Recipes and Cooking How to Cook Cooking with Meat & Poultry How to Make the Juiciest Burgers What lean-to-fat ratio in ground beef will result in the juiciest, best-tasting burgers? Our Test Kitchen experts share their tips and recipes for moist, juicy burgers. Plus, learn how to make a copycat restaurant-style smashed burger. By Sheena Chihak, RD Sheena Chihak, RD Instagram Sheena Chihak is a registered dietitian, former food editor and current edit lead for BHG with over 15 years of writing and editing experience for both print and digital. Learn about BHG's Editorial Process Updated on August 3, 2022 Share Tweet Pin Email To make the juiciest, most flavorful burgers, choose ground beef that is 70 percent lean and 30 percent fat. To make more healthful burgers—but ones that are still pretty juicy and tasty—choose ground beef that is 80 percent lean and 20 percent fat. Ground beef that contains less than 15 percent fat makes dry and somewhat tasteless burgers. To see what the lean-to-fat ratio is on ground beef packages, look on the label. The ratio will usually appear in slashed numbers, with the lean content before the slash and the fat content after the slash—such as 70/30, 80/20, and so on. Our Best Burger Recipes Once you know the secrets to making the juiciest burgers, try our best burger recipes. Crowd-Pleasing Burger Recipes Beef Burger Recipes Best Alternatives to Beef Burgers Make a Smashed Burger Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit