Summer’s here and the savory smells of grilling season are wafting over backyard fences! Here’s a recipe with one simple addition that’ll liven up your cookouts and give regular hamburgers a big kick of flavor. Oh yes — we’re adding BBQ sauce.
Hamburgers are a summer food favorite, delicious all year round, but in the summertime, I find myself consuming them almost every weekend and the occasional weeknight. When you’re eating anything that often, you gotta shake up the flavors and try out different recipes. The simplest and most tasty way to broaden your hamburger horizons? Mix BBQ sauce into your beef — and voilà, mouthwatering juicy burgers on your table! Adding BBQ sauce into your hamburger mix adds a unique tangy, smokey flavor that perfectly complements the meat. A foolproof enhancement to an already great dish.
BBQ sauce can be made from a tomato base, vinegar base, mayonnaise or mustard base, and ranges in flavors from sweet to tangy, hot or spicy. Select whichever BBQ sauce flavor you prefer to mix into your hamburgers so they’re just right for your tastebuds. Personally, my go-to BBQ sauce is Sweet Baby Ray’s hickory and brown sugar. I love the combo of smokey and sweet, especially on my hamburger.
The Best Burger Seasoning…
Stroll through the spice aisle and snag a jar of hamburger seasoning, McCormick, Schwartz, Weber, they all make great mixes that’ll give your hamburgers the perfect flavor. Alternatively, you can mix your own at home with commonly stocked spices. It’s simple and you can play with different variants until you find a mixture you love the most. Salt and pepper are the obvious musts of a proper burger seasoning, and usually onion and garlic powder are part of the mixture, typically paprika is generously added, and often a dash of cayenne pepper is mixed in. Here’s a basic burger seasoning mixture you can mix up and keep in your cabinet so you don’t have to mix each time:
- 1/2 teaspoon salt (sea salt or kosher)
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper (freshly cracked is preferable)
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Another option is to finely mince 1/2 onion and 2 cloves of garlic in the food processor as a replacement for the onion and garlic powders, but keep in mind this will somewhat alter the consistency of your meat. Other things you can consider mixing in are: brown sugar for a hint of sweetness; herbs like dried parsley, oregano, rosemary, or basil to add some earthy notes; and, mustard powder for a splash of tang. Once you’ve perfected your mixture you can use it as your spices for any hamburger recipe. I like to keep my spices simple for this BBQ hamburger recipe, because we’re letting the BBQ sauce add the bulk of the flavoring.
FAQs & Tips
How to Make Ahead and Store
To make these burgers ahead of time, mix your meat and shape out each burger patty, place in an airtight sealed container with parchment paper between each one and freeze for up to 4 months. Before serving, thaw in the refrigerator for 24 hours and then grill. Because we eat burgers so much in my house throughout the summers, I almost always double my recipe so I can freeze a batch. This has been a lifesaver many times when I decide on a whim to host a cookout.
Cooked hamburgers, on the other hand, can last in the refrigerator for about 3 days and you can also freeze them for up to 4 months. To reheat frozen burgers, thaw them, wrap them in foil and place them in the oven at 350 degrees F for 8-10 minutes.
Can I Fry My BBQ Burgers in the Skillet?
Sure, if you don’t have a grill, or just don’t feel like firing it up, the next best thing is pan-frying. In the winter I usually go for this cooking method. It doesn’t yield quite the same great flavor as grilling them, but it still does the job of making yummy burgers. Very lightly grease the skillet and cook your burgers for about 6-8 minutes on each side on medium heat. If you want to add cheese, do so at the last minute of cooking.
Can I Use Leaner Beef?
Great question — I strongly recommend using ground beef with an 80/20 fat content as written in the recipe. I get it, we all want to cut out fat when and where we can, but a burger isn’t the place for it. I opt for a leaner ground beef when I’m cooking other dishes, but if you use 90/10 for hamburgers they’ll come out dry and chewy.
Serving Suggestions
As a child I asked for salad on my burger, by this I meant, lettuce or spinach, tomato, raw onion, pickles and of course condiments. To this day I lay out a full spread of toppings and condiments when I make burgers. I’ve never been a just burger and bun kind of burger eater, and although these BBQ burgers have extra flavor, I still argue they need that juicy crunch of fresh toppings added to them. What you eat alongside your BBQ burgers is also very important. I love serving Macaroni and Cheese and any kind of vegetable like an Easy Sautéed Broccoli or Roasted Carrots. Then you need at least one salad. Pasta Salad and potato salads are classic sides, as are baked beans. Homemade French Fries are an obvious choice, or you can make a healthy alternative like Asparagus Fries.
Then what fun is a yummy juicy BBQ burger dinner without some sort of dessert? If you’ve stumbled into a patch of fresh berries, or found a great deal at the supermarket, then may I recommend a Mixed Berry Cobbler. Serve this with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for the ultimate treat. Speaking of ice cream — whipping up your own ice cream is a really fun dessert, Chocolate or Strawberry, which one will you have? Whatever you choose, don’t drop the ball on a delicious meal by not ending things on a sweet note.
BBQ Hamburgers
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pounds ground beef 80/20 mix
- 1 tablespoon burger seasoning
- 2 tablespoons BBQ sauce
- 4 hamburger buns
- 4 slices cheese optional
- Lettuce leaves optional
- Tomato slices optional
- Onion slices optional
- Pickles optional
Instructions
- Preheat your grill to medium-high heat.
- In a large bowl, combine the ground beef, burger seasoning, and BBQ sauce. Mix gently to avoid overworking the meat.
- Divide the mixture into 4 equal parts and form each into a patty. Make a small indentation in the center of each patty to prevent bulging during cooking.
- Place the patties on the grill and cook for about 5 minutes on each side or until they reach an internal temperature of 160°F for well-done.
- If you’re adding cheese, place a slice on each patty during the last minute of grilling to melt.
- Serve the patties on hamburger buns with additional BBQ sauce and optional toppings like lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickles.
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