The best and easiest Sous Vide Hamburger recipe – extremely tender and juicy EVERY TIME! The sous vide method helps to cook burgers to the perfect doneness by controlling the temperature precisely. It’s a guaranteed success, so say good-bye to tough, dry, and crumbly burgers! 

Finish with a quick sear and serve with a side of Fruit Salsa or Corn on the Cob. 

This easy and foolproof recipe uses just a few simple ingredients. With sous vide cooking, you can nail the perfect texture every time and have deliciously memorable burgers this summer!

Why sous vide burgers are the BEST?

We all know that grilling hamburgers, especially thick ones, is much trickier than grilling a steak. With the traditional cooking methods, burgers are so easy to turn tough, falling apart, charred outside but somehow raw in the middle. 

Enter sous vide! It’s a water bath cooking method by using an immersion circulator to heat the water to a certain temperature. You can cook the vacuum-sealed food to a very precise temperature in the warm water bath. 

• This sous vide hamburger recipe produces the super juicy burger that’s impossible to achieve with traditional method. 
• It’s foolproof as you can set the temperature precisely, and you’ll never overcook or undercook your burgers again! Plus, your burger will be evenly cooked edge to edge. 
• Best of all, no more babysitting your grill while cooking. You can spend the time with your guests and let the sous vide machine do the work for you!

Select the right meat

Great hamburgers start with the right ground beef. It’s best to use an 80/20 mix (meaning 20% fat) which has more fat. The fat helps to make a juicier burger as well as adding more flavors.

If yours is a 90/10 mix, you can add a tablespoon of olive oil or some finely chopped bacon to the meat. 

How to make sous vide hamburger

This sous vide burger recipe is incredibly easy – just follow some simple steps below:

1. Form patties: Shape into 4 patties and chill them for at least 20 minutes before sous vide cooking. 
2. Season: Sprinkle both sides of the burger with salt and pepper.
3. Sous vide cook: Place seasoned patties into a zip-lock bag, and vacuum seal the bag using the water displacement technique (see recipe for details).
4. Sear: After sous vide cooking, your burgers are fully cooked. Let them rest briefly and season with more salt and pepper. Then you can quickly sear them on the grill or in a skillet to add some beautiful color. 

What temperature to sous vide burgers?

You may ask: do you have to cook it above 160°F as USDA says that’s the minimum temperature for cooked ground beef? Well, it depends. If you cook your burgers the traditional way, the answer is yes. But with sous vide cooking, we can set the temperature below that, and the meat is safe to eat. 

The USDA temp guide is for the traditional cooking methods, but pasteurization is based on both the temp and time at that temp. So your beef is safe to eat after the long cooking time in the warm water bath. 

My favorite temp to sous vide hamburger is 135°F (57°C). Note that the temperature will rise about 10°F during searing to 145°F. At this doneness, the burger is tender and juicy with a pale pink color. Below is the guidance for other doneness:

Sous Vide Temperature	Cooking Time	Doneness
123°F / 51°C	2 – 3 hours	Very rare to rare
129°F / 54°C	40 minutes – 3 hours	Medium-rare
135°F / 57°C	40 minutes – 3 hours	Medium
140°F / 60°C	40 minutes – 3 hours	Medium-well
150°F / 66°C	40 minutes – 3 hours	Well-done

Tips for the best sous vide hamburger:

• When forming the patties, don’t overcompress the meat. Make them slightly bigger than your buns as they will shrink a little bit during cooking. (Note that indentation is not necessary for sous vide cooking).
• Don’t use a vacuum-sealer. Usually it’s better to remove as much air as possible for sous vide cooking, but this recipe is an exception. A vacuum sealer sucks too much air out of the bag and will overcompress the meat, resulting a rather dense burger. So it’s best to use a regular zip-top bag, and vacuum seal using water displacement technique.
• The cheese: the classic cheese to use is cheddar, but American cheese also works great for this recipe. 
• The buns: Toast the buns so that they’re crisp on the outside and soft on the inside.
• Rest your burger before searing. Let them rest for about 10 minutes and pat dry the surface. This will help them to brown faster.

How to assemble a hamburger?

Hamburgers are the ultimate “build-your-own” meal, and here are some ideas for tasty toppings and sauce. 

• Sauce/condiment options: mayo, mustard, relish, sriracha or the mix of a few. 
• Standard toppings: lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickles.
• More topping options: caramelized onions, bell pepper, guacamole, and chili, etc.

I like to start assembling my hamburger while waiting for the patties to be cooked. Simply toast the buns and spread the sauce onto the bottom bun. Next comes lettuce, tomato and onions. When the patties are cooked, I sear them quickly on the grill and melt the cheese on top. Then I add them to the burger and finish with the top half of the bun. Then scarf it down!

Recipe Tools:

• Sous Vide Immersion Circulators
• Zip-loc Bags
• Tongs

More Sous Vide Recipes You’ll Love

• Sous Vide Skirt Steak
• Sous Vide Carrots
• Sous Vide Halibut