Air Fryer Ground Chicken Burgers

Learn how to make delicious chicken burgers in your air fryer. It starts with knowing the best ground chicken to buy and what you need to keep these burgers juicy and delicious.

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I love burgers in all formats. Beef is the first thing most of us think of, but I love making burgers with all sorts of different ground meats. When I managed to get a hold of some quality ground chicken you know I had burger making on my mind. In this post, I am going to share with you my favorite ground chicken burger recipe and what I add to it to make it incredible.

Jump to:

• 🍔 Why Burgers?
• 🛒 Ingredients
• 🛒Order Ground Chicken
• 📋 Instructions
• 🌡️ How to Tell When Done?
• 🥪 Best Toppings
• 🍲 More Food to Make
• Air Fryer Ground Chicken Burgers

🍔 Why Burgers?

The question should be why not burgers! Turkey burgers may be more common than chicken, but I think when you season the chicken well and you choose quality ground chicken they can be outrageously good!

🛒 Ingredients

Here is what you will need to make my ground chicken burgers. My recipe doesn't call for any eggs or breadcrumbs. 1 recipe will make 3-⅓ lb burgers. You can make smaller 4-¼ lb burgers if you like as well. I think the ⅓ lb burgers fit most burger buns better.

• 1 lb ground chicken
• cooking spray oil
• ½ tsp paprika
• ¼ tsp sun dried tomato powder (optional)
• ½ tsp garlic powder
• ½ tsp onion powder
• 1./2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• kosher salt to taste

That ground chicken burgers are only going to be as good as the chicken you use. What's my favorite? I love the ground chicken I got from online butcher, Porter Road. Their ground chicken uses a combination of white and dark meat. It contains enough fat to keep the chicken from drying out as long as you don't overcook it.

One of my secret ingredients for these burgers is sun-dried tomato powder. This will add umami flavor to the burgers. They won't taste strongly tomatoey. It's an optional ingredient but one that will make your burgers better.

📋 Instructions

Place the ground chicken into a mixing bowl. Pick the largest and widest one that you have. Add your salt and seasonings on top. Mix to just combine. Don't overwork the meat. It's best to just work with your hands and wash them right when you are done.

From the seasoned ground chicken into patties with your hands getting them as thin as you are able to without breaking them. Spray a thin layer of oil on each side of the patties to help with browning.

The patties don't need to be perfectly round. In fact I like the less polished, rustic appearance. You even sometimes get some crusty spots around the edge that are the best.

Preheat your air fryer to 390 degrees for a few minutes. Then add the patties to the air fryer basket. Make sure they don't touch. If they do then you will need to work in batches.

I cook them for 5 minutes and then flip them and do about another 5 minutes. How do I know if they are done for sure?

🌡️ How to Tell When Done?

Temperature not time is the best way to know when a burger is done. I love taking the guess work out by using an instant read thermometer. For those on a tight budget that want an accurate thermometer that will get the job then, I recommend the ThermoPop from ThermoWorks.

You want to insert the probe into the thickest part of the burger. The temperature should be 165 degrees. When you hit that temperature your burger is done and ready to have the toppings added and the bun! When you perfectly cook a burger to temp, you will be amazed at how juicy it is and won't ever go back to not using one. I can't imagine life without mine anymore.

🎧 Listen to our podcast episode on - Why Thermometers Will Save You Money.

🥪 Best Toppings

The most common items you find on any burger is cheese, tomato, pickles, and lettuce. American cheese, a big beefsteak tomato, grocery store pickles, and iceberg are the options a lot of use choose but I think we can do better. Here are some ideas to up your burger game.

🧀 Cheese - You don't need to buy sliced cheese at the store. You can pick out whatever cheese you like that melts. Then using a box grater, shred the cheese yourself and put that on the burger. It's easier to melt shredded cheese.

🍅 Tomato - Heirloom tomatoes have more flavor than your run out of the mill giant beefsteak tomatoes at the grocery store. The brown Kumato tomatoes are a good choice as well. They are a little smaller, but you can slice up one and put a couple slices on your burger.

🥒 Pickles - Often times I will do a quick homemade pickle, where I mix together mini cumbers, vinegar, sesame seeds, chopped fresh dill, and a few splashes of soy sauce. Do this a couple hours before you cook the eat burgers and you will have a fresher tasty pickle.

🥬 Lettuce - Red leaf, green leaf, and romaine I believe are better than iceberg. What I really like to do is buy microgreens and sprouts to put on top of my burgers. I think they have more flavor to them.

🍲 More Food to Make

Looking for more uses for ground chicken in your air fryer? Get inspired and check out our post on Ground Chicken Air Fryer recipes.

Want to cook your burgers faster? Try our Electric Griddle Burger cooking method. We also have a recipe I call Ramped Up Turkey Burgers that use my favorite spring time ingredients - wild ramps!