Five Guys
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How to Make Five Guys Burger at Home
Two Thin Patties, a Squishy Bun, and as Many Toppings as You Like
The burger that costs twelve pounds, for about one pound thirty.
AI-generated illustration created for food.fast. It is not photographic evidence of a prepared batch.
Five Guys' proposition is simple: two patties as standard, fifteen free toppings, and a price that makes people wince. Structurally it is a very good smashburger with a generous salad bar, and it is the single biggest absolute saving on this site - a little bacon cheeseburger with fries in London is close to fifteen pounds.
There are two technical points and both are about restraint. The meat is not seasoned before cooking - salt and pepper go on after the smash, on the surface, exactly as with a Big Mac patty. And nothing is mixed into the mince at all.
The third point is the wrap. Five Guys wraps its burgers in foil and lets them sit for a minute, which steams the bun soft and melts the cheese through. It is a small thing and it changes the sandwich.
How this page shows its working
The method gives quantities, timings and observable cues rather than asking you to guess. The 4 cases in If it goes wrong explain likely causes and corrective action.
See the recipe verification standard · See how the cost is calculated
The foil wrap, which is not just packaging
A burger wrapped in foil for sixty to ninety seconds is a different object from one served straight onto a plate.
The steam coming off the patty has nowhere to go, so it soaks back into the bun. The bun goes from toasted and firm to soft and slightly damp - which sounds like a fault and is exactly the texture a Five Guys burger has. The cheese, trapped in a small hot space, finishes melting and welds the layers together.
It also compresses the burger slightly under its own weight, which makes a tall double patty burger actually possible to bite.
Wrap it, leave it for a minute, then unwrap and eat. Longer than about two minutes and the bun goes past soft into soggy.
The toppings, which are the point and are free
Fifteen toppings at no extra charge is the chain's actual proposition, and at home the equivalent is putting everything on the table and letting people build.
The standard list:
Raw: lettuce, tomato, raw onion, green pepper, jalapeños. Cooked: grilled onions, grilled mushrooms. Pickled: pickles. Sauces: mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, barbecue sauce, hot sauce, A1.
The two that matter most and that home versions usually skip are grilled onions and grilled mushrooms - both of which take eight minutes in a pan and add more than any sauce does. Onions cooked slowly until genuinely brown, not merely softened.
The build order that survives being wrapped in foil: sauce on the bottom bun, lettuce, tomato, patties with cheese, cooked toppings, pickles, sauce on the top bun. Wet things low, hot things high.
How to make it, step by step
Before the burgers
-
Grill the onions and mushrooms first
A tablespoon of oil, sliced onions on a medium heat for eight minutes until genuinely brown, then the mushrooms for another five. Season at the end. Keep them warm.
TipBrown, not merely soft. Softened onions taste of onion; browned onions taste of something else entirely.About 14 min -
Bacon, if using, until properly crisp
In the same pan or the oven at 200 °C for 12 minutes on a rack. Limp bacon in a burger is worse than no bacon.
About 12 min -
Toast the bun faces dry
Thirty seconds cut side down. They will soften again in the foil, and the toasting is what stops them dissolving.
About 3 min
The patties
-
Eight loose 80 g balls, no seasoning yet
Rolled just enough to hold together. Nothing mixed in.
About 4 min -
Smash within ten seconds on a very hot pan
Two or three at a time. Press hard and flat immediately, then leave them for ninety seconds while the crust forms.
About 4 min -
Season the top, flip once, cheese on
Salt and pepper the upward face. When the edges are brown and lacy, scrape under and flip. A slice of cheese on each, thirty seconds more.
About 4 min
Build and wrap
-
Build, then wrap in foil for one minute
Mayonnaise on the bottom bun, lettuce, tomato, two patties with cheese, bacon, grilled onions and mushrooms, pickles, top bun. Wrap tightly in foil.
About 3 min -
Unwrap and eat straight away
One minute, not three. The bun should be soft and warm, not wet.
About 1 min
Scaling this for a table, which is what it is for
This is a burger designed for people to build themselves, which makes it the easiest thing here to cook for a crowd.
Do everything except the patties in advance: onions and mushrooms in a covered dish, bacon on a tray in a low oven, all the raw toppings in bowls on the table, sauces out.
Then cook patties in batches of three and keep them stacked with cheese between layers of foil in a warm oven. At 4X - thirty-two patties - allow about twenty-five minutes of solid cooking, and cook while people are eating rather than trying to have everything ready at once.
The toppings scale without any thought at all, which is the point. Double the mushrooms and the grilled onions specifically - they are what people go back for.
What four double burgers cost against buying four
| Component | Amount | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Beef mince, 20% fat | 640 g | £3.84 |
| Buns | 4 | £0.60 |
| Cheese slices | 8 | £0.88 |
| Toppings and sauces | - | £1.08 |
| Four double burgers at home | £5.40 | |
| Four bacon cheeseburgers, UK counter price | £35.96 |
Ways to change it once you have made it once
Little burger
One patty instead of two. Better balanced, honestly, and what most people should order.
Patty melt
Two patties and grilled onions between two slices of buttered bread, griddled. Not on the menu and very good.
Mushroom only
A thick portobello mushroom, grilled with a little soy and garlic, in place of the patties. The topping bar carries it.
What went wrong, and how to fix it
Each entry names a likely cause as well as a correction, so the advice remains useful when equipment, ingredients or batch size differ.
The patties are dense and springy
- Why it happened
- The mince was compacted, or something was mixed into it.
- What to do
- Loose balls, nothing added, seasoned after the smash.
No crust
- Why it happened
- Pan not hot enough, or the patty was moved too early.
- What to do
- Five minutes of preheat and ninety seconds untouched.
The bun disintegrated
- Why it happened
- Not toasted, or wrapped for too long.
- What to do
- Toast the cut faces dry and wrap for one minute only.
It is a tall mess that cannot be bitten
- Why it happened
- Too many toppings, too high.
- What to do
- The wrap compresses it. Wrap tightly and give it a minute.
Questions people actually ask about this recipe
Why is the meat not seasoned before cooking?
Salt drawn into the surface before cooking dissolves proteins and gives a bouncy, sausage-like crust. Season after the smash.
Why wrap the burger in foil?
The trapped steam softens the bun and finishes melting the cheese. It is part of the recipe, not the packaging.
What are all the free toppings?
Lettuce, tomato, raw onion, grilled onion, mushrooms, green pepper, jalapeños, pickles, mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, barbecue sauce, hot sauce and A1.
Single or double?
Double is standard there. A single is better balanced against the bun and the toppings, and a lot of people order it without realising it exists.
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