James Kenji Lopez-Alt
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How to Grill Thin but Juicy Burgers
🕑 Added 2025-07-03 07:33:56 +0000 UTCI wrote about this technique for the New York Times a couple summers ago, based on a Whopper-but-better facsimile I developed years earlier over at Serious Eats. The idea was to get that fast-food-style thin patty—charred, a little smoky, stackable—but cooked on an actual grill, not a griddle.
A couple years ago, I wrote a “Thin but Juicy Grilled Burgers” recipe for the New York Times. The technique I demonstrated there was based on a Whopper-but-better facsimile I developed years earlier over at Serious Eats. I was trying to solve a specific problem: how do you get the flavor and proportion of a good smashed burger—but on a grill?
Normally, you can’t. Thin patties don’t do well over open flame. They dry out, fall apart, or shrink into meat pucks that don’t even cover the bun. Smashed burgers succeed because they’re cooked on hot, solid surfaces: fast browning, fast cooking, and nowhere for the fat to go.
Grills don’t give you that. Grates cook mostly through radiant heat, not conduction, which is slower and less efficient for browning. And unlike a griddle, all the rendered fat from the burger drips straight into the fire. That dripping fat does contribute smoke and char flavor, but it also means you’re losing moisture fast.
So the solution had to account for three things: structure, size, and heat management.
Structure: Thin patties are fragile, especially raw. To keep them intact during transfer and cooking, I formed them between two sheets of parchment paper. That let me flatten them as wide and thin as I needed without sticking or tearing. A second baking sheet (or the bottom of a skillet) gives enough leverage to press them out evenly. Once formed, I kept the patties in the fridge until the grill was hot.
Size: Burgers shrink as they cook—moisture evaporates, fat renders out, proteins tighten and contract. That’s true for all burgers, but it’s more dramatic with thinner patties. So I made each patty at least 1 to 2 inches wider than the bun, knowing it would contract down to size. Getting a 3- to 4-ounce ball of meat to flatten into a nearly 6-inch-wide disk takes some practice, but the parchment-and-pan method worked best.
Transfer and seasoning: To get the patties off the paper without them falling apart, I used a simple flip: peel off the top sheet, season the meat, re-cover it, flip the whole sandwich, then peel and season the second side. That step also helps loosen the meat from the parchment so it lifts cleanly onto the grill.
Heat and timing: Even with a hot fire, I couldn’t get both sides nicely browned without overcooking. Then I remembered how smashed burgers are really only browned on one side—the second side gets just a quick finish. So I did the same here: grilled the patties hard on the first side until well-charred and the tops were just turning from pink to gray, then flipped, added cheese, and gave the second side a short hit of heat.
Once they’re done, move fast. These don’t hold well. Get them onto buns, add toppings, and serve.
And if one patty isn’t enough? Stack two. Or three. They’re built for it.
There are a bunch of ways you can see/read a demonstration of this technique:
Get my recipe on NYT Cooking (paywall)
Comments
Glen
Perhaps a bit glib, but I don't worry about it as everything is prone to cause health issues in some capacity. There are much more actionable things to worry about, like maintaining a balanced diet and exercising regularly.
JY
you mentioned the soot off carcoal and smoke as carcinogenic, curious what your thoughts are in general on its health implications or lack thereof. i enjoy the eating grilled food all the time but have to keep shaking that feeling of unease off whenever i see those black specks, especially when i cook for kids. TIA!
