Back to Recipes

Smash Burgers

We love smash burgers! Now I know what you’re thinking…you lose all the juices when you smash burgers. While true, smashing burgers also builds a new flavor profile with the delicious crust. I mean the beefy crust is the reason why late night stops happen Steak and Shake!

For this recipe, you can use any grill that can reach 450-500 degrees, or even just a skillet on your stove top. However, we are Big Green Egg enthusiasts and wrote this recipe for the BGE.

Servings: 8

Keywords: burger

  • Prep Time: 30 mins
  • Cook Time: 10 mins
  • Total Time: 40 mins

Ingredients

Instructions

Ingredients

  • 4 pounds ground beef (recommend an 80/20 blend)
  • 4 medium yellow onions (Vidalia, if available), peeled
  • 1 ½ sticks salted butter, sliced
  • favorite seasoning
  • 8 slices cheese (recommend American or Cheddar)
  • 8 burger buns

Instructions

GRILL PREP

  1. Set your Big Green Egg (or other grill top) for direct cooking at 450-500 degrees. To hit 450-500 degrees, light your fire, open the bottom vent completely, and leave the top open for 20 minutes. When your coals are mostly covered in ash and grey in color, give the coals a stir to make sure you have even heat.
  2. Place the grate on your grill, and close the top with the top vent open wide. Your grill should hit 450-500 in another 10-15 minutes. 
  3. Place your half-moon skillet or cast iron skillet directly on the grill gates.

BURGER PREP

  1. Form your ground beef into ½-pound balls. 4 pounds of ground beef should yield 8 balls.
  2. Peel your onions, cut off the root and stem, and slice into thin rings.

COOK

  1. Place your onions on the skillet and organize into 8 small piles. Each small pile should have 2-3 onion rings. Let the onions sweat for 1 minute before the next step.
  2. Place a ground beef ball onto each onion pile and let them cook for 2-3 minutes.
  3. Smash the burgers into the onions with a heavy duty spatula.
  4. Pro Tip: To keep the beef from sticking onto the spatula, heat the spatula over the fire and twist 45 degrees as you complete each smash
  5. Season the burgers liberally and cover the grill with the top vent open.
  6. Cook the burgers for about 4 more minutes. If you have a meat thermometer, they should be about 135 for medium rare.
  7. Top with your favorite cheese slices and cover the grill for 1-2 minutes to melt the cheese.

REST AND SERVE!

  1. Remove the burgers to a plate and let them rest for 5 minutes.
  2. Place them on your favorite toasted buns, top with your favorite condiments and serve!

Notes

RECOMMENDED TOOLS

- Big Green Egg (or kamado style) grill

- Big Green Egg half-moon skillet, or Lodge cast iron skillet

- Heavy duty stainless steel spatula, like this one