Gordon Ramsay’s BBQ burger is 450g of 85/15 chuck and brisket with 55g of frozen butter grated straight into the raw mix, seasoned with garlic powder, Maldon salt and pepper, then grilled thin and wide over high heat with the lid down. The patties get a butter baste, Swiss cheese, bacon, and an egg fried inside a portobello on the grill. Two burgers, about 30 minutes.
This is his Celebration Burger, the one he filmed in his backyard and published with the full recipe on YouTube. I’d made his pan burgers plenty of times, so when I saw him grate frozen butter straight into the raw mince, I stopped the video and started over. That frozen butter melts through the patty on the grill instead of just sitting on top, and it’s the reason this one tastes different from every other burger I’ve made at home.
His shape rule for the grill is the opposite of the BSK pan burger: thin and wide, because “the thicker the burger, the harder it is to get the temperature cooked perfectly inside.” A thin patty on a closed, cranked grill builds a crust on both sides while the frozen butter melts through the middle, which is why there’s no shrinkage and no dry edges.
Gordon Ramsay BBQ Burger Recipe (Celebration Burger)
Course: DinnerCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Medium2
15
minutes15
minutes1120
kcal30
minutesHis Celebration Burger made for the backyard grill: chuck and brisket with frozen butter grated into the mix, seasoned with garlic powder and Maldon salt, grilled thin with the lid down, topped with Swiss cheese, and served with bacon and an egg fried inside a portobello. The one he made to celebrate.
Ingredients
- For the burgers:
450g (1 lb) beef mince, 85% chuck and 15% brisket
55g (2 oz) frozen unsalted butter
1 tbsp garlic powder
1½ tbsp Maldon salt
1 tbsp freshly cracked black pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
Butter, for basting and toasting
2 slices Swiss cheese
- For the egg and mushroom:
2 large portobello mushroom caps, stem and gills removed
2 large eggs
Olive oil, salt and pepper
- For the bacon and build:
4 slices thick-cut applewood smoked bacon
1 cup rocket (arugula)
1 Roma tomato, sliced
2 brioche burger buns
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- For the sriracha mayo:
60g mayonnaise
2 tbsp sriracha
Pinch of salt
Directions
- Grate frozen butter into the mince: Blend the chuck and brisket in a bowl, then grate the frozen butter straight in and mix until the flecks are spread through. The butter melts from inside as the patty cooks, keeping it juicy without any extra fat on the outside.
- Season and shape thin: Add the garlic powder, salt and pepper, mix gently, then shape into two thin, wide patties. Thin is the grill rule here, because a thick patty dries out before the centre cooks.
- Oil, grill, lid down: Brush the patties with olive oil and place on the hottest part of a cranked grill. Close the lid straight away and leave them alone. Flip once after about 4 minutes, brush the cooked side with butter, and don’t keep flipping or they’ll break.
- Mushrooms and buns on the grill: Season the portobello caps inside with salt, pepper and olive oil, then grill them turned inside out alongside the burgers. Toast the halved buns on the grill with olive oil, salt and pepper, which stops them going soggy under the build.
- Crack an egg into each mushroom: Once the mushrooms are hot and shrunk slightly, crack an egg straight into each cap on the grill and season lightly. Close the lid to set the whites while keeping the yolk runny.
- Bacon, cheese, build: Grill the bacon until crispy, chop it roughly. Lay Swiss cheese on each patty to melt. Mix the sriracha mayo. Build on the toasted bun: mayo on both halves, rocket on the base to protect the bread, seasoned tomato, chopped bacon, patty, the egg-filled mushroom on top, more bacon, lid.
FAQs
Why grate frozen butter into the burger mix?
Because melted butter on top runs off, while frozen butter grated in stays trapped inside the mince as tiny solid flecks. As the patty hits the grill, those flecks melt from within and baste the meat from the inside out, which is why he says there’s “no shrinkage” in the finished burger.
It’s a technique borrowed from pastry, where cold fat cut into flour creates flaky layers. Same principle here: cold fat surrounded by protein, melting at the right moment. Use unsalted butter so you control the seasoning separately.
Why crack the egg inside the mushroom?
Because a fried egg slides off a burger the second you bite it, and this way the portobello holds it in place like a cup. The mushroom shrinks on the grill until it’s just the right size for an egg, and the whole thing lifts onto the patty as one piece.
He likes the yolk runny so it acts as a sauce when you cut through it, but if you’d rather it set, just keep the grill lid closed a little longer. The mushroom keeps cooking underneath.
How is this different from his pan burger?
His BSK pan burger uses three cuts and added fat, shaped thick, fried 5 minutes a side with Char Siu butter and cheese melted under the kitchen grill. This grill version runs a simpler two-cut blend with frozen butter inside, shaped thin and wide, cooked fast on high heat with the lid trapping smoke. Different tools, different patty, different build.
The seasoning approach stays the same across both: garlic powder, salt and pepper worked into the mix and again on the heat, because as he says, you can’t season a burger after it’s cooked. The full method lives on the seasoning page.
Do you need a BBQ sauce on this burger?
He doesn’t use one, and after making it I understand why. The butter inside, the butter baste on the outside, and the sriracha mayo already cover the richness and heat that a BBQ sauce would bring. Adding sauce on top of all that just muddies it.
If you do want his homemade sauce on the side for dipping chips or dunking the bacon, his smoky BBQ sauce with caramelised onions and cider vinegar picks up the smoke from the grill without fighting the butter.
What if you don’t have a barbecue?
A smoking-hot cast iron pan or griddle does the same job indoors, and his pan method for the BSK burger proves it: oil the patty, high heat, flip once. You lose the smoke and the lid trick, but the frozen butter still melts through regardless of the heat source.
The egg-in-mushroom works under an overhead grill instead: roast the mushroom, crack the egg in, flash under the grill until the whites set. The rest of the lineup lives in the burger recipes roundup.
