Fast-food burgers don’t even compare to the taste, texture and flavor of a homemade hamburger. Not only do homemade hamburgers taste better than fast-food burgers, when a burger is made fresh, from scratch, it can be considerably healthier than the fat-laden and high-calorie burgers found at drive-through windows.
Homemade hamburgers can be made with fresh hamburger buns on whatever bread eaters prefer as well as: fresh and crisp lettuce, juicy tomato slices, crisp onions, and sour pickles, mayo, mustard, ketchup or anything else you desire. Additional flavor enhancers include:
- bacon
- avocado
- relish
- sauerkraut
- bean sprouts
- cheese varieties
- or any other ingredient imaginable.
Healthy Homemade Hamburgers
For healthy homemade burgers, low-fat ground beef or ground chuck can be used to form the meat patties and reduce the calories and grease. With the right spices for flavor, ground turkey can be used to form the hamburger patty to further reduce calories and fat without losing flavor. If turkey by itself is not desired, ground turkey can be mixed with ground meat and pressed into patties for reduced calorie hamburgers. Ground chicken works great too, and in fact, a mixture of ground chicken, ground turkey and ground beef makes for a fantastic-tasting homemade burger.
Fresh produce and low-fat, diet or low-calorie condiments along with wheat or whole grain buns can create fantastic tasting healthy homemade hamburgers. For those low-carbing, the meat patties can be pressed and mixed with cheese and spinach and onions mixed into the meat, and simply skip the bun with a salad on the side, or purchase the low-carb hamburger buns or make them from the low-carb bread mixes available for purchase.
Juicy Homemade Hamburger Sauces
Dry burgers simply don’t taste as good as a juicy homemade hamburger. There are many ways to keep a homemade burger juicy and tasty. Sauces added to the ground meat before pressing into patties are one way to keep homemade burgers juicy.
Worcestershire sauce is a tasty condiment with a kick that can be added to ground meat or turkey to give the meat a unique flavor and to help keep the burger nice and juicy. For a tangy homemade burger with a kick, mustard, brown mustard or hot mustard sauces can be added to the ground meat or turkey before cooking to keep the burger juicy. One to two eggs for one to two pounds of meat can help the meat form patties without adding too many additional calories.
Flavorful Homemade Hamburger Ideas
Dry packaged onion soup mix kneaded evenly into the raw meat or turkey prior to pressing the patties can add flavor to the meat without having to add any sauces. Other dry condiments that can be used on the raw meat before pressing into patties include salt, pepper, garlic powder, garlic salt, paprika, onion flakes and more. Trying different types of spices can result in a new homemade hamburger favorite recipe. Hot and spicy pork rinds can be added to the meat for those low-carbing. These add great flavor to the meat, but when the patties cook, the pork rinds turn into a fatty oil and mostly disappear, leaving the meat less dense but still perfectly formed. This is a great trick for making flavorful homemade burgers, even for those who aren’t low-carbing.
Grilling or Pan Frying Homemade Hamburgers
Firing up the grill is likely the best way to cook a juicy hamburger with that summer outdoors type of flavor, but homemade hamburgers can be made indoors with a frying pan. To keep the burgers juicy and prevent them from shrinking, a spatula or grill press can be used while cooking. For more healthy burgers when cooking in a pan, the grease can be drained while cooking to reduce fat. When cooked on the grill, the grease drips from the meat without an extra step.
The most important part about cooking homemade burgers is to make sure the meat is cook thoroughly through the center. Rare’ meat patties aren’t the best choice for health, especially if the meat has been previously frozen and defrosted; ‘medium rare’ has a slightly pink center; ‘medium’ has a light gray center, with perhaps only the faintest hint of pink or no pink at all; ‘medium well’ has a darker gray center, with a well-browned or dark or charred outside; ‘well’ has a darker gray center and a dark outside, with some charring.
When grilling outdoors, the meat patties that are being cooked less, such as rare or medium rare, should be placed on the outside, while the burgers being cooked medium well or well can be placed closer to or on top of the coals. It’s similar for pan frying, with the more well done patties being placed in the center of the pan. Mostly, though, for indoor cooking, simply cook the more well-done patties longer and remove the rarer meat patties from the pan sooner.
These are just some simple steps to get started making healthier homemade hamburgers. It can be fun to experiment with different flavors and spices, such as chopping onions and mixing them in the meat before grilling. Imagination is the limit when it comes to making a very personalized perfect hamburger at home.
