Grilled burgers make a perfect meal for small backyard gatherings within friends and family. But you cannot plan a party unless you don’t know how long it takes to grill a burger.
Knowing about accurate timing is essential for every meal. While you keep tabs on the doneness of the food, there are other time related factors that will impact the preparation. It is the thickness of the patty or the kind of meat being used.
In this post, we will try and cover the significant areas about burger’s cooking time.
In this post:
What Is Doneness Level?
There are basically 5 levels of doneness in burgers including well done, medium well, medium, medium rare, and rare. They vary with the internal cooked temperature and time to cook the patty on each side. It depends on the personal liking of the consumer how much they wish to grill the meat.
Also, if you have frozen burgers then this guide on how long to grill frozen burgerswill be helpful in making lip-smacking burgers.
How Long Does It Take To Grill A Burger?
Doneness | Internal Temperature | Time (Per Side) |
|---|---|---|
Well Done | 160 degrees | 7 + min |
Medium Well | 150 – 155 degrees | 6 mins |
Medium | 140 – 145 degrees | 5 mins |
Medium Rare | 130 – 135 degrees | 4 mins |
Rare | 120 – 125 degrees | 3 mins |
1. Well Done
Most people prefer the burgers to be fully cooked. For that, you will have to set up your grill and cook the patties for 7-minutes on each side.
The ultimate goal is to achieve the internal temperature of 160-degrees. You can keep flipping the patties after every 7-minutes till you achieve the perfect browning and right internal temperature.
One more thing, since the burgers are available in different thickness, you might have to increase the cooking time by 3 – 5-minutes more. But make sure to keep checking the temperature alongside.
2. Medium Well
People who don’t want to completely cook the burger will appreciate medium well. This means that the internal temperature of a patty will have to be between 150 – 155-degrees. This can be done by grilling the meat for 6-minutes on each side.
3. Medium
You can also cook the burger with medium doneness. This will require an internal temperature of 140 – 145-degrees. You will need to flip the patty after cooking it for 5-minutes constantly.
4. Medium Rare
The medium rare doneness is achieved with an internal temperature of 130 – 135-degrees when you cook the burger for 4-minutes on each side.
5. Rare
The least cooked burger has rare doneness and it is achieved by grilling the burger for 3-minutes on each side. You have to get the internal temperature of 120 – 125-degrees.
Tips For Grilling The Perfect Burger
Photo: Getty Images
1. Don’t Use Frozen Patties
Yes, you heard it right. While using the market-made frozen patties seems like the most convenient way to make burgers, it is not essentially the safest or in other words hygienic.
The thing is that you cannot know if the most sanitized meat was used in making these patties and since you know that bacteria starts to breed on meat very soon, it is not ideal to purchase meat patties from the market, no matter how promising a company is being about the production.
Instead, you can buy fresh meat from the market and grind it to make patties. This will increase some prep time but at least you will be assured about the hygiene. Moreover, freshly ground meat is better in taste and juicier.
2. Season It Up
Well, you will say that of course we season the meat every time before making patties, but it is indeed an essential tip to mention for all those who don’t.
There is a universe of seasonings that can uplift the taste of burgers to a whole new level. If you know about different type of seasonings, you can create a unique treat every time for your family.
3. Increase The Patty’s Diameter
You can increase the diameter of a patty by gently pressing it from the middle. This way, you should get a thinner middle and thicker edges.
As the meat will cook, the patties start to shrink and they will collect back to the center. When you press the patties, the burgers become more uniform.
4. Cook With Closed Lids Of The Grill
When patties are prepared at home, our focus is to keep them thick and meaty. Well, it becomes time taking if you grill the patties with an open lid. To make sure that the burgers are evenly cooked, you should keep the lid closed. But don’t forget to flip them repeatedly.
5. Lesser Play
You see, burgers are not gravy that need consistent stirring. This means that advice less play and you should only touch them when they are to be flipped. Since homemade meat patties are very tender, you shouldn’t want to mess around with them or poke again and again.
Once you have grilled the patties for the suggested time, you should put the thermometer in them to check the internal temperature. But make sure not to poke the patties over and over again. This also helps in keeping the juices intact.
6. No Smashing The Burgers
Some people always wonder that even after following all the right tips and tricks, why does the burgers still turn out to be dry. One of the reasons is smashing them. When you press a spatula on the patty with force, you draw all the flavors out of it and that is why burgers turn dry.
7. Apply Glaze At The End
The process of glazing a burger should be left as last in line. You see, barbeque sauces are made of sugar and they can easily burn when put on the high heat of a grill. You should rather wait till the end to glaze the burgers and cook them for not more than 2-minutes.
8. Add Some Melting Cheese
There would be hardly anyone who doesn’t like cheese in the burger. But it should be applied with a technique. Just like the glazing, you should leave the cheese for the last two minutes only.
You can simply top each patty with a slice of cheese and close the lid. As the heat circulates, the cheese will melt and leave some scrumptious taste in the burger.
Conclusion
It takes some time and doing to master the art of making burgers. But the important thing is to carefully monitor the time and temperature as these are two most essential tips of making perfect burgers. Always check it with the thermometer to identify the internal temperature and create amazing treats.