Not much beats In-N-Out when it comes to fast food burgers. Unfortunately, if you don’t live in one of a few states where they have one, you’re out of luck. The good news is you can recreate the flavor with this In-N-Out burger recipe in your own kitchen.
If you’re not familiar with In-N-Out, it’s a fast-food burger joint that started on the West Coast. It’s been around a long time (1948) but has stayed small because they never allowed franchises to keep control of the quality. Just like when McDonalds started, In-N-Out focuses on only serving great burgers (and also soda, fries & shakes).
In-N-Out only offers a few varieties of their burger: hamburger, cheeseburger, and double-double (2 patties and 2 slices of cheese). There are a few “secret menu” variations that you can order including increasing the patty count (3×3 or 4×4), protein style (wrapped with lettuce instead of a bun), or Animal Style. For our In-N-Out burger recipe, we’ll build a double-double animal style.
An Animal Style burger is slightly different from the standard burger because it has grilled onions, pickles, and extra special sauce. It’s also cooked with some yellow mustard.
In-N-Out Burger Sauce Recipe
In-N-Out has their own burger sauce that is unique to the chain. You can pretty closely replicate it by combing 2 parts mayo, 1 part ketchup and some sweet relish. The sauce really enhances the burger to make this guy taste authentic.
Building the In-N-Out Burger Recipe
The rest of the burger is pretty simple. Just high quality ingredients. One trick for the animal style burger is to top your burger with some yellow mustard before flipping it. This cooks some extra flavor into the meat.
The standard burger has regular onions on it, but the animal style has them diced and grilled. It’s up to you what you’d prefer. Finally, the bottom of the burger has 4 pickle chips added.
If you’ve got a chance to try out an In-N-Out go for it, they’re great! But if not, give this In-N-Out burger recipe a try to see why it’s so good!
In-N-Out Burger
Ingredients
- 1 Lb Ground Beef 80% lean / 20% fat
- 1 Onion diced
- 1 Tomato
- Yellow Mustard
- 4 Slices American Cheese
- Lettuce
- Pickles Hamburger Chips / Slices
- 2 Hamburger Buns
- Vegetable Oil
Sauce
- 1 Tbsp Ketchup
- 1 Tbsp Mayo
- 2 Tsp Sweet Relish
Instructions
- Make sauce by combining ketchup, mayo & relish. Set aside.
- Dice onion & slice tomato. Prep lettuce.
- Flatten meat into patties that are about 1/2 inch larger than the buns. Optionally flavor with salt & pepper.
- If you'd like grilled onions. Put in a pan over med-low heat with 1 tsp of oil. Stir often until browned. If oil dries out add 1 tbsp of water to prevent burning. Once done set aside.
- Optionally, toast the hamburger buns face down in the onion pan.
- Add a tablespoon of oil to cast-iron pan. Place on stove on med-high heat until hot (just beginning to smoke). You may want to turn on a vent fan. (You can grill these as well for a slightly different flavor)
- Add meat to pan & cook for about 1.5 min. Add mustard to the top of the burger and then flip.
- Place a piece of cheese on top of each patty & finish cooking for about 30 secs to 1 min for medium.
- Place sauce on bottom bun, then pickles, tomato & lettuce. Then add a burger, some onions, the second burger and some more onions. Enjoy!
3 Comments
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[…] west coast favorite- In and Out Burger! The Burger Artist teaches us how to make a copycat In and Out Burger, complete with special sauce,that will have you […]
Village Bakery
Great recipe, Kyle. Made these last night and they were great
8 Copycat Burger Recipes to Make at Home – Looks Like Happy
[…] west coast favorite- In and Out Burger! The Burger Artist teaches us how to make a copycat In and Out Burger, complete with special sauce, that will […]