Grant Crilly is the Executive Director and cofounder of ChefSteps. Grant is a classically trained chef and, prior to ChefSteps, he worked on the award-winning cookbook series Modernist Cuisine and cooked at various restaurants, including L’Astrance in Paris, Busaba in Mumbai, and Mistral Kitchen in Seattle.

Grant Crilly

Turkey burgers? Turkey burgers!I don’t know why people love turkey burgers, but they do. Maybe you do! I’m going to show you how to make a better one.All the ground turkey you can find in stores is super lean; the fattiest I could find was 93% lean. So any turkey burger is going to need some help if you want it to be juicy and nicely textured.My solution is to mix the turkey meat up with 0.5% of its weight in salt, as well as an egg yolk for every pound of meat. The salt lightly cures the proteins, giving them a snappier texture, and improves their water-binding capacity, which means they’ll hold onto water better as they cook. The egg yolk adds some much needed fat and helps to bind the meat together. Combined, the salt and egg yolk help make a turkey burger patty that’s snappy, nicely textured, and really, really juicy.Once you’ve formed the patties, you can take them straight out to the grill, but I recommend letting them sit in the fridge for a little bit—anywhere from an hour to overnight—so the salt has a chance to work on the proteins. The longer they sit, the snappier and better their texture will be.Since turkey meat is so lean, it will want to stick to the grates of the grill. It will also be prone to overcooking, and it will overcook quickly. There are two things you can do to set yourself up for success: Give the burger patties a quick pre-sear in a pan before setting them on the grill, and use a <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/two-zone-grilling-guide">two-zone grill setup</a>.The pre-sear sets the proteins on the exterior of the patty, after which they’ll slide around easily on the grill grates. That lets you char them in the hot zone of the grill. Once they’ve got a nice char, you can move them over to the cold zone to gradually cook through, which gives you time to carefully monitor their internal temperatures so they don’t overcook.While the burgers finish cooking, warm your buns using the two zones—toast them in the hot zone, refresh and warm them in the cold zone—then start building your burgers. I go with a bacon, lettuce, avocado, tomato and a little mayo for toppings and condiments—the bacon gets crisped on the grill, too. It’s a turkey burger that even turkey burger skeptics would love.

Perfect Grilled Turkey Burgers