Smoked Hamburgers
On January 31, 2023 (Updated September 26, 2023)
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Smoked hamburgers are a killer way to prepare a burger. By smoking the hamburger, you end up with a juicy result, and the smoke creates crispy edges and great char. You’ll never go back to regular old hamburgers again. And drive-thru burgers? Forget about it!
Smoked Hamburgers
Cooking hamburgers on the grill is a BBQ staple, and it always results in a delicious burger. But smoking those hamburgers adds a whole new level of flavor and dimension that will blow your mind.
The key to a great hamburger starts with the right mix of ground beef. As often as possible, I try to grind my own meat for hamburgers. I personally love the flavor of ground chuck roast the most. It is just the right ratio of meat to fat.
If you’re buying from the grocery store, make sure you’re buying meat that was ground in-house, preferably that day. Aim for select ground beef that is at least 85% meat 15% fat. If you want your burger even juicier, I recommend 80% meat 20% fat.
How to Smoke Hamburgers
Let’s get into the process of how to smoke hamburgers. It’s a fairly simple technique of seasoning, smoking, searing, and serving. For a detailed, printable recipe card, scroll to the bottom of this post.
- Preheat. Preheat the smoker to 225 degrees F. My preferred wood for smoked hamburgers is hickory. It’s strong enough to give you good smoke flavor in the limited time that the burgers will be exposed to smoke.
- Prep. Press the meat into patties, working the meat as little as possible. Shape your burgers so they are about 1/2 inch thick and wider than the buns you’ll be using.
- Season. Next, season the outside of your burgers on both sides with Hey Grill Hey Beef Rub. If you don’t have any Beef Rub on hand, you can use equal parts salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
- Smoke. Once your grill is preheated, place the burgers on the grates and close the lid. Smoke until the internal temperature of the meat reaches 135 degrees F. Depending on the thickness of your burgers, aim for this first step to take around 1 hour.
- Sear. Increase the temperature of your smoker to around 400 degrees F. Sear the patties for 2-3 minutes. Flip the hamburgers, top them with cheese (if desired), and continue cooking until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees F.
- Dig in! Once your burgers are smoked and seared to perfection, serve them on toasty buns with whatever condiments you like!
How Long to Smoke Hamburgers
I’ve found that it takes a little over 1 hour to smoke hamburgers with the smoker running steady at 225 degrees F.
Make sure to use this 1-hour timeline as a gauge only and pay attention to the temperature of the burgers. Smoke until they reach 135 degrees, then sear until they reach a final temperature of 165 degrees F.
Tips for Smoking the Best Burgers
Smoking burgers is easy and straightforward, but these tips will help you get that perfect, juicy burger every time.
- Make sure you use ground beef with a decent fat content. The heat and the smoke can dry out the meat, so aim for at least 15% fat in your beef.
- Use a stronger wood for smoked burgers, such as hickory, oak, or mesquite. These burgers are not on the smoker for very long, so you want the smoke to influence the meat for the entire time it is on the smoker.
- Cook to temperature, not to color or time. Smoking causes a chemical reaction with the meat that turns it slightly pink. If you smoke your burgers for an hour, they may be pink throughout the entire burger! If you are using an instant-read thermometer, you will know that they are perfectly cooked, so don’t stress about them being too pink once they reach 165 degrees F.
More Burger Recipes
Are burgers your favorite go-to dinner item? If so, check out even more amazing burger recipes below!
Smoked Hamburger Recipe
Follow the recipe and I’ll show you step-by-step how I make these smoked hamburgers at home. I’m all about helping you make memories with your loved ones through amazing backyard BBQ of your life, so check out more of my smoking and grilling recipe videos on YouTube, Instagram, or our Facebook Page. Follow along and let’s make awesome food together!
This post was originally published in May 2018. We recently updated it with more information and helpful tips. The recipe remains the same.
Smoked Hamburgers
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds ground chuck 80/20 preferred
- 2 Tablespoons Hey Grill Hey Beef Rub or equal parts salt, pepper, and garlic powder
- 4 slices cheddar cheese optional
- 4 burger buns
- assorted burger toppings
Instructions
- Preheat. Preheat your smoker to 225 degrees F using your favorite hardwoood.
- Form the patties. Shape your ground beef into 4 equal-sized patties, about 1/2 inch larger in diameter than your burger buns.
- Smoke. Place the seasoned patties on the grill and smoke until the internal temperature of the meat reaches 135 degrees F. This will take around 1 hour.
- Sear. Increase the heat in your smoker to at least 400 degrees F. Sear the burger patties for about 2-3 minutes on both sides. Add cheese after the first flip, if desired. Sear until the meat reaches a final temperature of 165 degrees F.
- Enjoy. Remove the hamburger patties from the grill and place the buns on the grill grates to toast. Assemble your smoked burgers on the toasted buns with any desired toppings and serve immediately.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Loved this recipe, smoky burgers are the bomb! But 140-145 is adequate for medium, slightly pink in the middle. 165 would be too done in my opinion.
What do you think about placing the burgers on the grill while it heats up in order to expose them to the thick smoke that is produced while the grill comes to temp?
You can do that if you want. I find that that thick white smoke adds an undesirable, acrid flavor so I don’t recommend it.
My goodness, nothing so simple and so satisfying as this hamburger. Thanks for sharing!
I smoked Snake River Farms Wagyu ground beef on my Traeger at 250 until 125 IT then cranked it up to 450 and cooked until 138, since I did not want to ruin the Wagyu. Came out Amazing!
OMG OMG Made these burgers last night and they were out of this world. From now on nothing but smoked burgers. Recipe was and cooking time was dead nuts on
Heck yeah! Way to nail it!
Hi Susie. Why do I see so many chefs on tv eating med-rare burgers? Is it safe?
Most gourmet burger places cook to about medium, so I’d say its safe. The FDA just recommends 165F.
The best way is to grind your meat yourself (the food processor does this well). The FDA recommends 165 for ground beef because it assumes commercially ground, which can come from very many cows in the same package. If you grind your own (or have your butcher do it ) you know what you are getting-sirloin, chuck, etc.- the fat content, which can be controlled, and you know it’s fresh and from one piece of meat. Thereby reducing the need to cook to 165 to avoid the possibility of bad things happening.
There is a *lot* of information if you search for it, lots to sort through, but start with America’s Test Kitchen and the like, you get good information.
I have been doing bison burgers exactly like this, topped with smoked gouda cheese. So good.
Enjoying all the great recipes Susie! I noticed the nutritional info on the burgers was pretty high for someone eating a low carb diet. The ingredients all appear to be low carb other than the buns. Were the buns included in the nutritional data? Thanks!!!
Thank you so much! Yes, everything on the burger is in the nutritional info.
This was amazing. Put garlic on the buns too and yummmmmy. Only had one question. I’m new to smoking and just bought a new camp chef xt. I put it on the “hi-smoke” setting and let it smoke the burgers for an hour like instructed. I noticed that it only actually smoked every few minutes, not heavy smoke for the whole time. Is this how it should function or should it look like a house fire for the hour lol. Thanks in advance!! 🙂
That heavy smoke you see every once in a while is when the auger is adding pellets. It shouldn’t smoke like a house fire the whole time or something is wrong. Perfect smoke is thin and a little blue in appearance.
Any suggestions on how to do this if you don’t have the slide tech of the SG? Is it necessary? Can I just turn up the heat on the CampChef I have to 400?
Yes sir! I do burgers on my LUX all the time!
Thanks they turned out great!