Burgers on a Pellet Grill: 225°F Smoke, Then a 450°F Sear

The best burgers on a pellet grill spend 30 to 35 minutes in 225°F hickory smoke, until they read about 115°F inside, and then get 2 to 3 minutes a side on a 450°F grate to finish at 160°F. That’s half pound patties of 80/20 chuck, done in under an hour, with real smoke in the meat and a browned crust, which pellet grills are often accused of being unable to manage.

This recipe is written for a Weber Searwood, which goes up to 600°F and makes the sear easy. Any pellet grill that reaches 400°F will do it; the sear takes a minute or so longer. It’s the quickest cook in the beef recipes here, and the one I’d show someone who thinks a pellet grill is only good for 12 hour briskets.

Burgers left at 225°F all the way to 160°F take about 55 minutes and taste strongly of smoke, and they look like something off a hospital tray: gray, soft, no crust anywhere. The sear at the end is what fixes that.

What beef to buy for burgers

Buy 80/20 ground chuck. Sirloin and 90/10 are too lean, and so is anything labeled lean ground beef. That 20 percent fat keeps a half pound patty juicy through half an hour of smoke and then browns into the crust when it hits the hot grate. Chuck ground fresh at the counter beats the tray. If you have brisket trimmings in the freezer from a brisket cook, grind them in with the chuck; it’s about the best burger fat there is.

Make the patties half a pound each, 3/4 inch thick and about an inch wider than the bun, because they shrink as the fat renders. Quarter pound patties are too thin to take a smoke stage without overcooking. For thin burgers, skip the smoke, run the grill at 400°F and cook them 3 minutes a side.

Burger times and temperatures

Patty	Smoke stage	Sear stage	Pull at
1/2 lb, 3/4 inch thick	225°F for 30 to 35 min, to 115°F	450°F, 2 to 3 min per side	160°F
1/3 lb, 1/2 inch thick	225°F for 20 to 25 min, to 110°F	450°F, 2 min per side	160°F
1/4 lb thin patty	None	400°F, 3 min per side	160°F
1/2 lb, straight to direct heat	None	400°F, 5 to 6 min per side	160°F
1/3 lb turkey burger	225°F for 25 min	450°F, 2 min per side	165°F
1/2 lb, grill tops out at 400°F	225°F for 30 min	400°F, 3 to 4 min per side	160°F

These are numbers at the grate on a warm evening. A cook this short is outside what the smoke time calculator is built for, so let the probe decide. Choosing between the two methods comes down to time and thickness. If you have 45 minutes and thick patties, smoke then sear. With 15 minutes and thin patties, go straight to 400°F and accept a lighter smoke flavor.

Shaping and seasoning patties

Keep the meat cold until you shape it, because warm fat smears and the patties break apart on the grate. Split the chuck into half pound balls, flatten each into a patty 3/4 inch thick with a flat top, and press a dimple about as deep as your thumb into the center. The dimple stops the patty from swelling into a ball as it cooks.

Season the outside only, right before cooking, with coarse salt, black pepper and a little garlic powder if you like it. Salt mixed into the meat ahead of time dissolves the proteins and gives a bouncy, sausage-like texture. Leave out egg and breadcrumbs as well; once those go in, you’re making meatloaf.

Put the shaped patties back in the fridge on a sheet pan while the grill heats. Cold patties take longer to come up to temperature, so they spend more time in the smoke, and that’s what you want.

Watch out: Patties that sit on the counter while the grill heats go on warm, reach 115°F sooner and leave the smoke stage with less flavor. Keep them in the fridge until the grill is ready.

Smoke first, then sear

Use straight hickory. Burgers are on the grill for less than an hour, so they need a strong wood or you won’t taste it. Mesquite works here too, and burgers are one of the few cooks where I’d say so. Fruit woods are too mild to show up on ground beef in 35 minutes.

Set the Searwood to 225°F. Lay the patties on the grate with space between them and push a leave-in probe into the side of the thickest one, into the center. Close the lid and leave them. There’s no flipping during the smoke stage, since the heat is gentle and the bottoms won’t burn.

After about 30 minutes the probe reads 110 to 115°F and the patties have turned a light tan. Move them to a tray and turn the grill up to 450°F with the lid closed. Expect that to take about 10 minutes on the Searwood. The patties sit on the counter while it heats, which does them no harm.

The habit to break is pressing the patties with the spatula during the sear, because the hiss sounds like progress. That hiss is juice leaving the burger and dripping onto the fire, and it’s behind a lot of dry burgers that get blamed on the beef. Put them down and don’t touch them until it’s time to flip. One flip, no pressing.

When the grill reads 450°F, wipe the grate lightly with an oiled paper towel held in tongs, lay the patties down and close the lid. After 2 to 3 minutes, flip them. Lay the cheese on now if you’re using it. Another 2 to 3 minutes with the lid down and an instant-read should show 160°F. If your grill tops out at 400°F, go 3 to 4 minutes a side and check.

Toast the buns cut side down on the grate for the last minute. At 450°F they go from golden to burnt in about 30 seconds, so stay at the grill.

Pull temperature for burgers

I pull ground beef burgers at 160°F. Grinding mixes the surface of the meat through the whole patty, so the center needs to reach a safe temperature, and 160°F is the number I’ll put on this page. Carryover in a half pound patty is about 5°F, so a true 155°F off the grill with a 3 minute rest gets you there. Probe from the side into the center rather than from the top, because a probe pushed in from the top tends to read the hot crust.

Turkey burgers go to 165°F and need about a minute longer on the sear.

Rest the burgers 3 to 5 minutes on a rack rather than a plate, so the bottoms don’t steam soggy, and then build them.

Cold weather and wind on a burger night

Because the cook is so short, cold weather barely affects the smoke stage; expect maybe 5 extra minutes at 40°F. Where cold shows up is the climb to 450°F. On a 38°F night with wind, reaching sear temperature can take 18 minutes instead of 10, and the far side of the grate may run cooler than the controller claims. In winter, sear on the grill’s hot side.

Summer heat flips the problem. At 95°F outside the grill coasts at 225°F with the fire barely cycling, and the patties pick up less smoke. If it’s a hot day and you want more smoke flavor, run the first 15 minutes at the lowest setting your grill offers, then go to 225°F.

Wind blowing into the fan intake is what really flattens grate temperature. Turn the grill so the hopper faces away from the wind, and if the first side of the sear comes up pale, check the grate with an instant-read before you blame the grill.

Serving burgers and what to do with extras

Four half pound burgers feed four adults. I use brioche or potato buns, American cheese when I want melt or sharp cheddar when I want flavor, plus raw onion and pickles. A spoon of smoked queso on top is a lot, and it’s good. The queso can sit at the back of the grill at 225°F during the smoke stage and come off with the burgers.

Cooked leftover burgers keep 3 days in the fridge. Reheat them in a covered skillet with a tablespoon of water for about 3 minutes a side; the microwave turns them rubbery. Raw patties freeze well with parchment between them. Thaw them in the fridge overnight, not on the counter.

The same smoke-then-sear method works for pork chops on a pellet grill and pellet grill chicken breast, with different pull temperatures. Once burgers are second nature, those two need almost no learning.

Pellets and thermometers for burgers

Straight hickory, or mesquite if you like it bold. A short cook on ground beef needs a wood strong enough to show up. Blends padded with a lot of filler oak leave you with a burger that tastes like it came off a gas grill, which is a good reason to read best pellets for smoking before you buy a 40 lb bag.

A thin-probe instant-read used from the side of the patty is the main tool for burgers. A leave-in probe in one patty lets you track the smoke stage without opening the lid. Both are covered in best wireless meat thermometers.