Best Hamburger Patty Recipe
by Sommer Collier — last updated on Oct 20, 2025 
Best Hamburger Patty Recipe – Thick or thin, made on the grill or stovetop, this is the best and easiest all-purpose recipe for perfect burger patties every time! These juicy, delicious homemade hamburgers are ready in less than 30 minutes and are a must-make for your next cookout.
Why We Love This Best Hamburger Recipe
Close your eyes, and picture the perfect hamburger.
Is it a thin diner-style hamburger patty, or a thick steakhouse-sized burger? Seared to the peak of juiciness on a grill or in a flat griddle? With or without cheese?!
Make burgers your way and have them come out flawless every time with what I consider the Best Hamburger Patty Recipe, in my humble opinion.
It’s a classic all-American recipe for mouthwatering burgers that can be cooked on the grill, on the stovetop, as thick 1/3 pound patties, or as ultra-thin griddle patties.
What makes this absolutely the Best Hamburger Patty Recipe?
These homemade burgers offer a rich and meaty taste, with a punch of zesty herbs that can be customized with your preferred flavors. A few simple key ingredients help to consistently create juicy hamburger patties, no matter which cooking method you prefer.
And while you’ll love the terrific savoriness of these homemade hamburgers on their own, they are excellent for loading with your favorite toppings to create truly one helluva great burger. This is sure to be your go-to recipe for easy burger patties from scratch!
Ingredients You Need
The secret to incredibly juicy burger patties is the addition of crushed crackers or panko breadcrumbs to hold in the natural fat and juices.
We recommend using crackers if you have them. Adding crushed crackers is an old-school method to add more flavor than plain breadcrumbs. Plus, it’s super handy for using up that package of crackers you’ve had sitting in the pantry for weeks.
Here is everything you need to make the best homemade burger patty recipe:
- Ground chuck – We prefer an 80 lean/20 fat ratio for the juiciest burgers.
- Crushed crackers or Panko bread crumbs – The best binders for juicy hamburgers. (Could be gluten-free!)
- Worcestershire sauce – Adds a deep beefy, smoky flavor.
- Egg – To bind all of the ingredients together without drying.
- Milk – The enzymes help to soften and tenderize the ground beef.
- Seasonings: Salt, Garlic Powder, Onion powder, Pepper, or other spices of choice.
Get the Full Hamburger Recipe Below with Exact Measurements and Detailed Instructions.
It’s helpful to save prep time and add lots of flavor to your patties by adding dried spices rather than fresh herbs to the hamburger mix. For instance, you can incorporate red pepper flakes for a spicier burger, a bit of cumin and chili powder for a Southwestern-inspired bite, or parsley and dill to create a Mediterranean taste.
Tell us your favorite hamburger seasonings in the comments below!
How To Make The Perfect Burger Every Time
It seriously only takes mere minutes to make restaurant-quality homemade burgers from scratch. Prep your workspace and ingredients before getting started and you’ll be whipping out hot plates from your home kitchen (or backyard) in no time!
Here’s how…
First, set out a large mixing bowl and add in the ground beef, crushed crackers, egg, Worcestershire sauce, milk, and spices.
Use your hands to combine until the mixture is thoroughly smooth.
Next, press the meat down in the bowl into an even disk. Use a knife to cut and divide the hamburger patty mixture into 6 – 1/3 pound grill or skillet patties or 12 thin griddle patties. Like so:
Set out a baking sheet lined with wax paper or foil to hold the patties. One at a time, gather the patty mix and press firmly into patties of your desired thickness. You typically want hamburger patties to be slightly larger than the buns they’ll be served on since they’ll shrink slightly during in the cooking process.
Place the formed patties on the baking sheet. With thick patties, press an indentation in the center of each patty, so they don’t puff up while cooking.
You can stack the patties with sheets of wax paper between layers if needed.
Then, preheat the grill or a skillet to medium heat, approximately 350-400 degrees F. I love using a cast-iron skillet for getting that drool-worthy caramelized sear on the burgers.
For thick patties: Grill or fry the patties for 3-4 minutes per side for a medium burger.
For thin patties: Cook on the griddle for 2 minutes per side.
Ideally, you only want to flip your burgers once or twice during cooking.
Pro Tip: Homemade cooked hamburger patties will keep well tightly wrapped in plastic wrap, or in an airtight container, in the fridge for up to 3 days, or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Get the Complete (Printable) Best Hamburger Patty Recipe + Video Below. Enjoy!
How to Serve Homemade Hamburgers
Stack the hot patties on hamburger buns, and dress up with your favorite hamburger toppings and condiments. One of my favorite condiments is Big Mac Sauce!
You can try making your homemade burgers into a thick backyard barbecue classic with lettuce, tomato, pickles, and a bit of mayo and mustard.
Or my personal, gotta-have burger offers two thin patties, each covered by a slice of melted American cheese, and all loaded with tomato, pickles, crispy fried onions, and bbq sauce.
Other great toppings you can use are red onions, ketchup, and butter-grilled buns. Serve with either onion rings or sweet potato fries.
At least we can agree that the best homemade hamburgers are served with a heaping side of cajun fries, shoestring fries, or chili cheese fries!
Frequently Asked Questions
This simple, terrifically basic recipe for Easy Homemade Hamburger Patties is great for customizing with your favorite spices.
Try incorporating some punches of flavor by adding any of the following ingredients to the raw hamburger mix, or putting them right on top of your cooked burgers:
Crushed red pepper
Shaved serrano (spicy!) or jalapeno (milder) peppers
Chopped fresh scallions or cilantro
Barbecue sauce
Soy sauce
Diced red or white onion
Shredded or crumbled cheeses like cheddar, gouda, mozzarella, or blue cheese
Although this particular recipe is not gluten-free, it can be easily adjusted using GF-friendly Panko breadcrumbs and gluten-free buns.
When you bake homemade burgers, you must use high heat so an exterior crust forms. Set the oven to 450 degrees F and place a baking sheet in the oven so it gets hot like a griddle. Once hot, transfer the patties to the hot pan. If making thin patties, bake/roast for 2-3 minutes per side. If making thick patties, bake/roast for 5-6 minutes per side.
Looking for More Delicious Burger Recipes? Be Sure to Try:
Check the printable recipe card below for the nutritional information including calories, carbohydrates, protein, saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, potassium, fiber, vitamin c, and calcium percentages.
Best Hamburger Patty Recipe (Grilled or Stovetop)
Video
Ingredients
- 2 pounds ground chuck
- ½ cup crushed saltine crackers or Panko breadcrumbs
- 1 large egg
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Set out a large mixing bowl. Add in the ground beef, crushed crackers, egg, Worcestershire sauce, milk, salt, garlic powder, onion powder, and pepper. Mix by hand until the meat mixture is smooth, but stop once the mixture looks even. (Overmixing can create a dense heavy texture.)
- Press the meat down in the bowl, into an even disk. Use a knife to cut and divide the hamburger patty mixture into 6 – 1/3 pound grill or skillet patties, or 12 thin griddle patties.
- Set out a baking sheet, lined with wax paper or foil, to hold the patties. One at a time, gather the patty mix and press firmly into patties. Shape them just slightly larger than the buns you plan to use, to account for shrinkage during cooking. Set the patties on the baking sheet. Use a spoon to press a dent in the center of each patty so they don't puff up as they cook. If you need to stack the patties separate them with a sheet of wax paper.
- Preheat the grill or a skillet to medium heat. (Approximately 350-400 degrees F.)
- For thick patties: Grill or fry the patties for 3-4 minutes per side.
- For thin patties: Cook on the griddle for 2 minutes per side.
- Stack the hot patties on hamburgers buns, and top with your favorite hamburgers toppings. Serve warm.
Notes
Nutrition
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These were delicious, and so easy! I loved adding the crushed crackers (I used Ritz) for some extra texture and flavor! I went with 6 large patties and oh my goodness they were amazing! Thank you!
I made this last night with one pound of ground angus, so I halved the recipe (it’s just me and my husband). I have to agree, this made for a really tasty hamburger. I opted to make the thin patties, then crafted double cheeseburgers. They were sooo good and so hearty that we could only eat half of our burgers. But that means we have yummy leftovers! These are ingredients that I always have on hand so this will be my go-to burger recipe also. The only changes I made were using Jalapeno Salt in place of regular table salt and unsweetened almond milk instead of regular milk. Fantastic! Thanks!
These hamburgers are excellent. We made them twice in May for 2 different parties, and they were a huge hit. 2nd time I didn’t have milk and added beef broth. We also used half 80% ground beef and half 85%. Will definitely try w/leaner meat for a regular night dinner. Thank you for this new “go-to” recipe!
i made this and my family love this delicious recipe.thanks for share with us.
I made this and my family love this
I made these with lean ground beef the first time, and they were excellent even though I didn’t have any onion powder – I just minced a bit of onion and threw that in instead. I used crushed saltines (I bought the unsalted ones by mistake, yuck, so this is a great way to use them up!) and I used my grill pan to cook them, love the marks. Tonight I made them with ground turkey thigh instead of beef with no other changes (still no onion powder) and again, delicious! Absolutely my go-to patty recipe now.
I made this today and my family loved it! thanks for sharing your recipe
I substituted ground Beef with ground Turkey. And, I added some bacon that I previously fried along with some shredded cheese.. Perfection guys!! Thank you all so much for this recipe.
The BEST hamburger recipe on the planet…much less the internet!!!
Great recipe. Best ever. My wife normally does all the cooking. I always wondered why. Now we know. I can’t cook. At all. For some reason, my eyes are just drawn to the letter “H”. There are a lot of great words that start with the letter “H”. Hero. Honor. Heaven. Happy. So, why wouldn’t you want to turn your stove top knob to the greatest letter: The letter H. I’ve always heard that cast iron pans cook really well. Being 100% male, naturally I was drawn to the beefiness of the pan. Strong, large, heavy. Just like me. The perfect pan to go with the perfect letter H. I took a little over a pound of hamburger meat and formed four perfect patties. I know they were perfect because I weighed the hamburger meat to get a total weight in grams. Using my calculator, I divided the total by 4. I’ve always lived by the motto “measure twice, cut once” and “using the right tool gets the job done right”. So, why not apply that careful thinking to your cooking? I CAREFULLY weighed the meat and got each one to the exact gram. Once I saw the eye of the stove glowing that beautiful shade of Fire Engine red beneath that big ole’ heavy cast iron pan, I gently placed the hamburger patties into the pan. What a wonderful sizzling noise it made. I expected to see a lot of juice, but didn’t. I didn’t worry about it too much. I figured it was all nestled inside, just swirling with flavor. As the smoke rose, I thought I was doing really well. Slowly at first but then rapidly gaining speed, the smoke began to fill the house. “What a wonderful thing it is for the smell of beef cooking on the stove”, I thought to myself. It sort of reminded me of the way that Mama’s cookies baking in the oven filled the house. I thought of the joy that wife would feel as she smelled the wonderful aroma of manly beef cooking in the kitchen. But instead she screamed something about “smoke filling the house” and “was something on fire”. I could hear her plainly, but it was hard to see her through the dense fog that sudden enveloped each of the rooms. Instead of sounds of words of adulation, I heard shouts of “where’s the fan” and “for goodness sakes, open the doors”. My dreams of having my own cooking show on television were soon fading away almost as quickly as the thick smoke filled our house. I began to have the distinct feeling that my cooking days were over. Never again would I be able to use the huge, heavy cast iron pan. Nor would I get to turn the stove knobs to my favorite letter. So, for someone who suddenly realized something about themselves, that they can’t cook, this was a perfect recipe.
This might be my favorite review ever!!
And if anybody’s wondering – these burgers are great (probably even if you love the letter H).
HILLARIOUS! Thanks for sharing Cullen. HOPE you HENCEFORTH HAPPILY enjoy this HEARTY HAMBURGER recipe. ;)
Maybe not a cooking show….but please consider a talk show! You are HILARIOUS!😂
Never fear Mr. Cullen B Caldwell, you may never be the TV chef you hoped to be. You may never again even be allowed in the kitchen. But, you’ve definitely got a future in writing short stories! Thanks for the giggle, I really enjoyed your review.
Your review is perfect! Are you a blogger? If not you should be! Something along the lines of: I can’t cook, but I sure can write about food”.
Love this recipe!
I think Serrano peppers are spicier than jalapeños though.
I didn’t see the note about only using 1/4 cup of breadcrumbs until after I added 1/2cup. Oops!! Still tasted amazing will make again!!
Can I skip the milk because I don’t have any? Or is there something else to use in place of it
Same! Still tasted good anyway :)
Didn’t notice amount of panko till done, hope they are OK, should have been earlier in recipe x