Our best turkey burger recipe! Thanks to our secret ingredient, these burgers are loaded with flavor and won’t dry out.
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Related: We love this irresistible turkey meatloaf.
How To Make Healthy and Juicy Turkey Burgers
These burgers made with ground turkey are extra easy to make. We’re only talking 6 ingredients and about 30 minutes. Let’s do this! The secret to the best turkey burgers is to add mushrooms! These burgers are made with lean ground turkey, which means they are healthy, but it doesn’t help with keeping the burgers moist and juicy.
Mushrooms are the best way to guarantee juicy burgers. Not only that, but mushrooms are loaded with umami — a savory, meaty flavor. So by adding mushrooms to the burgers, we guarantee that they are juicy and that they taste amazing.
If you aren’t a mushroom lover, you should know that you won’t actually taste mushrooms. Instead you’ll find that the burgers take on a savory, meaty flavor.
The Ingredients
You only need a short list of ingredients to make turkey burgers. Let’s walk through what you need:
- Ground turkey is the base for these easy burgers. For the juiciest burgers, I prefer to use 93% ground turkey, which will have a combination of dark and breast meat, but I have made these burgers with leaner turkey with success.
- Mushrooms are the key to keeping our turkey burger moist and flavorful. Most varieties of mushrooms will work, but I usually use baby bella or cremini mushrooms.
- Garlic and ketchup add a little extra flavor to the burgers. I know it might seem odd to add ketchup, but it is loaded with lots of flavor — it’s sweet, vinegary and adds a bit of color. When I have it in the fridge, I love using this homemade ketchup.
- Fish sauce or Worcestershire sauce are what I like to call flavor enhancers. I use them a lot in our recipes. They add a savory pop of flavor.
The Steps For Making The Best Turkey Burgers
I love how simple the method for these burgers is. Here’s the step-by-step:
Step 1: Chop and cook the mushrooms. Here’s where most of your prep time comes in. We want the mushrooms to be chopped really small so they disappear into the ground turkey. I chop them by hand, but a food processor makes very quick work of them. When they are chopped, I cook them in a skillet with some olive oil, salt, and pepper. After 8 to 10 minutes the mushrooms will have released excess moisture and shrunk considerably.
Step 2: Add garlic, ketchup and a flavor enhancer to the mushrooms. Building even more flavor into the burger mixture, I add garlic, ketchup and either fish sauce or Worcestershire sauce.
Step 3: Combine the mushrooms and ground turkey. When the mushroom mixture has cooled off a bit, I gently mix it into the ground turkey meat.
Step 4: Form burger patties. Our turkey burger recipe makes four generous patties. I’ve even turned these into mini burgers.
Optional Step: Before forming patties, check the seasoning. To check the seasoning of the burger mixture, throw about a tablespoon of the mixture into a hot pan and cook through. Taste the mini patty then determine whether or not the burgers need a little more salt. If they do, form the patties then lightly sprinkle some salt on both sides before cooking.
How To Cook Them
To cook the burgers, I heat a little olive oil in a non-stick skillet over medium heat. When it is hot, I place the patties down into the pan and cook for four to five minutes on each side or until they are cooked through.
Serving Suggestions
We’ve enjoyed these so many different ways. My favorite is on top of an English muffin with lettuce, tomato, and avocado. They are also excellent without the bun and served with a salad — this tomato and mozzarella salad or this feta and cucumber salad are two of our favorites.
More Ground Turkey Recipes
- We set out to create the Best Turkey Meatloaf Recipe. Our turkey meatloaf is full of flavor, moist in the middle, and has become a reader favorite!
- How to make Tender Turkey Meatballs cooked in a quick and easy tomato basil sauce.
- This Easy Turkey Chili makes it to the table in just less than an hour and tastes fantastic. It’s healthy, too.
- This Easy Taco Soup makes use of pantry staples and you can cook it a variety of ways including on the stovetop, in a slow cooker, and in a pressure cooker.
Juicy Turkey Burgers
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These easy healthy turkey burgers have become one of our favorite things to make. Since it’s just the two us, we make a whole batch and save two burgers for later in the week. Lean ground turkey can be a bit bland. To combat this, we call on mushrooms! By stirring cooked chopped mushrooms into the burger mixture, we add lots of umami and flavor. The magic of the mushrooms doesn’t stop there. They also help keep the turkey burgers juicy and moist. If you are not a mushroom fan, don’t worry you don’t really taste them. Instead they make the burger taste more meaty.
Makes 4 (1/4 pound) burgers
Watch Us Make the Recipe
You Will Need
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
6 ounces mushrooms, trimmed and very finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
1 tablespoon fish sauce or Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons ketchup, see our homemade ketchup recipe
1 pound lean ground turkey, 93% lean preferred
Salt and fresh ground black pepper
Directions
1Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a wide skillet over medium-low heat. Stir in the mushrooms, a 1/4-teaspoon of salt, and a 1/4-teaspoon of pepper. Cook until the mushrooms give off their liquid and it boils away; about 10 minutes.
2Stir in the garlic and cook about 1 minute or until fragrant. Remove the skillet from the heat then stir in the fish sauce (or Worcestershire sauce) and the ketchup. Set aside until warm, not hot.
3Gently mix the mushroom and garlic mixture into the ground turkey. The mixture might be a bit sticky. To test the seasoning, heat a pan over medium heat and add a tablespoon of the burger mixture. Cook 1 to 2 minutes, flipping once, until thoroughly cooked through. Taste the mini patty. If it seems under seasoned, you can sprinkle a little salt on the turkey burger patties just before cooking them.
4Form the turkey mixture into four patties (or more for smaller burgers). Work quickly and with a light touch. If you feel they need it, season lightly on both sides.
5Heat 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil in a wide non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add the burgers then cook 4 to 5 minutes on each side or until an internal thermometer reads 165 degrees F when inserted into the middle of a patty. Transfer to a plate and let rest, lightly covered with foil, for 5 minutes. Serve.
Adam and Joanne’s Tips
- Mushrooms: Any kind of mushroom will work here. We usually add one or more of the following: white button, cremini or baby bella, shiitake and portobello mushrooms.
- Food processor: To quickly chop the mushrooms or to make them extra small, use a food processor.
- Serving: We love these turkey burgers served with salad or on top of an English muffin with sliced tomato, avocado and lettuce.
- Freezing the burgers for a make-ahead meal: You can freeze these uncooked and cooked. To freeze uncooked patties, prepare them as directed then individually wrap each patty. Freeze. To serve, thaw the burgers then cook as directed. To freeze cooked patties, prepare and cook them as directed then line up on a baking sheet. Slide the baking sheet into the freezer and freeze until partially frozen, about 30 minutes. Wrap them with plastic wrap (place a piece of wax paper if wrapping multiple patties together) then store in the freezer. To serve, reheat in the microwave or oven.
- Nutrition facts: The nutrition facts provided below are estimates. We have used the USDA database to calculate approximate values. In the calculations below we assumed 93% lean ground turkey and no bun.
If you make this recipe, snap a photo and hashtag it #inspiredtaste — We love to see your creations on Instagram and Facebook! Find us: @inspiredtaste
Nutrition Per Serving
Calories
227
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Protein
24 g
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Carbohydrate
4 g
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Dietary Fiber
0 g
/
Total Sugars
3 g
/
Total Fat
13 g
/
Saturated Fat
3.5 g
/
Cholesterol
65 mg