Did you know that you can smoke hamburgers quickly and easily on your Pit Boss? By smoking a burger, you get a juicy, flavorful burger that tastes great! Once you know how to smoke hamburgers on a Pit Boss, you’ll never go back to the old way of grilling burgers.
How to Smoke Hamburgers on a Pit Boss
Set the Pit Boss grill to a low temperature of 225℉ or below. Opt for lean ground been 85/15, ensure your patties are cold (not frozen) and choose the right pellets.
Smoking burgers is easy, but if this is your first time owning a Pit Boss, it can be a little confusing. You may not realize that you can cook hamburgers on the Pit Boss using a few different cooking methods.
If you don’t have time to prepare fresh burgers, consider cooking frozen burgers on the Pit Boss. They come out tasting great and don’t require a lot of prep work.
Chances are you’ve had a gas or charcoal grill in the past. If so, then you’re not new to grilling burgers. People invest in a pellet grill because it makes it easy to smoke their food.
Once you taste smoked burgers, you’ll never want to eat anyone else’s burgers, not even from your favorite fast food.
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What Does It Mean to Smoke Burgers?
Smoking is a method of cooking burgers over a fire at a lower temperature. Wood pellets are added to the fire that gives the food a smoky flavor.
Smoked meat contains a pink smoke ring produced by a protein called Myoglobin. If you want a more scientific reason, check out this site.
Pellet grills are all about the smoke because that’s what produces the smokey flavor.
Tips for Smoking The Best Burgers
Smoking burgers on a pellet grill is and straightforward. However, these tips will ensure your burgers come out juicy every time.
- Choose Chuck ground beef. Choose ground beef with the least amount of fat. Meat with too much fat will absorb the smoke, blocking the rest of the meat from absorbing any. Aim for ground beef that consists of at least 15-20% fat in your beef.
- Set the Pit Boss at 225 Degrees. A low smoke setting will produce a nice smokey flavor.
- Use stronger hardwood pellets. Smoking burgers doesn’t take very long, so you’ll want to use stronger pellets such as mesquite, hickory, competition blend, or oak. Stronger pellets will have more influence on a short cook, and your burgers will come out with a better flavor.
- Monitor the temperature. Smoking burgers or any food causes a smoke ring, which is a pink ring under the bark (crust). You can smoke the burgers for an hour, and they can still be pink on the inside. Use a meat thermometer, once they reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees F, they are safe to eat, even if they are pink!
Smoked Burgers on a Pellet Grill
The most important thing when smoking burgers is choosing the right meat. Before you fire up the grill, it’s essential to know what type of ground beef is available for grilling burgers.
We recommend you choose any of the following for your next backyard cookout.
- Ground Chuck: Ground chuck is a cut from the shoulder and usually contains about 15-20 percent fat. It is an excellent choice for smoking burgers, as it will prevent your burgers from drying out during the cooking process. If you want a flavorful burger, then opt for this cut.
- Ground Sirloin: Ground sirloin is the muscle and fat that comes from the midsection of the cow. The fat content consists of about 7-10 percent. This is too of fat content and will cause the meat to dry out.
- Ground Rounds: Ground rounds consists of a mixture of cut meats ground up. It usually has a fat content of around 10%, which doesn’t make it great for smoking burgers.
The optimal beef for smoking burgers is chuck ground beef. Choose ground beef with 15-20% fat content, so your burgers won’t come out dry.
Best Wood Pellets for Smoking Burgers
Use either the Pit Boss Hickory or Mesquite pellets as they make a flavorful burger.
The last time we smoked burgers on the Pit Boss, we noticed the burgers had a bacon-like taste and aroma.
The mesquite pellets give your burgers a steak-like quality. For those of you who want the best of the best, go with the Pit Boss Classic Blend Hardwood.
The Pit Boss Classic Hardwood pellets blend mesquite wood, southern blend pecan, and hickory.
Seasoning The Patties
Season and patty the burgers the day you’re going to grill them. You can season your patties with anything you like. We usually use kosher salt, and black pepper.
If we’re not in a hurry, we’ll mix our ground beef with apple sauce or onion Lipton soup and water to make the burgers even moister when smoking.
You can even use Worcestershire sauce to infuse an umami flavor and keep the meat moist.
There is no one way to season burgers, so feel free to experiment to see how you like yours.
Temperature for Smoking Burgers On Pit Boss
Smoke the burgers on the Pit Boss at 225℉. When the burgers are about 5 degrees away from being done, crank the heat up to 400℉. Next, open the flame broiler plate, use the direct heat to sear the burger for two minutes on both sides.
The searing process will create a nice outside crust or bark.
Wait until you have seared one side before flipping it over to add the cheese.
Don’t hesitate to add any of the burger toppings. Adding the toppings to the grill’s burgers will add a great smoke flavor to the onions, garlic, peppers, and bacon.
If you don’t want to add them to the burgers, you can use the top shelf on your Pit Boss to smoke the toppings.
How Long Does It Take to Smoke Burgers on a Pit Boss?
Smoking a quarter-pound burger at 225℉ will take about an hour to reach an internal temperature of 130 – 135℉ or medium-rare.
If you want a well-done burger, it can take up to an hour and a half.
That said, cooking times will vary depending on how thick the patties are, how many patties you’re cooking at one time, and the weather.
So it’s essential to use a meat thermometer to monitor the internal temperature.
So You Flip The Burgers When Smoking?
If the burgers are directly on the grate, you don’t have to flip them until it’s time to sear them over direct heat.
Toasting the Buns
Don’t forget to toast the buns! When the burgers are done and are resting, throw the buns on the grill.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this guide helps you see how easy it is to make smoked burgers on a Pit Boss.
Once you taste how flavorful smoked burgers are, you’ll wonder why you never made them before!
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