Turkey Burgers

By Martha Rose Shulman

Updated August 5, 2024

  • A side image of three turkey burgers stacked with lettuce, tomato and pickles.
    Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Simon Andrews.
Media 1 of 1
Total Time
30 minutes
Rating
5(5,497)
Comments
Read comments

Turkey burgers are much leaner than hamburgers, but they can be dry and dull. Moisten them by adding ketchup and a bit of grated onion to the ground turkey — or mayonnaise and a bit of mustard. The idea is to emphasize condiments, and keep the turkey moist.

Featured in: 6 Food Mistakes Parents Make

  • or to save this recipe.

  • Subscriber benefit: Give recipes to anyone

    As a subscriber, you have 10 gift recipes to give each month. Anyone can view them - even nonsubscribers. Learn more.

    Subscribe

  • Share this recipe

  • Print this recipe

    or to print this recipe.

Advertisement

Ingredients

Yield:4 burgers

FOR THE BURGERS

  • ½ medium onion

  • 1 pound lean ground turkey

  • 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

  • 2 tablespoons ketchup

  • ¾ teaspoon salt

  • Freshly ground pepper to taste

  • 4 hamburger buns, preferably whole wheat

  • 1 tablespoon canola oil, or use pan spray

  • Thin slices of Cheddar, optional

FOR SERVING

  • Sliced tomato

  • Sliced onion

  • Iceberg lettuce

  • Pickles

  • Sliced red pepper

  • Ketchup and mustard

Ingredient Substitution Guide

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Grate the onion on the fine holes of a grater. You should have about two tablespoons of grated onion (and a lot of juice, which you can discard). Place in a bowl with the ground turkey, Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, salt and pepper. Using a fork, mix together well. Shape into four patties — the mixture will be quite moist — and press the patties into ½-inch thick rounds.

  2. Step 2

    Heat the canola oil in a nonstick griddle or large nonstick frying pan over medium-high heat. (Alternately, spray the griddle or pan with pan spray.) When you can feel the heat while holding your hand just above griddle or pan, cook the patties for five minutes on each side, topping with slices of Cheddar, if desired, after the first flip. Serve burgers on buns, with the condiments of your choice.

Private Notes

Leave a Private Comment on this recipe and see it here.

Ratings

5 out of 5
5,497 user ratings
Your rating

or to rate this recipe.

Have you cooked this?

or to mark this recipe as cooked.

Comments

Ari

I think in the future I'm going to use the phrase "grating an onion" as a metaphor for a nearly impossible task. What mush I did get was delicious and worked well for the patties, but at the risk of sliding layers off while applying pressure and grating my fingers...

vern

The seasoning for the burgers are delicious. For the same results with less time, I baked the patties in the oven first for 30 mins at 375 F and then seared it on my griddle for 2 mins on each side. It came out delicious, moist and full of flavor

KDR

KLK, try the donut method of burger forming. You make the patty and then put a depression in the center - it helps reduce shrinkage and cooks more evenly (which is good since it is poultry).

Jen

The texture was off putting

pat-s

Love this recipe, which I follow exactly. I have found that the consistency of the ground turkey is key. Trader Joe’s and Costco have organic ground turkey that is not soggy. I bought turkey at another small higher priced grocery that was soggy and the burgers did not mold into patties as well so that I had to add bread crumbs or panko.

Beverly

Instead of the more traditional-hamburger-but-with-ground-turkey route described here, we prefer our turkey burgers dressed with a tablespoon or so of whole berry cranberry sauce (or, even better, fancy cranberry relish if your grocery carries it in their deli) and lettuce, with Swiss cheese melted on the hot turkey patty, smeared with a generous amount of Dijon mustard on a brioche bun. The best!

Private comments are only visible to you.

Recipe Tags

or to save this recipe.