Juicy Smoked Burgers

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Making delicious, juicy smoked burgers that are full of flavor with a hint of smoky flavor is easier than you think. Made with simple ingredients, you’re going to love our easy smoked hamburger recipe.

Smoked burgers with cheese on buns on a white platter.

The secret to great smoked burgers is using the right blend of beef. For tender, juicy burgers, use 80/20 ground beef. Heat and smoke can dry out the burgers, and the extra fat in the meat helps keep them moist and succulent.

You can use 80/15, but I wouldn’t use beef with less fat. Lean ground beef works well for some dishes but not for smoked burgers.

Smoked burger with cheese, lettuce, tomato and burger sauce on a white plate.

We love our electric smoker, but you can use a trager pellet grill, charcoal grill, or gas grill using indirect heat.

If you enjoy making delicious smoked meats for sandwiches, make sure to try our smoked hot dogs and smoked sausage, onions, and peppers recipes.

Table of Contents:

Ingredients to make Smoked Burgers

Let’s start by gathering the ingredients we need to make our easy smoked burgers recipe. In Chef Speak, this is called the Mise en Place, which translates into Everything in its Place.

Not only does setting your ingredients up ahead of time speed the cooking process, but it also helps ensure you have everything you need to make the dish.

Can I change up the ingredients for the Smoked Hamburgers?

Absolutely. You can substitute onion powder and garlic powder for the diced onions and minced garlic.

You can also use your favorite spices or seasoning mixture. I like to use Cajun seasoning and Jerk seasoning; the flavors go great with the smoky flavor.

How to make Juicy Smoked Burgers

Preheat your smoker to 250 degrees.
Remove the ground beef from the refrigerator a half hour prior to cooking it to allow the meat to come to room temperature.

Collage showing how to start the recipe.

Add the ground beef, diced onions, minced garlic, Worcestershire sauce, table salt, and black pepper to a large bowl.
Mix just enough to combine the ingredients.
*Make sure not to overhandle the ground meat, as it will toughen the meat during the cooking process.
Portion out the hamburgers into 8 oz balls.
Form thick patties using your hands or a burger press. We prefer thicker patties, but If you like thinner patties, you can also make smash burgers out of the beef.

Add wood chips to the smoke tube. For this recipe, we used hickory wood chips, but you can also use maple, pecan, or oak.

Collage showing how to finish the recipe.

For the best results, place the beef patties directly on the grill grate in the preheated smoker with a drip pan underneath. Cook until the internal temperature of the burgers is 145 degrees (about 1 hour).
*Cooking times will vary as we are cooking to temperature, not a specific time. Make sure to use a meat thermometer!
About halfway through the process, flip the hamburger patties.
When the desired temperature has been reached, add cheese to the patties.
Allow them to cook for an additional 5 minutes or until the cheese has softened over top of the burgers.
*For a crispier texture, you can reverse sear the burgers and allow the cheese to melt on the burgers during the process.

Serve the smoked burgers with our classic burger sauce, barbecue sauce, or your favorite condiments. Add lettuce, tomato, pickle chips, red onion, crispy bacon, or any of your favorite toppings.

Store any leftover burgers refrigerated in an airtight container for 2-3 days.

Recipe FAQ’s

Do I need to flip the burgers during the smoking process?

No, you don’t. But if you’d like to have grill marks on the meat, flipping them will give you marks on both sides.

My smoked burger is still a little pink, is it done?

When using a smoker to cook meats, the most important thing to remember is to always cook to temperature. Smoking can turn your burgers pink and give the illusion that the patties are more (or less) done than they really are.

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