Easy Ground Turkey Burgers Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What holds turkey burgers together? ›

Add a spoonful of mayonnaise.

A spoonful or two of mayonnaise, mixed right in with the ground meat. Now hear me out. Most recipes use egg to bind ground turkey, helping the meat to form into cohesive, juicy patties.

You can go the traditional route and serve these healthy turkey burgers with sweet potato fries, French fries, or onion rings. Potato salad, macaroni salad, Italian Pasta Salad and corn salad are some other options.

An easy way to get the perfect balance without using eggs is to use natural binders like fat — whether that's animal fat or olive oil – combined with dry agents like bread crumbs.

More not-dry turkey burgers

Mashing avocado into the turkey mixture helps prevent the meat from shrinking and drying out during cooking, which is why these stay awesomely juicy, even when they're cooked all the way through.

Add Breadcrumbs and Egg.

They do double duty to bind the meat (so your turkey burger doesn't fall apart) and they keep your turkey burgers moist.

If they aren't bound well, the patties will start to fall apart as soon as you start cooking them. The most commonly used binding agent for hamburger patties is eggs. They work well with ground meat and are easy to incorporate into the rest of your ingredients.

There are plenty of easy ground turkey recipes out there. But, you will always need spices like olive oil, kosher salt and pepper, chili powder, and garlic powder. You can add minced garlic, and freshly chopped onions and peppers, for an extra edge.

Herbs: Parsley, basil, thyme, rosemary and oregano are favorites with beef, while mint, dill and cilantro are also popular with other proteins. Fresh herbs are excellent mixed into ground meat while dried herbs are the best choice for sprinkling on top.

Before you start cooking, be sure to season the ground turkey well with salt and pepper. Also consider including dried herbs and spices for additional flavor. If you're cooking meatballs or meatloaf, pinch off some of the seasoned mixture and cook it in a skillet to taste. Adjust seasoning accordingly.

First, you need a binder. Just like in a traditional meatloaf, you need something to hold the meat together. Try adding some dry breadcrumbs to the turkey mixture before you shape the patties.

What can I use to bind burgers without eggs? ›

If you want to use a binder in your meat, but don't want to use egg, other alternatives are flour such as wheat flour, cracker crumbs, or even oatmeal. Most commonly used is bread crumbs and bit of milk or water. You can also mix in some more beef fat finely ground.

Add 1 egg yolk per pound of hamburger. It won't add appreciably to the fat content and will bind the meat beautifully. The other thing you can do is add canned, drained, crushed black beans or chickpeas to the hamburger. The starch from the beans will bind the meat together and add an interesting taste.

For turkey burger success, you must first make peace with the obvious: Ground turkey isn't ground beef. It's very wet—71 percent water versus 66 percent for beef—which makes it hard to work with, yet it can easily cook up dry. That's because ground turkey must be cooked to 160 degrees.

Mushrooms add moisture, mouthfeel, and umami (beefy) flavor to the otherwise dry ground turkey. When mushrooms are chopped up into little bits, they easily and evenly mix with ground turkey making the protein so tender and flavorful while also giving the dish a veggie boost. And we all love that!

Process the Ground Meat for Juicier Texture

Instead of blending the mix with our hands, we reground the meat with seasonings in a food processor. Grinding meat develops myosin, a sticky meat protein that traps water and fat, keeping it juicy.

Add 1 egg yolk per pound of hamburger. It won't add appreciably to the fat content and will bind the meat beautifully. The other thing you can do is add canned, drained, crushed black beans or chickpeas to the hamburger. The starch from the beans will bind the meat together and add an interesting taste.

Before you start grilling, it's important to chill the patties in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. This helps the fat in the meat solidify, which in turn helps the burgers hold their shape on the grill. Chilling the patties also gives the flavors a chance to meld and results in a more flavorful burger.

The biggest problem with turkey meat as burgers on the grill is they don't have a lot of internal stickiness. That means they are more likely to fall apart than ground beef burgers. You can smush turkey burgers tightly together to make them stay in one piece, but it makes for a tougher burger.