Best-Ever Wagyu Burgers (2024)

Make your next backyard grill-out one to remember with these best-ever Wagyu burgers! Ultra juicy Wagyu beef patties are grilled to your liking and piled high with an assortment of your favorite toppings to make the perfect burger. Plus, you can put a delicious dinner on the table in under 30 minutes when these burgers are on the menu. Now let’s pour ourselves an ice-cold beer and grill some Wagyu beef burgers this summer.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

That delicious Wagyu beef: Wagyu is known for its superior fat marbling, which makes for a melt-in-your-mouth tender, flavorful bite. Using such a high-quality ingredient is an easy way to instantly upgrade your grilling game.

Always a quick and easy summer favorite: Who doesn’t love to heat up the grill, crack open a beer and enjoy a night on the patio with a plate of beefy burgers on the table? You’ll want to keep this recipe handy because it will be on repeat all summer long.

Endlessly customizable: You can keep it classic with traditional toppings, or you can get creative to make a gourmet, unique burger.

Related: For more summer grilling recipes, you’ll also love my jerk chicken.

Ingredients

Wagyu ground beef: After all, this is the star of the show. Not any ground beef will do. American Wagyu beef is most common in the United States, but sometimes you can track down Australian Wagyu or Japanese Wagyu, which is the gold standard.

Seasoning: To really let the Wagyu shine, I like to keep the spices to a minimum, so we use a simple combination of salt, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and smoked paprika. Of course, if you have your own favorite burger seasoning, you’re more than welcome to use that.

Favorite burger toppings: Pictured are a few classic burger toppings. But don't feel like you have to stop there. This Wagyu hamburger is great with just about any topping of your choosing.

Buns: I prefer buttery brioche buns, but your favorite bun works just as well.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: To start, we first form the Wagyu beef patties by rolling the meat into equal-size balls (photo 1), shaping them into burger patties (photo 2) and then pressing our thumb in the middle of each patty (photo 3). The thumb indentation helps the burger hold its shape while cooking. Once we form the burger patties, we season them with our spice mixture (photo 4).

Step 2: From here, we place the burgers on the greased grill grates of a hot grill over medium-high heat and cook one one side with the lid closed (photo 5).

Step 3: After searing the first side, we carefully flip the burgers and grill the patties on the other side (photo 6). If you’re like me and can’t eat a burger without cheese, we want to add it in the last 30 seconds or so. I went with a classic cheddar, but any melting cheese works nicely.

How simple was that? All that’s left is to add our favorite toppings, and we now have the most juicy burgers ready to devour.

Internal Temperature Guide and Cook Times

Your final internal temperature is dependent upon how you like your burgers cooked. While the USDA recommends cooking ground beef to 160 degrees F, I like my burgers more on the rare side, so this is a personal decision based on your comfort level and preference. To check the internal temperature, an instant-read thermometer works well.

Keep in mind that the cooking times are for the total minutes spent on the grill. You want to flip the Wagyu patties during the middle of the listed total cooking time.

Best Topping and Serving Ideas

Of course, lettuce, tomato, red onion, cheese, pickles, mayonnaise, ketchup and mustard are always popular, but here are a few ideas for taking those gourmet Wagyu burgers to the next level.

• Bacon: You get bonus points for thick-cut bacon or a generous smearing of my fabulous bourbon bacon jam.
• Avocado: Try sliced avocado or even guacamole.
• BBQ sauce: And, boy, do I have options for you — bourbon-coffee BBQ sauce, honey-sriracha BBQ sauce and jerk BBQ sauce. They're especially great with some caramelized onions as well.
• Chili: Who doesn’t love a chili burger? You can go with a classic red chili or try my favorite green chili. My smoked chili is also a good call for an extra depth of flavor.
• Cheese alternatives: Sliced cheese is great, but you can also opt for this smoked queso or smoked cream cheese for something different.
• Roasted chile peppers: Roasted poblanos or jalapeños are perfect for adding a bit of spice.
• Salsa: For a Caribbean take, you can try my jerk salsa. This smoked salsa is fabulous too.

In addition to toppings, we also need some side dishes for the ultimate backyard cook-off. If you’re looking for potluck-style salads, try this bacon macaroni salad, pesto tortellini pasta salad, Hawaiian potato salad or Mexican street corn pasta salad. They’re all crowd pleasers.

For some hot dishes, smoked mac and cheese, smoked baked beans and broccoli casserole are wonderful options.

Storing and Freezing Burger Patties

To prepare the Wagyu burger patties before serving, follow the original directions to shape them, cover them in plastic wrap and store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a day. Right before grilling, you can season the meat and throw them on the grill.

For those times you need even longer storage, freezing is the perfect option. You’ll want to first cover them in plastic wrap and then store the patties in a freezer bag for up to three months for best results.

When you’re ready to thaw the meat, you can move them to the refrigerator overnight. If you’re tight on time, simply leave the burgers in the plastic wrap and sealed freezer bag and submerge them in cold water in the refrigerator until thawed.

Recipe FAQs

Expert Tips

Let the burger patties rest after grilling: This allows the juices to settle back into the meat. Lightly tent the burgers with aluminum foil and let them sit on the counter for five minutes — you don’t need a long rest here.

Only flip once: The more you flip, the more likely the burgers are to fall apart.

Don’t press down on the burgers as they cook: This squeezes out those wonderful juices. Burgers don’t take long to cook. You don’t need to speed up the process at the expense of that juicy meat.

Toast the buns: Simply place the buns on the grill for 10-30 seconds, and you have perfectly toasted burger buns.

Don’t season the meat until you’re ready to grill: Salt immediately starts to pull moisture from meat, so save the seasoning step until the very end.

Shape the patties so that they’re slightly larger than the buns: The patties will shrink as they cook, so we want them to start a bit bigger.

Perfect Pairing

You will love a double IPA with this Wagyu beef burger. A double IPA has a more prominent malt profile compared to a single IPA, which helps showcase the caramelization from the grill. Plus, it has plenty of carbonation, and those hops help cut through that rich marbling.

If you’re more of a wine drinker, an Australian syrah is nice with burgers. The syrah’s full body stands up to the meat and cheese, and it comes with some fruity notes that offer a nice balance to the char.

For your next backyard cook-out, it doesn’t get better than these juicy Wagyu burgers. You’ll love that complex Wagyu flavor in every bite to make the absolute best burger of your life.

Cheers!

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