If you want to cook up some tasty burgers, grilling them is always the best option. Sure, using an outdoor grill with an open flame always produces great results. With that being said, maybe it’s wintertime and you just don’t want to go outside. Maybe you just don’t have a grill because you live in an apartment, or due to whatever other reason.
However, what many people don’t know is that you can use an indoor grill to cook a burger and the result will be more or less the same as with an outdoor grill.
There are actually many different reasons why you might want to try cooking a burger on an indoor grill as opposed to an outdoor grill. Whatever your reason for using an indoor grill to cook your burgers, today we’re going to teach you exactly how to do so. Let’s get to it and go through a step-by-step tutorial on how to cook burgers on an indoor grill.
Why Use an Indoor Grill?
Before we talk about how to cook a burger on an indoor grill, let’s quickly go over some of the main reasons why you might want to use an indoor grill as opposed to an outdoor grill.
- One of the most obvious reasons here is if the weather is bad. If the weather is rainy and cold, you probably don’t want to stand outside and grill.
- Just in case you didn’t know, you can’t use a gas, propane, or charcoal grill indoors. It poses a serious fire hazard, plus the carbon monoxide produced by combustion can be lethal. Never take an outdoor grill and try to use it indoors.
- Indoor grills are much more convenient too, especially in terms of cleaning. Indoor grills are much faster and easier to clean than outdoor grills.
- Because outdoor grills require you to constantly refill propane canisters or buy new charcoal, they tend to be much more expensive to operate than indoor grills. There is also the fact that indoor grills generally cost a fraction of the price to begin with than outdoor grills.
- Because cooking on an open flame may produce carcinogenic substances, cooking on an indoor electric grill that does not have an open flame is generally considered much healthier than cooking on an open flame.
- Indoor grills also tend to be much more versatile because they come with grill plates and griddle plates, therefore allowing you to cook many more types of foods than on an outdoor grill.
Why Make Burgers?
Now that we know why using an indoor grill for burgers is ideal, let’s quickly talk about why you might want to make burgers to begin with.
- One of the reasons why burgers are such a great option is because they are very quick to make. Between seasoning, forming the patties, and cooking them up, it takes under 20 minutes to prepare a burger meal.
- Depending on the ingredients you go for, burgers tend to be quite affordable. You can go with some basic ground meat, some basic toppings, and put together a meal for your whole family for just a few dollars.
- Burgers are also very versatile because you can make them out of many different meats. You can make beef, chicken, pork, or lamb burgers, and there are also vegetarian and vegan options available too.
- There are so many different toppings, sauces, and condiments that you can put on burgers, that you can create any kind of burger imaginable.
How to Cook Burgers on an Indoor Grill: Step by Step
Now that we have covered all of the basics, let’s get to it and talk about how to cook burgers on an indoor grill. As you’re about to see, it’s pretty easy to do.
1. Gather and Prepare Your Ingredients
Although exactly what ingredients you get is something we will leave up to you, you do of course first need to gather your ingredients to make your burgers. Generally speaking, you’re going to need your meat of choice, some buns, some ketchup, mustard, relish, bacon, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and pickles. However, exactly what ingredients you use and how you top your burgers is something that we will leave up to you.
2. Season the Meat & Form the Patties
Before you get started with any kind of cooking, you want to season the meat. Whether you are using beef, chicken, lamb, or otherwise, you need to season it.
There is just nothing worse than an unseasoned burger. At the very least, you’re going to want to use a healthy dose of salt and pepper, but a bit of onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, and other spices won’t hurt either.
Then, once the patties have been seasoned, it’s time to actually form them. To form the patties, take a good chunk of meat, a bit smaller than a baseball, and then flatten it out.
Make sure to flatten out the meat significantly, as when it gets heated up, it’s going to contract. It’s going to end up getting much thinner and loose its diameter size. To avoid your patty turning into a ball, make sure that you flatten it out significantly before cooking.
3. Prepare the Indoor Grill for Grilling
Make sure that your indoor grill is ready to go. So, first, make sure that it is clean. Just take a damp cloth or paper towel and wipe everything down to ensure that there is no debris present. Once you are sure that your indoor grill is clean, you can then plug it in and turn it on.
You want to preheat your indoor grill to around 450 degrees Fahrenheit. You want your hamburger patties to sear, not boil, which means that the surface needs to be screaming hot. Once your indoor grill has been preheated, you can move on to the next step.
4. Grill the Burgers on Both Sides
You now want to grill the burgers on both sides. Exactly how you grill your burgers is up to you in terms of doneness, although most people prefer a well done burger. That said, if you like your burger medium or medium rare, that is up to you. However, just for safety reasons, it is recommended that ground beef burgers reach internal temperatures of 71 degrees Celsius or 160 degrees Fahrenheit.
For an average burger, this is generally going to mean cooking anywhere between six to eight minutes per side, although this does of course depend on how thick it is. If you happen to have an indoor grill that has dual cooking surfaces, both the top and bottom, like a panini press, this cooking time is going to be much less.
5. Bacon, Cheese, and Buns
If you have enough space on your indoor grill, you can always fry up some bacon while your burgers are cooking. Once the bacon is done, put it off to the side. When your burgers are almost done, you can put the cheese on top of them to make sure that it is melted by the time the meat is cooked.
At the same time, you can then also take your buns of choice and grill them up a little bit too, just so they are nice and toasty. Of course, all of this is completely optional, and how you eat your burger and toppings is up to you.
6. Assemble Your Burgers & Enjoy
Once everything is totally cooked, you can then assemble your burgers.
7. Clean Your Indoor Grill
The final step here, one that so many people forget, is that you should always clean your indoor grill once you are done using it. Just wait for it to cool down a little and then take a damp towel or cloth to wipe down all of the surfaces.
Final Thoughts
There you have it folks, you now know exactly how to cook burgers on an indoor grill.