ground beef in a bowl and add salt and pepper (and other seasoning, as desired). Mix to combine.
- Divide the Ground Beef: Take your ground beef and create 3 equal sized balls (you should end up with 3 patties that are approximately 5-6oz each and approximately 3/4 inches thick).
- Create Patties: Then use your hands to form patties (try not to overwork the meat). Try and make them a little bit bigger than your bun (if you are using one) as they will shrink a little as they cook.
- Create Indent with Thumb: Use your thumb to create an indent in the very center of your patty (this will help ensure the burgers cook evenly without expanding too much in the middle).
- Season Lightly: Sprinkle patties with a little more salt and pepper.
- Place on Smoker: Place patties on smoker for approximately 40-55 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 10-15 degrees below your desired internal temp (See temperature chart in Notes).
- Reverse Sear: Turn smoker up all the way and sear burger 1-2 minutes per side or until you have reached your desired internal temperature – alternatively this can be done on a gas grill (which I actually prefer).
- If Making Cheeseburgers: If you are making cheeseburgers place a piece of cheese on your burger for approximately the last 10 minutes of smoke time OR you can place the cheese on the burger after you sear the first side.
- Let Rest: Remove from grill and let rest for at least 5 minutes. This will help ensure your burgers are nice and juicy!
- Build your Burger: build your burger using a bun, burger sauce, tomato, lettuce and/or onion!
Notes
- Medium-Rare is 130 -140 degrees F; Medium is 140-145 degrees; Medium- 145-155 degrees F.
- Reverse Sear: you don’t HAVE to reverse-sear your burger – you can simply continue smoking until your burger reaches your desired internal temperature and then remove from the smoker.
- Don’t Press Down: Do not press down on the burgers with your spatula. This will release juices that we want to keep in the burger.
- Egg: I know a lot of people use eggs in their burger mixtures – I generally don’t, but as always, feel free to add one in the mix if you want to!
- Pellets/Wood Chips: I love hickory, mesquite or cherry here.
- Internal Temp: use an internal meat thermometer or probe to keep close track of your internal temp; this is the best way to know when your burger is done.