What To Do With All Those Leftover Burgers

So, July 4’s been and gone – and there are leftovers to deal with. Well, maybe: You might have escaped a fridge full of food this year, and if you did, more power to you. If, however, you treated the weekend as an opportunity to double down on the hospitality, there’s a high probability that you have a bunch of grub you now have to find a way to use – and a stack of cooked beef patties taking up space in your kitchen. 

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Do you have to eat burgers for the next week, though? No, you don’t. Here are some of our favorite ways to use cooked burger patties (and you can still do these if you haven’t cooked them, too). 

Loco Moco

Hamburger patties are one of the main components of loco moco, and the Hawaiian comfort staple can be rustled up in no time with a few extra ingredients. Make a simple gravy with beef stock, shoyu, Worcestershire sauce, cornstarch, and ketchup, and then mix in some cooked sweet onions and mushrooms. Heat your patty, place it on top of some cooked rice, add the gravy, and top with a fried egg. Heaven. 

Pot Pie

Cooked burger meat can be treated like regular ground beef (once you chop it up, of course), and as such, it works perfectly as the protein component in a pot pie. Mix it into a gravy with some chopped vegetables and peas, and then ladle it into a pie dish, crowning it with some pastry. If pot pie isn’t your thing, you can use it in any other pie or casserole of your choosing. 

Chili

If leftover burger patties are good enough for Wendy’s to use in its chili, then they’re good enough for you. As with a pot pie filling or casserole, you simply have to crumble up your old burgers into a pot with the rest of your chili ingredients, and simmer until your veggies and beans are tender. The burgers will stay moist thanks to the sauce. Serve it with some rice and a side of leftover coleslaw, and you’re good to go. 

Hamburger Stroganoff

Lightning-quick stroganoff is yours in no time with leftover burger patties. Sauté onions and mushrooms until browned, then add in your crumbled hamburger meat, flour, beef broth, Worcestershire sauce, and sour cream. If you want to make things even speedier, you can sub out the flour and beef broth for cream of mushroom soup. Serve with buttered egg noodles.