Updated 2025-05-21T15:27:37Z
- Grinding your own meat allows you to customize how lean or fatty your burger is.
- Blue cheese, grilled pineapple, or avocado will add a lot of flavor to a classic hamburger.
- Many, if not all, of these ingredients can already be found in your kitchen.
When it comes to crafting the perfect burger, you don't have to stick with basic cheese, lettuce, and tomato.
You also don't need to spend a fortune to upgrade your burger to something that's restaurant-quality.
Plenty of kitchen staples, from onions to eggs, can boost flavor, add texture, and elevate your burgers without any extra trips to the grocery store.
"You just have to think about what works with what," Hugh Acheson, a judge on "Top Chef" and a competitor on Iron Chef Canada, told Business Insider of combining flavors to make delicious burgers.
"Food should be like a big Lego set, and how you put together the blocks can build umpteen different things. The more skills you have and the more understanding of food you have, the more Lego blocks you have."
Here are 20 ways to make your burgers even better using things you already have in your kitchen.
Grinding your own meat is a way to ensure you're getting high-quality ground meat for your burgers.
The only way to guarantee you're getting the best-tasting meat is to ask the butcher in your local shop or grocery store to grind your desired cut for you or grind it yourself at home using a food processor.
Ground beef chuck is one meat many burger lovers prefer to use since it ranges from 15 to 20% fat.
Add bacon bits to your ground beef.
Adding bacon to your burgers can seriously up the flavor. If your burger patties are on the thicker side, you should cook the bacon before adding it to the meat to ensure you don't eat any undercooked bacon.
If your patties are thinner or smash-burger-style, it's OK to leave the bacon raw as long as you make sure it's all properly cooked before eating.
You can also add vegetables like mushrooms.
Acheson told BI that mushrooms and onions make delicious additions to burger meat.
"You don't always have to use beef either," Acheson said. "I make this pulverized mushroom and lamb burger that tastes very woodsy and gamey."
Worcestershire sauce adds tang to beef.
"I love the flavor bomb that is Worcestershire sauce," Acheson said. "Balancing that with a little olive oil is just going to add a little more fat and texture to meat when it hits the grill, and help prevent it from sticking."
This sauce can be added directly to ground meat to make burger patties more moist and flavorful.
Minced garlic also adds a lot of flavor to beef.
Crushed or minced garlic can easily be mixed into ground beef, pork, or even turkey before being cooked on the grill, and adds savory flavor.
Using a high-quality bun can also make all the difference.
For slightly more texture, opt for a sesame-seed bun, often a summer pantry staple. However, for a softer yet still flavorful bun, butter a brioche bun, toast or grill it, and serve it with your burger.
You can also try out other alternative buns like potato rolls or even a toasted bagel.
A quick aioli or special sauce makes a great addition to burgers.
"A really simple and delicious special sauce is creme fraîche, mayonnaise, a dash of maple syrup, and a little bit of ketchup, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and lemon juice all blended up," Acheson said.
"Having a special sauce in your arsenal is really important."
Thousand Island dressing is another way to kick up the flavor profile of a classic cheeseburger.
If you want to add a little creamy, tangy flavor to a cheeseburger, dollop some Thousand Island dressing on top. Thousand Island is made from a base of three popular burger condiments: mayonnaise, ketchup, and sweet pickle relish.
Adding toppings like shredded lettuce or crunchy pickle slices can also recreate the same flavor profile as a classic Big Mac.
Blue cheese will also bring a burst of flavor.
Topping a burger with some blue cheese crumbles is a recipe for success, Acheson said.
Top your burgers with peanut butter, or mix it directly into the ground beef.
Some burger lovers swear by peanut butter. While this creamy, flavorful addition can, of course, be smeared on top of your patties, it can also be added directly to the meat itself.
Taste of Home reported that adding a spoonful of peanut butter to ground meat can keep your burgers juicy, thanks to the oil in the spread.
Melt some garlic butter on top.
Simple garlic butter can be whipped up in just a few minutes.
You can either butter your buns with it before grilling them or drizzle it on the cooked burger patties themselves for a flavor boost.
Onions are a staple and can be either added as toppings or mixed into the burger meat.
"Onions are a staple that everyone's got around," Acheson said. "You can slow cook them, caramelize them, sweeten them with a little maple syrup or soy sauce, and cook them into a sort of onion jam."
Avocado slices make a great addition to burgers.
Avocado adds creaminess to a burger without the thick texture of mayonnaise or aioli.
Arugula adds freshness and a peppery flavor to your burger.
Unlike other leafy greens, arugula has a peppery flavor. Plus, you'll likely enjoy the layer of crunchy texture that adding greens provides.
Grilled pineapple slices or fresh pineapple salsa add a tropical, citrusy flavor.
If you happen to have a can of pineapple or pineapple slices lying around, they can make delicious burger toppings. A quick pineapple salsa with red onion and cilantro is easy to make and packs a lot of flavor.
Adding a fried egg takes any burger to the next level.
Adding a fried egg ups the protein level and the flavor of any burger. When you bite or cut into the burger, the runny egg yolk acts almost like a sauce.
To really make this brunch-ready burger pop, add bacon, special sauce, and salt and pepper to taste.
Pickled onions add a sour tang to burgers, and they are easy to prepare.
Pickled onions are easier to make than many home cooks might think, but they add some serious flavor to any burger.
Bon Appetit's recipe for quick-pickled onions involves leaving thinly sliced red onion in a jar with apple cider vinegar, sugar, and kosher salt for at least one hour. Then, simply drain the onions and add them to your burger.
You could also whip up some boxed mac and cheese to add to your burger.
No burger topping is arguably as creamy and decadent as mac and cheese. While homemade mac and cheese may be ideal, don't be afraid to whip up a quick box of whatever boxed mac and cheese you have in your cabinets.
One final cooking tip: Using the whole grill can make sure your burgers are cooked perfectly.
"You want high heat, but use the whole of the grill," Acheson said. "The grill should have two different temperature zones — one lower and one higher. You're trying to get a good crust, a good Maillard reaction from that protein on the hot side, and getting good grill marks. Then move it over to the lower side to make sure you've reached the right temperature."
