This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
These ground chicken burgers are juicy and flavorful. Made from ground chicken, and they are just as good – if not better – than the beef burgers you’re probably used to.
Chicken Burgers
Chicken burgers are packed with flavor and can even be a little healthier than your typical beef burger. Here, we’ll be making a mouth-watering ground chicken burger. It’s easy to make, a perfect addition to any cookout or weeknight dinner. Plus, with a texture and flavor much lighter than that of ground beef, it’ll be the ideal light meal for those hot summer nights.
You can even customize the burger filling yourself, adding sauces and veggies if you want. Avocado is a classic accompaniment to chicken, for example.
Tips For Making the Perfect Chicken Burger
- When preparing the patties, be sure to press down in the center of the patty with your thumb. This helps the burger to cook evenly, retain its shape, and avoid shrinking and drying out as it cooks.
- When mixing together the patties, use your hands. This might get messy, and you’ll need to wash them in hot soapy water straight afterward, but this is by far the best way to do it. The ingredients will combine smoothly and maintain the consistency you want from a burger. If you’re really worried about keeping your hands clean, try wearing some thin plastic or latex gloves and throwing them out when you’re done.
- Do not over-mix the burger mix. Once it’s evenly combined you can stop kneading the ground chicken. Over-mixing will take the chicken burger from tender and juicy to chewy and dry.
- No matter how many times you’ve seen it on TV, do NOT flatten the burger on the grill with a spatula. That satisfying sizzling sound you hear when you do this is the juices from the patty escaping onto the hot surface and evaporating. The juice is where all the moisture and flavor from the burger lives, and you can hear all the goodness disappearing when you flatten them. Simply flipping the burger without pressing down is more than enough to get this right.
Ingredient Notes
We recommend ground chicken breast for this recipe, but you can use chicken thigh if you want. Thigh is higher in fat content than breast, but this can actually add to the flavor of your patties. You could even experiment with a mixture of thigh and breast to see if you can get the optimal balance between lean and non-lean meat, just like some cooks do with their beef burgers.
How to Make Ground Chicken Burgers
- Place onion, garlic and parsley in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped, scraping down the sides if needed.
- Add all your patty mix ingredients (so that’s the whole list above minus the buns and lettuce, tomato, and onions) in a medium to large mixing bowl. Mix them together with your hands, taking care not to overdo it and toughen up the mix. You’re looking for even distribution of the ingredients and an evenly textured patty mix.
- Form the mixture into patties. It should make eight evenly sized patties. Try and match the width of your patties to that of the burger buns, or alternatively go about half an inch wider. They will lose some mass during the cooking process, and this ensures a perfectly proportioned burger-to-patty ratio.
- Cook your burgers on a preheated grill. Flip them halfway to guarantee an evenly cooked ground chicken patty. The patties will be cooked when they are golden brown and cooked all the way through, or alternatively you could use a meat thermometer to check for doneness.
- Once these patties are cooked, you’ll be ready to assemble your burgers! Get your buns out, ready the lettuce, tomato, and onions, yellow mustard, ketchup and build a burger just the way you like it.
Chicken Burger FAQs
You can make your burger mix a day before cooking if you like. You’ll want to keep it in an airtight container (or covered, at the very least) in the fridge. Longer than a day and the mixture will start to spoil. You should also make sure you allow the mix to reach room temperature before you shape and cook the patties to ensure the patties are evenly and thoroughly cooked.
Absolutely yes! You can keep chicken patties in your freezer for anywhere up to three months. To do this, stack your patties between wax or parchment paper. Place the stack in a freezer-safe container, and then put that in the freezer. You could also try freezing your patties on a baking sheet and putting that together in a ziplock bag.
When reheating frozen chicken patties, thaw them in the fridge the night before you want to cook them. You can then reheat in the oven or on your stovetop. It’s your choice!
You are definitely welcome to cook chicken burgers in the oven. Grilling gets you that delicious, crispy sear we all love in a burger, but oven cooking is fine too. All you need to do is place your burgers on a baking sheet, preheat an oven to 400 F, and put your patties in there for about twenty minutes. If you want, you could try searing the burgers on a pan before placing them in the oven to lock in the moisture and get that classic seared burger flavor.
More Burger Recipes
- Lamb Burger
- Copycat Popeyes Chicken Sandwich
- Travis Scott Burger ( McDonald’s Quarter Pounder)
- Salmon burgers
Pin this now to find it later
Pin It
Ground Chicken Burgers
Ingredients
- 2 pounds 1 kg ground chicken breast
- 1 medium onion, minced
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 3/4 cup Italian breadcrumbs
- 1 tablespoon yellow mustard
- 3/4 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1/2 teaspoon Cajun seasoning
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
For Serving
- Hamburger buns
- Lettuce
- Tomato
- Onion
- Yellow mustard
- Ketchup
Instructions
- Add the onion, garlic and parsley to your food processor, pulse until finely minced, scraping down the sides if needed. Transfer to a large bowl.
- Add the ground chicken, Italian breadcrumbs, paprika, mustard, Italian seasoning, Cajun seasoning, salt and pepper. Using your hands, mix everything just until combined. Don’t overmix!
- Preheat your grill to medium-high heat and oil it.
- Shape the mixture into 8 patties. Press down in the middle of each patty with your thumb. This ensures even cooking.
- Cook on the preheated grill for 10 minutes ( about 5 minutes per side) or until the internal temperature reaches 165°F (74°C).
- Assemble the chicken burger with hamburger buns, yellow mustard, ketchup and your favorite toppings.
- Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
All rights reserved. CHEF JAR. All images and content are copyright protected. PLEASE do not use my images without my permission. If you want to share this recipe, PLEASE provide a link back to this post.
These burgers are delicious! Will definitely make again!
Thanks so much, Shay! I’m so happy you loved the burgers. And thanks for sharing your feedback! 😊