Easy Burgers Recipes & Ideas

Sometimes, there’s nothing better than sinking your teeth into a cheeseburger—fresh off the grill, piping hot, and oozing with melted cheese and condiments. You can’t beat the classic American cheese combo with lettuce, tomato, onion, and a slathering of ketchup. But if you’re in the mood to step outside the box, we have plenty of other cheeseburger recipes we can’t get enough of, either, like Wesley Genovart’s Shake Shack-inspired bacon and kimchi burgers (with plenty of American cheese), and our irresistible hatch Chile smash burgers. Read on to find out how to make them, and 18 other knockout cheeseburgers.

Hatch Chile Smash Burgers

Is this the best burger on the Internet? We think so. This spicy, crispy, cheesy, swoon-inducing smash burger will have you going back for seconds thanks to the cheese and salsa that melt into a queso-like moment and take this burger to the next level. Our Hatch Chile Salsa replaces the acidity of ketchup with just enough heat to keep things interesting. Don’t try to use ground beef with less than 15% fat; it’s crucial to delivering a juicy patty that doesn’t dry out when smashed.

Next-Level Turkey Burgers with Lemon Aioli

A quick brine produces super-moist burgers with chin-dripping juices. The brining also helps the burgers cook faster, so flip them often to help them cook evenly and prevent charring.

Steak Burgers with au Poivre Special Sauce 

Nothing compares to the flavor of meat the day it was ground, and grinding meat at home allows you to choose your own flavors. Located on the cow adjacent to the richly marbled rib eye, chuck steak has a similar tenderness and fat profile at a lower cost, making it a great mix-in for hamburgers. A duo of briny green peppercorns and cornichons combined with a dash of cognac dress up store-bought mayo to create a creamy sauce that’s just sharp enough to cut through the fatty heartiness of these salt-crusted burgers.

Grilling Cheeseburgers Is Significantly More Expensive Than It Was 20 Years Ago

Even after inflation. But why?

Cheese-Belly Chicken Burgers with Sour Cream and Guacamole

It’s easy to get stuck in the tomato-onion-pickle-ketchup rut (total classic, total snooze), so why not shake up your grill-out game? This juicy chicken burger is not only stuffed with cheddar cheese, garlic, spices, and jalapeño; it’s decked out with sour cream, guac, and salsa. Chicken. Burger. Game changer (though feel free to use beef instead of chicken). From What’s Gaby Cooking by Gaby Dalkin, published by Abrams Books © 2018. Slideshow: More Burger Recipes

30-Minute Burgers

From chile-stuffed cheeseburgers to turkey burgers with smoked gouda, here are delicious 30-minute burgers.

A History of the Burger: From Ancient Rome to the Drive-Thru

2,000 years of fast food history from The World is Your Burger, a new book celebrating the American icon.

Our 33 Best Burger Recipes

Kimchi Pork Burgers

Chicken Burgers with Crispy Cheddar Cheese 

Pimento Cheeseburgers with Bacon Jam 

Fried Green Tomato  Double Cheeseburgers 

“Anyone who loves a good burger has a soft spot for the Big Mac,” says chef Edward Lee, of Louisville’s Whiskey Dry. In his ode to the fast food classic, he swaps the middle bun for a crisp fried green tomato that absorbs all of the savory juices from the beef, melty cheese and sweet chile mayo. “More bread is just boring,” he says. “The fried tomato adds crunch and a mild acidity.” Slideshow: More Burger Recipes