For The Best Crust On Smash Burgers, Skip The Grease

Smash burgers don't require any particular culinary expertise to put together and can be whipped up on a stovetop without the need to fire up your backyard grill. When cooked on high heat, you don't need much time to cook a perfect smash burger and can be slapping your favorite cheese and toppings onto a hot meat patty in minutes. Consider an easy smash burger recipe a quick one-way ticket to a tasty, comforting meal without much fuss.

Smash burgers offer drool-inducing thin patties that have a bit of a crunch to their crust, and that's part of these burgers' charm. Once you've chosen the best meat for your meal and have seasoned the patty to your heart's content, you can be on your way to laying down the patty on a hot pan. While some recipes may call for dousings of cooking oil, the perfect smash burger doesn't require such a fuss. If you're aiming for a toothy, crispy exterior that gives way to a juicy middle, skip any lashings of oil and set the meat directly into the pan. The raw meat will form that crispy outer crunch that you're after, with no butter or oil required. And, the fat from the burger will replace any need for extra oil, and you'll have the texture that will keep dinner guests reaching for more.

Before plopping your raw burger patty down, make sure the surface is hot enough by dropping water and watching for the sizzle. Pretty soon after the seasoned meat patty has hit whatever hot surface you are using to cook, it is time to get smashing, either by way of press, parchment paper and tool, or metal spatula. Since smash burger recipes are designed to be made thinner with less meat, the ungreased griddle or castiron surface will come into contact with more areas of the smashed patty, building layers of flavor and texture across your seasoned meat that yield a nearly unbeatable burger. As you smash the burger down onto the hot surface, you create a wider platform for a pretty brown crust to form, encouraging the Maillard reaction to heat up the amino acids in the meat to yield flavors and textures you may otherwise miss.

Let this be your permission to make a delicious meal "lazy style" and smash out some of the day's frustrations along the way. After all, less can be more when it comes to matters of the kitchen, and when making smash burgers, you have all the green flags pointing you in a delicious direction. Once you sink your teeth into that perfectly cooked burger, you may find yourself turning to smash burgers more regularly for quick and easy meal inspiration.