Recipes

Classic Smash Burger Recipe

Are you ready to take your burger game to the next level?

The classic smash burger is not just a meal; it’s an experience!

With its crispy edges and juicy center, it brings back memories of fast food but with a gourmet twist.

Let’s dive into making a smash burger that will have you craving more!

Ingredients Needed

  • 1 1/2 pounds Certified Angus Beef ground beef (80/20 lean)
  • 1/2 cup mayonnaise
  • 1 tablespoon yellow mustard
  • 1 tablespoon grated yellow onion
  • 2 teaspoons hot sauce
  • 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 4 white hamburger buns
  • 2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon pepper
  • 4 slices American cheese
  • 2 cups shredded iceberg lettuce
  • 8 slices vine-ripe tomatoes

Step 1: Portion Out the Ground Beef

The first thing you’re gonna wanna do is portion out the ground beef.

Portioning the ground beef.

I’m gonna make double patties, so I’ll need eight portions for four burgers.

Preparing the beef for patties.

The easiest way to evenly portion eight balls of beef is to first divide the total amount of grind in half.

Dividing the ground beef.

Then continue to divide the portions in half. By doing it this way, it’s easy to keep the portioning fairly consistent.

Consistent portioning of beef.

If you have a scale, you can weigh each portion to three ounces each.

Weighing the meat portions.

Step 2: Prepare the Special Sauce

Now for a change, rather than slicing or dicing an onion, we’re gonna grate half of an onion finely on a box grater.

Grating the onion.

This results in a nice smooth onion puree which is important to this sauce.

Onion puree for sauce.

Mix the grated onion with mayonnaise, yellow mustard, hot sauce, and Worcestershire sauce.

Mixing the sauce ingredients.

I’m not using ketchup in this special sauce because ketchup tends to have a lot of sugar.

Making the special sauce.

And by using this combination, it’s more savory in nature.

Final touches on the sauce.

Step 3: Prepare the Vegetables

Start with removing any wilted leaves from your iceberg lettuce ’cause you’re just going for crunch.

Cleaning the lettuce.

I like using iceberg lettuce, especially when it’s finely shredded.

Shredding iceberg lettuce.

When you’re cutting tomatoes, make sure your knife is crazy sharp or you can use a serrated blade.

Slicing tomatoes.

You wanna slice your tomatoes relatively thin.

Thin tomato slices.

You don’t wanna end up with tomato slices that are thicker than your hamburger patties.

Checking tomato thickness.

Step 4: Toast the Hamburger Buns

Finally, butter and toast the hamburger buns over medium heat.

Buttering the hamburger buns.

You’ll wanna do this step before cooking your patties since the griddle is clean and free of any hamburger debris.

Toasting the buns.

This is a great time to preheat your griddle.

Preheating the griddle.

Because if the griddle is super hot when you try and toast those buns, they’ll go from golden to burnt real quick.

Checking the heat of the griddle.

Now crank that griddle to high and time to get smashing those patties.

Setting the griddle to high.

Step 5: Smash the Patties

When you’re placing your balls of beef on that griddle, make sure to give them plenty of room.

Placing beef balls on the griddle.

Using a piece of parchment paper helps so they don’t stick to the spatula when you’re giving them that smash.

Using parchment paper to smash patties.

I like to use a meat mallet to put pressure on the spatula so that I can get the patties as thin as possible.

Smashing the patties.

Since these patties are so thin, I’ll only season one side because that should be enough to give them plenty of flavor.

Seasoning the patties.

The mayo will help to caramelize the onion and the other ingredients while adding flavor to the patty.

Adding mayo to the patties.

Step 6: Top with Cheese

Now top half your patties with cheese and add a plain burger to each of the cheesy patties.

Topping patties with cheese.

The hot patty will help to melt the cheese.

Melting cheese on the patties.

And the cheese will act as a glue in between the two burger patties.

Combining the patties.

These are looking so good. I can’t wait to dig into one of these cheeseburgers.

Finished cheeseburgers.

Using Certified Angus Beef, 80% lean grind, is so important because you’ll get the best flavor and juiciness out of a thin patty like this.

Using high-quality beef.

Step 7: Build the Burger

I like to construct by placing the special sauce on the heel of the bun.

Adding sauce to the bun.

This keeps the bottom of the bun from getting too soggy.

Preventing soggy buns.

Next, I top it with that crunchy shredduce and then a couple of tomato slices.

Adding lettuce and tomatoes.

Add the double patties to the bottomings and top with the crown of the bun.

Assembling the burger.

For a fast food-like experience, I like to wrap them in parchment paper squares.

Wrapping the burger.

Step 8: Serve and Enjoy!

This helps to contain the mess a little bit when digging into these juicy burgers.

Final burger presentation.

It’s everything you want in a fast food burger, but with really fresh and high-quality ingredients.

Enjoying the burger.

You can’t beat the classic smash burger.

Savoring the burger.

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