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Yes, I Make Cheeseburgers in the Air Fryer (and They're Delicious)

If you lack outdoor cooking space or the weather isn't cooperating, air fryer cheeseburgers are just as tasty.

Headshot of Pamela Vachon
Headshot of Pamela Vachon
Pamela Vachon Contributor
Pamela is a freelance food and travel writer based in Astoria, Queens. While she writes about most things edible and potable (and accessories dedicated to those topics,) her real areas of expertise are cheese, chocolate, cooking and wine. She's a culinary school grad, certified sommelier, former bartender and fine dining captain with 10 years in the industry. When not sitting at the keys, she leads in-home cheese classes, wine tastings and cocktail demonstrations.
Expertise Wine | Cheese | Chocolate | Cooking
Pamela Vachon
4 min read
a tempting double patty cheeseburger sits next to an air fryer

Air fryer cheeseburgers are easier and cleaner to make.

 Pamela Vachon/CNET

I know that there's nothing quite like the sizzle of fatty beef over an open flame, but when that craving hits and there's no grill to be found or it's not grilling season just yet, you've got to find another way.

I recently turned to the air fryer to try my hand at cheeseburgers. I was skeptical that the powerful countertop oven would deliver that perfect medium-rare magic like a grill or cast-iron pan does. As it turns out, I was wrong.

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After air-frying a burger -- bacon, bun and all -- I am happy to report that bacon cheeseburgers made in an apartment-friendly air fryer come out equally juicy. As a bonus, you can toast your bun in the air fryer, melt cheese on top of the patty and sizzle bacon to finish things off. 

Here's how you can make your own bacon cheeseburger in an air fryer.

How to make a cheeseburger in your air fryer

bacon and burger loaded into air fryer basket

Even a small air fryer can handle a full-sized burger patty and a few slices of bacon at once.

 Pamela Vachon/CNET

I consulted a variety of sources for timings and temperatures, but the process is about what you'd expect and similar to what you'd experience when cooking a burger any way: flipping the patty about halfway through for even results, with different timings depending on the size of your desired doneness. 

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The air fryer works by circulating hot air in its contained chamber, so as a matter of interest, your air fryer burger will cook opposite to what you'd see on a sauté pan, with the exposed side of the burger cooking more quickly and becoming browner than the underside of the patty. 

I tried two approaches, both with a quarter pound of lean ground beef, seasoned simply with salt and pepper. 

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Air fryer cheeseburger recipe

  1. Shape a single patty of beef about three-quarters of an inch in thickness.
  2. Place in a greased air fryer basket and cook at 370 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes, flipping halfway. 
  3. With about 2 minutes to go, add cheese to the top of the burger patty, then place the bun in the air fryer basket to toast.
  4. Remove all ingredients and build a burger on a bun with the toppings of your choice.
  5. Serve.

I also tried the same amount of meat, shaped into two thin, smash-style patties, for a total cooking time of about 6 minutes. (Double your cheeseburger, double your fun.)

single patty cooked finished

Making a great burger in an air fryer takes almost no skill and requires very little cleanup afterward.

 Pamela Vachon/CNET

Air fryers require very little cleanup

Well, that was easy. In both cases, the patties cooked evenly, resulting in medium doneness. (You can easily experiment with your model and ideal burger patty size to find the precise timings for your preferred degree of doneness.) The hot air circulation even produced a bit of caramelized crust on one side. Because I could, even with a small, single-household air fryer, I put in a couple of strips of bacon with the single burger patty, since crispy, spatter-free bacon is another excellent use for an air fryer -- not to mention an exceptional burger topping.

a burger cooked to medium cut in half

You can cook a burger to that perfect medium or medium rare with an air fryer.

 Pamela Vachon/CNET

Speaking of spatter-free, this is the single most compelling reason to employ the air fryer for burger prep. Your clothing, skin and stovetop all avoid the sizzling oil droplets that -- safely contained within the air fryer drawer -- like to escape the pan during regular skillet cooking. The smoky, greasy, meaty aroma, which is otherwise appealing at a burger dive, but not so much in a studio apartment, is also minimized. Cleanup was limited only to the nonstick, air fryer drawer.

Read more: I Found the Secret to Perfectly Crispy Bacon Every Time

There are some drawbacks to air fryer burgers

burger in air fryer with a yellow piece of cheese on top

Although there are drawbacks, air fryer cheeseburgers are nothing to scoff at. 

 Pamela Vachon/CNET

The air fryer is good, but it isn't perfect for burgers. 

First, since you can't really access the patty while it cooks, you're unable to smash it down in such a way that it doesn't shrink up significantly while cooking. Since an English muffin is the best burger containment method -- I will not be considering opposing viewpoints at this time -- this didn't bother me, since the resulting patty fits the intended vessel perfectly. Expect shrinkage when considering the size of your patty before cooking.

Second, if you're like me and believe that a burger without cheese isn't worth eating, things get a little more complicated. Because of the air fryer's air circulation, it's difficult, though not impossible, to anchor cheese on top for a quick melt at the end of the process. 

My first attempt with a sliced single flew off and unhelpfully adhered to the surface of the air fryer drawer. My second attempt, where a slice was halved and layered for extra heft, was more successful, especially when I moved the patties to the back edge of the fryer basket, which gets less aggressive air circulation. 

This may just be a quirk of my model, but I'd be prepared to experiment. I wouldn't even consider shredded cheese on top of a patty, but I'd consider a cheese-stuffed burger, which should work nicely.