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Delicious Traeger smoked burgers (and smoked cheeseburgers!) are tender, juicy, and loaded up with smoky flavor. Make my easy DIY hamburger patties using ground beef – or use store bought ½ LB beef patties. Let’s smoke ‘em up!

Table of Contents

HEY THERE — Are you on instagram? I post quick, easy smoker recipes there @sipbitego.

What temp are smoked burgers done?

Perfect medium temperature smoked burgers are done at 145 degrees F, as seen in the Sip Bite Go demonstration. You can use the burger temperature chart above to cook burgers on the smoker to different levels of doneness.

Saturated fat is pretty comparable to 85/15 ground beef, but they’re just a little more juicy at an 80/20 ratio.

Smoked Burgers with cheese and buns on Traeger Grills

Why do you smoke burgers on low?

The reason: massive FLAVOR!!!!

It’s true that there are faster ways to smoke burgers – at 350, 400, 450, and even 500 degrees F – but I love smoking burgers at 225 degrees (or 250 if I’m “rushing it”) because they slowly pick up a TON of smoke flavor. And they come out with a beautiful deep, rich color.

Also see how to smoke bacon wrapped burgers stuffed with cheddar cheese – aka “Juicy Lucy’s… it’s a super tasty burger smoker recipe.

Traeger Smoked Cheeseburgers with pellet grill melted cheddar cheese

Ingredients

Here’s what you need to make from-scratch burgers smoked to perfection.

For basic smoked burgers from scratch

Ground beef (ideally 80/20 blend)
Salt and pepper
Burger buns
Cheddar cheese (or gouda, etc, to make a smoked cheeseburger)

Condiment ideas (optional)

Tomato
Pickles / relish
Lettuce
Onion
Ketchup
BBQ sauce

See how to get more smoke flavor from your favorite recipes…

Juicy ground beef smoked burger with condiments on a smoked hamburger bun

How to smoke burgers

Now I’ll walk you through it…

Infographic with recipe steps and captions for Traeger smoked hamburgers with cheese

Detailed recipe steps

Measure the beef patties. To make the patties, use a scale to measure 8 oz burger patties, or ½ LB burgers, that are about ½ inch thick. (If you don’t have a scale, you can eyeball dividing up each LB of burger meat in half.)
(optional) Season ground beef into burger patties for smoking. To a large bowl, add ground beef. You can choose to season the meat now with salt and pepper, or wait to add it on when you add the burgers to the grill. (we have tested and like both methods).
Shape burger patties (smoosh the meat together gently) so each one is about ½ inch thick. The goal is to create burger patties that are a bit wider than the diameter of the hamburger buns. Chill burger patties in the fridge for at least 15 minutes, or up to a few hours before smoking them.
Preheat Traeger Grills or Pitt Boss or whatever pellet grill you’re using to 225 degrees F. In the Sip Bite Go recipe video you’ll see we like using Hickory wood pellets for burgers because they provide phenomenal smoky flavor to the beef.
Smoke burgers. Remove burger patties from the fridge and season them with salt and pepper (if you haven’t already seasoned them). Then add them directly to the preheated smoker grill grates. Close the lid and smoke burger patties for 60 minutes. Optionally, you can flip the burgers at the 30 minute mark (but usually, I don’t).
(Optional) Toast buns and turn it into a smoked cheeseburger about 5-10 degrees prior to your ideal doneness temperature. So for medium smoked burgers, you’ll add the buns (inside facing down) directly onto the grill grates and add cheddar cheese on top of the still-smoking burgers when the temperature of the patties measure about 135 degrees F internally. From this point, you’ll smoke them another 15-20 minutes, with cheese on top, until the next step. Check the buns periodically and pull them off when they look toasted.
Continue smoking burgers until done. They’re ready when the internal temperature reaches your desired level. Our burgers in the photos measured 145 degrees F for medium burgers. Transfer to a platter.
Finish smoked burgers with your favorite condiments and enjoy.

Medium Temperature Traeger Smoked Burger

Smoked burgers temperature chart

Can you smoke hamburgers to any desired temp you’d like? Sure can!

We smoked these burger patties to a perfect 145 degrees F. The cheese was added to the burgers on the Traeger when they were about 140 degrees, so the cheddar picked up a yummy smoke flavor as well.