Rachael Ray’s 3 Tips for Making Better Burgers at Home

The sound of Rachael Ray’s 30-Minute Meals is part of my childhood soundtrack. Sitting in the kitchen while my own mom cooked with Ray on in the background was a common experience for me in the 2000s, and I believe many others in my age group can relate to it.

The businesswoman, Food Network star, and home cooking expert is one of the resources that taught me from a young age that making your own meals doesn’t have to be difficult. (She’s also the reason I say “EVOO” instead of “extra virgin olive oil”). As evidenced by her latest show, Rachael Ray in Tuscany, this food personality has staying power well beyond the debut of her first series in 2001.

One of the things I love most about Ray is that she doesn’t pretend to be a trained chef. In fact, she often says, “I’m not a chef,” which underscores that her expertise really lies in the kind of cooking most of us do at home every day. As a result, I often turn to her when I need accessible cooking tips, which is exactly why I’ve been using her advice for making better burgers all summer — and you should too.

Make your burger thinner in the center

If you’ve ever made a perfectly flat burger patty, only to cook it and find it too thick or bulging in the middle, this advice is for you. Meat contracts as it cooks, which is the source of this problem, as the protein pulls inward toward the center and forms a little hill in the middle of your even burger.

To combat that, Ray says that when forming raw patties, they “all have to be thinner in the center and thicker at the edges.” This allows the meat to contract and rise up, resulting in a more even surface on the burger once cooked.

Other people use this technique as well, but you may notice that some cooks create a fairly deep indent only in the very center of the patty, which risks leaving a dimple once the meat is cooked. Instead, follow Ray’s model and make a shallow, gradual decline into the middle of the burger.

Don’t cook cold burgers

Ray mentions that she “always [lets] a little chill come off the burger before I put the patties into the pan.” This tip is often contested, with some burger experts saying that it’s key to a perfect cook and better texture, while others say it doesn’t matter. 

But the theory makes sense: if you let your cold burger meat come slightly closer to room temperature, it will cook more evenly, and the edges will brown faster. This helps you get that caramelized crust on the exterior while still keeping a perfectly pink center.

It also doesn’t hurt to test the tip — you don’t need to leave the meat out for hours, so there isn’t a risk of any food safety issues. Instead, let it sit covered at room temperature for around 20 minutes to an hour.

Grill grates aren’t the best option

This might seem blasphemous, but for the juiciest burgers, a cast iron skillet is your best bet. As Rachael Ray points out, you can still place a cast iron surface on your grill and use that to sear the meat, but the TV host explains that “the best way to get even caramelization or development of the sugar in the protein that you’re cooking is on a flat plane. Even when I cook outside, I have cast iron tops for my outdoor grill.”

Cast iron retains heat well and heats more evenly than open-fire grill flames, so you’re more likely to have consistent high heat across the entire burger patty. Even more importantly, a cast iron surface prevents the beef’s rendered fat from dripping into the flames, allowing the meat to cook in its own fat, which results in a burger that’s both flavorful and juicy.