Technique #17: Handle Meat Gently for the Tenderest Burgers

A prime reason for dense patties is excessive handling. The more you handle ground meat, the tougher and more rubbery it will become.

But it’s easy to prevent this. To ensure the gentlest touch, use only your hands rather than utensils to mix in seasonings. (Also, save salt for the outside of each burger patty; incorporating it toughens the meat.) 

Then, again with your hands, remove a portion of meat from the bowl, form it into a loosely packed ball, and flatten that ball into a loosely packed disk, working it as little as possible. Since burgers typically bulge as they cook, using your fingertips to create a slight divot in the center of each patty helps deliver ideally flat cooked burgers.

It’s particularly important to treat prepackaged ground meat gently. Commercially ground meat has already been aggressively handled—sometimes it is ground multiple times. This causes soluble proteins to be released, which act like glue and cause the meat to stick together in a dense mass.

If your supermarket will grind meat to order for you, take advantage of that. Grocers who grind meat in-house usually use whole primal cuts, whereas commercially ground meat typically contains more greasy trimmings. 

Whether cooking on the stovetop or the grill, flip your burgers only once. And—we beg you—resist the urge to press down on your burgers with a spatula. That only squeezes out the juices, which leads to dry patties.

Choosing a fattier ground meat option helps keep patties tender as well: 85 percent lean ground beef is our favorite for tender, juicy burgers. Leaner ground beef is more likely to turn leathery and tough.

For poultry, look for 93 percent lean ground chicken or turkey, which contains both light and dark meat. Ground chicken breast and ground turkey breast are generally 99 percent lean, and they will produce dry, chalky burger patties despite your best efforts.