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True or false? We all aspire to barbecue the ultimate brisket or roast one of those gold-plate beef tomahawks hung from a dome over a campfire.

But let’s be honest, what we really want to grill—what we need to grill—is the perfect hamburger. You know when you taste it: crusty on the outside, juicy inside, sanguine, smoke-scented, and unabashedly luscious. Extra points for an unexpected element, like triple steak or aged wagyu.

Well, our friends at the Barbecue Bible 500 Club spent the summer in quest of the perfect burger. And just in time for tailgating season, they’ve shared with us their favorites.

And that’s before you add the accouterments: vine-ripened tomato (preferably that has never seen the inside of a refrigerator), cave-aged gruyere (or artisanal cheddar), the “secret” sauce, the butter-grilled brioche bun.

Well, our friends at the Barbecue Bible 500 Club spent the summer in quest of the perfect burger. And just in time for tailgating season, they’ve shared with us their favorites.

Haven’t heard of the Club? More than 1000 people have joined this Facebook club with a pledge of cooking all 536 recipes in Steven’s book, The Barbecue! Bible. Three people have achieved this ambitious task, while dozens more have reached the 100 and 200 recipe level. Motivational hint: you get a prize each time you cross another recipe threshold.

So if anyone knows how to grill a great burger, it’s these folks and they’ve got the photos to prove it.

Herewith, the Barbecue Bible 500 Club top 10 Raichlen burgers. For more information, visit the Barbecue Bible 500 Club page of Facebook.

And now, ladies and gentlemen: fire up your grills!

Best Burger Recipes 2025

#1
Rob & Alynne Douglass

Burgers au Poivre with Caramelized Onions and Griddled Shitakes

#2
Bernie & Lynn Pass

#3
Paul Eisenburg –

The Great American Hamburger

– (The Barbecue! Bible)

Susan Ortiz –

The All-American Burger

– (The Barbecue Bible!)

Get The Recipe »

#4
Sam & Charlene Swanlund –

Smash Burgers with Raichlen’s Special Sauce

– (Project Griddle)

#6
Scott Geiger Sr.

Really Big Bosnian Burger

– (Planet Barbecue!)

#7
John Kubicek

Triple Steak Burger

– (Project Fire)

#8
Bryan Praetorian

Bacon and Smoked Cheese Burger

(The Barbecue! Bible)

#9
Phoebe Jones

Jake’s Double Brisket Cheeseburger

(The Brisket Chronicles)

#10
James Grill

Pulled Pork Burger

(The Barbecue! Bible)

Burger Recipes on BarbecueBible.com

• Smash Burgers with Raichlen’s Special Sauce
• The Ur-Burger
• Smoky Bacon Burger Sliders with Grilled Onions

More Blogs on Burgers

• The Battle of the Grilled Beef Burgers!
• 10 Chef-Approved Tricks to Make Your Burgers Taste Awesome
• How to Griddle Burgers on Your Gas Grill (Without a Griddle)

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Ready to take your burger game even further? Sign up for Steven Raichlen’s Up in Smoke newsletter and get a FREE digital copy of Raichlen’s Burgers e-Book. Each issue brings you new recipes, grilling tips, and behind-the-scenes stories from the Barbecue Bible world—straight to your inbox.
Join now and start cooking like a member of the 500 Club.

Check out our 1000+ Recipes section here on Barbecue Bible.Com

Also, sign up for our Up in Smoke newsletter so you don't miss any blogs and receive some special offers! PLUS get Raichlen's Burgers! PDF for free!

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Check out our store powered by BBQGuys!

The post Our Best Burgers Ever: The Barbecue Bible 500 Club’s Top 10 for 2025 appeared first on Barbecuebible.com.

Frank & Kelley from Clermont, Florida have just completed 500 Steven Raichlen recipes to become the first to achieve Diamond Member status in the 500 Club

We are excited to announce that we have reached our goal of creating over 500 recipes from Steven Raichlen’s cookbooks as part of the Barbecue Bible 500 Club challenge! We got so distracted and forgot to count a whole section of recipes that, at last count, we are at 515. We plan on celebrating with a dinner of our favorites—a post with pictures will follow in the near future.

This whole barbecue journey started for us several years ago after receiving our first cookbook, Project Smoke, as a gift. Who knew that would turn into this amazing adventure of grilling and smoking?

Over the past 3 years (2-1/2 with the club), we have enjoyed creating over 500 recipes from 12 of Steven’s cookbooks, the web, and a few test recipes. We were honored to be recipe testers for Steven’s most recent cookbook—Project Griddle—AMAZING! We now have a new love of cooking on the plancha and use it often.

Completing these 500+ recipes has obviously been time consuming but also an education in food prep (mise en place), sharing kitchen space and learning more about temperatures and grill times. One lesson learned: don’t smoke the sliced bread ahead of time for the chocolate bread pudding. We ended up with a twice-smoked recipe. Rookie mistake: we didn’t read the recipe ALL THE WAY THROUGH!

There is a big downside to creating and perfecting these recipes over time . . . we have become more particular (picky) when it comes to our culinary choices, expectations, and enjoyment of eating out at restaurants. Sometimes the experiences leave us glaring at each other, mentioning what we would do differently to make it better. When we do find an hors d’oeuvres, sauce, cooking technique or even a dish presentation that we enjoy, we attempt to replicate it at home. Surprisingly, we’ve gotten quite good at this and we are thankful for this experience in helping us get to this stage.

We jumped into this and never looked back. Our advice to others, who may be more apprehensive, is to start small. Be curious about unknown ingredients, experiment with different grilling and cooking techniques/styles and have your local pizzeria on speed dial. (Just kidding—we’ve never had to do that!) Take your time to read, shop, prep, grill and enjoy!

When you prepare food for yourself or others, you are doing more than creating a meal for family and friends. You are setting the stage for people to gather and make wonderful memories.

Thank you to Steven Raichlen for continuing to challenge us and provide us with amazing culinary experiences.

A special “thank you” to Robert and Alynne Douglass for creating The Barbecue 500 Club, for sharing their love of grilling, and for pouring so much time and energy into this endeavor. We are excited and honored to be a part of it! #bbqb500

Check out our 1000+ Recipes section here on Barbecue Bible.Com

Also, sign up for our Up in Smoke newsletter so you don't miss any blogs and receive some special offers! PLUS get Raichlen's Burgers! PDF for free!

Follow Steven on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Reddit, and Pinterest!

Check out our store powered by BBQGuys!

The post On the Global Barbecue Trail with Steven… appeared first on Barbecuebible.com.