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.