Make These 20 Easy Hamburger Recipes Because, Let’s Face It, 90% of the Time What You Really Want Is a Burger

Sink your teeth into a delicious restaurant-style, hamburger recipe made from lean beef. Skip the prepackaged patties and take the extra time to craft up your own, and that little extra effort will be worth it.

This is Oakland-based Chef Matt Horn’s signature burger. Two key ingredients are sweet, savory caramelized onions, and the right cheese. Horn uses Clover Sonoma Monterey Jack.

Use dry-aged beef for a deeply flavorful patty, then add unctuous bacon jam for a truly decadent burger experience.

These are only quarter-pounders, but they look heftier because the meat is mixed with ground dried cherries (a powerful antioxidant) and a little bulgur. The seasonings and cheese take the cherries in a savory direction, keeping the burgers from being too sweet.

For these extremely flavorful, deluxe burgers, Noah von Blöm, chef at Arc restaurant in Costa Mesa, California, mixes ground rib-eye with boneless short ribs and bacon. Then he sizzles the patties in a cast-iron skillet set in the coals of a wood fire. At the restaurant, each one weighs a full pound. “People get up from their tables to take pictures,” he says. (Our version is a still-mighty half-pound.) Although you can build a wood fire as von Blöm does, for this grill-friendly version, he suggests charcoal briquets and fruit wood chunks.

You’ll have plenty of the spicy, tangy sauce left over. Have it with grilled chicken or ribs.

Reader Tara Kulikov, of San Luis Obispo, California, gave us this recipe for a twist on summer burgers. Her addition of shredded zucchini makes them the juiciest turkey burgers we’ve tried.

Cheeseburgers get a makeover with ground chicken and gourmet toppings. They’re even better served with a cold beer.

Poultry burgers have a reputation for being dry and bland, but jazzed up with sharp cheddar, parmesan, and garlic—and then topped with crisp bacon, juicy tomatoes, and lettuce—they’re boldness in a bun.

These juicy burgers are a nice alternative to hamburgers. Roasted piquillo peppers add a sweet, clean taste to the burgers, but you can use regular roasted red peppers instead. If you’re serving the burgers with the deep-fried french fries, undercook the burgers slightly and keep them warm in a low oven while you cook the fries for the second time.

For an earthier, sweeter taste, whip up some bison burgers.

To add Mediterranean flavor to your burgers, stir feta cheese, oregano, rosemary, and lemon zest into ground lamb or beef, then spread a kalamata olive paste onto the buns.

Scared to try a veggie burger? This one will make you a believer. Packed with lentils and healthy veggies, we promise you will never even miss the meat.

Pile up your favorite veggie burger patties with lots of vegetables, homemade hummus and slaw, and tuck the works into lettuce “buns.” Use extra hummus as a dip for vegetables or as a sandwich spread.

These burgers get a distinctive tang from giardiniera, an Italian mix of pickled vegetables. If you can’t find it at the store, chop up olives and pickles instead.

You can omit the relish in this recipe and use store-bought kimchi instead.

Sweet barbecue sauce and zingy pineapple are a natural combo, and the English muffin “buns” are just the right size for the burgers.

Chiles spice up these burgers three ways: grilled, in the pepper jack cheese, and in the chipotle mayo. If you have access to fresh Hatch chiles from New Mexico, which are meaty and full-flavored, by all means use them, but feel free to substitute readily available Anaheims or use canned chiles.

Seafood bounty meets the Northwest’s growing artisanal pickle trend and a fresh herb salad in these burgers. You can find ready-made crabcakes at the deli section in most grocery stores and sometimes in the freezer case, or make your own. Salmon cakes also work well here.

Grilled sweet and salty Spam and pineapple and Maui onion make these pork burgers a standout. If you can’t find Hawaiian sandwich rolls, cut thick slices of Hawaiian sweet bread from a loaf. Serve with classic macaroni salad and any drink with an umbrella.