Smoked Burger Recipe
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This Hamburger recipe for Smoked Burgers is the best I ever had. The juicy texture and smoky taste just made me feel at home.
There are a million hamburger recipes all over the internet but I tell you what, whenever warmer weather hits I think grilling and my Smoked Burger recipe. Every week, sometimes more than once, I find myself pressing out ground beef patties and slipping them inside my electric smoker out on the deck. I tried smoking burgers a few months back and discovered that they were the best I’d ever had – and so I became immediately hooked.
Not An Expensive Recipe
The thing I love most about these is that you don’t have to use expensive ground meats for them to taste like you did. The process of slow heat and smoke helps to create a tender and juicy burger with just about any old run of the mill ground beef. Seasoning is simple and cooking is as easy as placing them in the rack and going back inside to wait it out in air conditioned comfort.
What Should I Put On My Burger?
Today I thought I’d share with you my perfect smoked burger. In addition to smoking the patties, I also add in slices of onion and let them cook low and slow in my smoker. Once finished, I top it off with provolone cheese, a little bit of mustard, and a new product I’ve discovered this summer: Vlasic Farmer’s Garden Pickles. Although, I should say Farmer’s Garden Veggies because there is more than just pickles in that jar!
Don’t Have A Smoker?
*If you don’t have a smoker, my best recommendation for juicy burgers is to cook them using this method.
How To Make A Delicious Smoked Burger
Recipe Ingredients:
- Ground chuck
- shaped into hamburger patties*
- Provolone cheese
- Large onion
- beef bouillon cube
- pat of butter
- Season All
- Salt and Pepper
- Vlasic Farmer’s Garden pickles*.
Special Burger Making Technique
*I usually make my patties into doughnut shapes, leaving a hole in the middle that helps them to get cooked evenly and closes up once they are done. That isn’t needed with smoking because they cook so slow and low anyway. Smoked hamburgers are a favorite, and I think you will enjoy this technique.
What Kind of Pickles Should I Use?
*There are five different varieties of these pickles: Zesty Garlic Chips, Bread & Butter Chips, Kosher Dill Spears, Kosher Dill Halves and Dill Chips. I’m using the Zesty Garlic but you can use your favorite.
To prepare the burgers, I just sprinkle them liberally with seasoned salt.
What is Season All?
Season All is a wonderful flavor enhancer for just about anything and contrary to popular misconception, it does not contain MSG (just heading that one off at the pass because I’ve been around the block enough to know it was coming!). Now there may be brands that do have it but the ones I use don’t.
How to Make Smoked Burgers
To prepare your onion, cut it into wedges, add a pat of butter, and a beef bouillon cube, and place it in foil.
Like this.
That bouillon gives it an extra oomph of flavor. My mother says it makes it taste kind of like French onion soup. I say it makes it taste like a really good onion. 🙂
Now put everything in your smoker.
I preheat my smoker to 225 to 250 and cook my burgers until the internal temperature reaches 155-160. You can take them out at 150 but I like to cook them a little longer just to make sure it doesn’t “Moo” at me when I go to take a bite. You can do this on a smoker on pellet grill.
My Masterbuilt smoker has a temperature sensor that sticks into one of the piece of meat and then there is a little button I can press on the outside of the smoker to tell me what the temperature is at any given time during cooking. This makes it easy to know when my burgers are done. There is even a remote that you can just keep with you and check on the temperature from inside the house but y’all know I lost that a long time ago :). Organization is not one of my spiritual gifts. They generally take around an hour but it is important to cook until they get to the desired temperature rather than go by a timer.
These are my soaked hickory chips. You can buy a bag of them at the grocery store and one bag usually lasts me approximately ten forevers 🙂 I load them up in my little thingiemabobber here on the right.
And then I insert the Thingiemabobber into the Whosiewhatsit and turn it upside down to unload the wood chips. I like to add more chips about half an hour later but you certainly don’t have to. Whenever I am smoking chicken, which takes around two hours or so the way I do it, I add wood chips two or three times.
This smoker has wheels on the back of it so I just wheel it outside when I need to use it and wheel it back into the house or garage when I’m done.
These are our super juicy burgers once they are done smoking. They are literally bursting with juice and delicious smoked meat flavor.
And here is our burger, all loaded up and ready to devour! Serve up on a toasted bun with all your favorite fixings.
Recipe FAQs
It can take around 60-90 minutes to smoke a hamburger on a smoker. It all depends on how the internal temperature is of your burgers.
You will pull them off when they are 155-160 degrees internally. Reach for a meat thermometer and measure the temperature by poking in the largest portion of the hamburgers. That way you get an accurate reading on the temperature.
The only time you will flip the burgers is when you sear them. Other than tat you do not have to flip your hamburgers as they smoke on the grill or smoker.
Ingredients
- 4 Hamburger Patties hand shaped, using your preferred ground beef
- 4 slices Provolone Cheese
- Season All
- Large Onion with a beef bullion cube and a pat of butter
- Vlasic Farmers Garden Pickle Chips
Instructions
- Preheat electric smoker to 250 (if you don’t have a smoker, prepare the burgers using this method). Liberally sprinkle each side of the patties with Season All.
- Slice onion into wedges and place in center of foil square along with bullion cube and butter. Seal well in foil.
- Place patties and onion inside smoker. Cook to an internal temperature of at least 150, I prefer 155-160.
- To serve, top with cooked onion, provolone cheese, mustard, and Pickle Chips.
Thanks for the inspiration in every post, Christy!!
I tried smoking burgers the other day after reading this article. My son said his wasn’t done enough so I fired up the grill full blast and seared his burger. He raved about it so I took a bite and then seared the rest of them. The smoker gave it awesome flavor and the grill gave it the perfect texture
That sounds like a GREAT finish!
I have always wanted a smoker, and now I may just have to go get one. These burgers sound delicious! As I read your post, I am lunching on leftover Creamy Chicken Skillet. Excellent.
I’ve never met a good jar that I didn’t want to keep. Anybody have a good idea for keeping the lids organized?
Makes me hungry for a burger! Question about the smoker….you don’t have to turn the meat at all? If that’s the case I may have to put that smoker on my wish list. I love to grill…but I love close to several horse farms….and going in and out to check on my grill I invite a lot of flies in it seems.
You don’t turn it a single time! I think that is part of why the meat is so juicy, that juice comes up on the top and then sinks right back down! When I smoke chicken, I just put a store bought rub all over it and sit it in there and smoke until the thermometer tells me it is done and people RAVE over how I make the best smoked chicken – even though all I did was sit and drink tea while it cooked! lol
How long does this take, approximately?
Fabulous article what a story! I’m so happy I did see the ad and that Mitchell aclualty did what I told him for a change .I love you both very much and Parker is my little sweetheart enjoy watching yourselves tonight and I’ll talk to you tomorrow from Boston to se how it went! Love, Mum
I discovered those Farmer’s Garden pickles last year and adore them!! I do not like carrots, but I’ll happily eat every last one in that jar. Yum!!! I don’t blame your Mama for eating them up before you could get the shot. Haha!
I can’t help but laugh at “even though my Mama ate most of them”. That makes me miss my own Mama terribly because that is just the thing she would do! I’ve been eyeballin those pickles and now I will have to try them for sure! Thanks Christy! Your light sure shines bright girl!
YUM!
I love your cookbooks! I read them like a novel – beginning to end. Thanks for sharing your cheerful self!
My main one is to lose the baby weight. But I also want to be less crctiial once I hit my goal weight because I now realize how ridiculous I used to be for feeling self-conscious!Also, get my apartment together and work on my style. I’ll be doing a post about it soon. :)- JAlternativeHousewife.com