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What temp should you grill burgers at? If you want to grill burgers, you need to know the ideal temperature to cook them at. The answer depends on the type of burger you are cooking.
Grilling burgers is a great way to enjoy delicious food without spending much time or effort. However, grilling burgers requires some knowledge and practice. This guide explains the ideal temperatures to grill hamburgers at, so let’s dive right in!
What Temp To Grill Burgers? The Short Answer
Generally speaking, you should have your grill set between 375ºF and 450ºF to grill burgers. On most grills, this is a medium or medium-high temperature setting. This temperature range is hot enough to create a beautiful outer crust on your patties without overdoing it.
The ideal temperature will vary within that range depending on how much of a sear you want, and how thick your burger patties are.
The Ideal Grill Temperature For Burgers
The first thing that you need to consider when choosing your grill temperature for burgers is the size of the burger. Smaller burgers will be cooked faster than larger ones.
A small burger needs to be grilled at a lower temperature to avoid overcooking it. On the other hand, large burgers require higher temperatures because they take longer to cook.
Before you start grilling your burgers, you need to make sure your grill is hot enough. This means you need to preheat the grill for at least 15 minutes.
Intense heat means you will be able to create a deep brown crust on the burger, yet if you leave them too long on this heat, they will burn.
The high heat initiates the creation the brown marks (also known as the Maillard reaction)- which creates a beautiful texture and delectable crust on the outside of your burger.
This reaction can begin to occur around 375ºF, but 400-450ºF is more ideal for getting a proper sear on your burger.
Internal Temperature Guide For Burgers
Many people choose to “eyeball it” when grilling burgers to know when they’re finished and ready to eat.
While we generally wouldn’t recommend doing this for other types of grilled meat, you can definitely get away with it for burgers because they don’t spend a lot of time on the grill
However, if you’re in doubt you should use an instant-read thermometer to read the meat’s internal temperature. As a guide, you should reach 125ºF for rare cooking, medium-rare cooking should be kept at 135ºF, medium cooking should be 145ºF, and well-done cooking needs to hit 155ºF.
What Temp To Grill Frozen Burgers?
You can grill frozen burgers without any problems – however, there are a few caveats to keep in mind.
When it comes to grill temperature, you can keep the same 375ºF to 450ºF rule of thumb for grilling frozen burgers. If anything, you might want to go on the lower end so that you don’t cook the outside of your patties too fast.
First, you should definitely use an internal probe thermometer to make sure the burgers reach a safe temperature to eat.
Eyeballing it doesn’t really work with frozen burgers because the outside will cook much faster than the inside. It’s possible to have a perfect looking burger on the outside with frozen meat on the interior!
Second, you’ll need to allot for more time – grilling frozen burgers simply takes longer than fresh ones. Most likely, you’ll need at least an extra 10 minutes to make sure your patties get up to a proper temperature.
How Can I Make My Own Burgers?
Choosing The Meat
When it comes to beef burgers, you want to find meat that is not too lean. This ensures the burgers will have the best flavor and retain all their juices. Freshly ground beef is the best for this.
You can ask the butcher to grind the meat for you or do it at home. However, if you did this at home, you would need to find and use a meat grinder and use either sirloin, chuck, or brisket meat.
These cuts of meat all have great flavor and good amounts of fat to meat ratio.
Press The Burgers Into Patties
You should split your beef into the number of burgers you want to make and ensure they are all a similar size. For a rough guide, you can try to make burgers that weigh around ⅓-pound each.
Thickness is important when making burgers. The thinner they are, the more evenly they will cook. Thicker patties tend to burn faster and get overdone.
You should use your hands when pressing the burgers into patties and aim for a thickness of about ½-inch larger than the buns you plan to use.
Avoid overworking the meat, but still, squeeze it together around the edges so the meat doesn’t crumble when you transfer it to the grill.
Ultimately, simply try to form the burgers so that they are thin enough to fit into a bun but thick enough to hold together.
You can also try flattening out the patty with a grill spatula while cooking. This helps ensure that the burgers stay flat during cooking.
Season The Patties
You should only season the outside of the meat, rather than mixing the seasoning into the burgers. It helps the meat develop a crust full of flavor, yet you still get the flavor with each bite. This also ensures you do not overwork the meat.
Kosher salt is recommended, and freshly ground black pepper gives the burgers a whole new level of flavor. The larger kosher salt crystals also help to draw the moisture from the burger, and this means you are left with a juicer, more flavorsome burger when cooked.
You can also use special burger seasonings or rubs from other recipes you might have tried in the past. Cajun seasoning, spicy BBQ rubs, steak seasoning, and other flavorsome blends can all make for tasty burgers.
Adding garlic to these seasonings can also help with flavor, but check the salt level first. If your seasoning has a lot of salt, you might want to adjust the base seasoning of salt and pepper slightly.
Season the meat before you put the patties on the grill and sprinkle the salt and pepper 10 inches above the patties for even and generous coverage.
Grilling vs Smoking Burgers
It’s important to note here that we’ve been talking about the temperature most people grill burgers at. But at the end of the day, it’s all about cooking to a safe temperature that tastes good to you.
If you have time on your hands, it’s possible to smoke burgers low and slow instead of grilling them. You’ll still develop a great outer crust while picking up some incredible smokey flavor along the way.
If you are smoking burgers, the average temperature should be kept at 225ºF. Of course, this will take much more time to cook compared to grilling, but the results are worth it!
Final Thoughts
We hope after reading this article you have learned some tips about making delicious burgers. Whether you’re grilling at home or eating outside at a barbecue, remember the temperature you will need to cook your burgers will depend on the type of grill you are using.
But as a rule of thumb, aim for around 375-450ºF, and cook until the internal temperature reaches your desired doneness.
Looking for inspiration? Check out some of our favorite burger recipes for your next cookout:
