Air fryer turkey burgers are perfectly cooked, golden on the outside while moist and juicy on the inside. With their bold seasoning, these turkey burgers are a flavorful, healthier alternative to beef burgers.
Quick Look: Air Fryer Turkey Burgers
- ⏱ Prep Time: 10 minutes
- 🔥 Cook Time: 10 minutes
- ⏳ Total Time: 20 minutes
- 🍔 Serving: 4 burgers
- ⚡ Calories: 138 calories per burger
- 🍂 Flavor Profile: a mild tasting patty packed with protein
- 👌 Difficulty: Easy, a lovely option to hit your health goals
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Air frying burgers is a healthier way to cook them. While keeping the oil content low, the forced air of the air fryer browns your burgers just like the oven would, but it does it much faster and keeps the center of the burgers perfectly juicy. This allows for turkey burger patties that are lower in fat than one cooked in the oven.
Like my grilled chicken burgers, these turkey burgers are a protein-packed recipe. At 30 grams of protein per burger, this turkey burger recipe is perfect for a healthy lunch or dinner, meal prep, or a post-workout protein option.
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Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Simple Ingredients: This recipe uses ground turkey, bold spices, and a bit of olive oil, all of which are readily available at any grocery store.
- Better-for-You: Ground turkey is low in fat and high in protein, and air fryer recipes reduce the amount of oil needed for the recipe.
- Always Perfectly Cooked: Air frying these turkey burgers ensures perfectly cooked burgers every time, with a crispy, golden exterior and a juicy, tender interior.
- Great for Meal Prep: These burgers cook up fast, and they're freezer-friendly, making them the perfect option for healthy meal prepping.
Ingredients
- Lean Ground Turkey: Ground turkey offers a low-fat, high-protein alternative to beef. Cooked in the air fryer, it's juicy and flavorful.
- Chili Olive Oil: I prefer Costabile chili olive oil (Use Code: 15GoldenGK for 15% off) because it's of the highest quality and flavor. It adds flavor and moisture to the burgers.
- Garlic Olive Oil: Like the chili olive oil, Costabile garlic olive oil (Use Code: 15GoldenGk for 15% off), garlic olive oil adds more flavor and moisture to the burgers.
- Seasonings: The bold seasoning blend adds a ton of flavor and a nice kick of heat (but not too much).
See the recipe card at the end of the post for a full list of ingredients and their amounts.
Flavor Variations and Substitutions
- You can use ground chicken to make air fryer chicken burgers.
- Add red pepper flakes for an extra spicy turkey burger.
- If you don't like cilantro, just leave it out. The burgers will still be delicious!
- These spices work well with ground beef, as well, if you prefer traditional burgers.
- Play with the spices to create your perfect turkey burger flavor.
Equipment
- Measuring spoons
- Mixing bowl
- Air Fryer
- Food scale
- Meat thermometer
Instructions
1: Add the ground turkey, cumin, salt, paprika, onion powder, chili powder, dried cilantro, garlic powder, and both oils to a large bowl.
2: Using clean hands, mix the ground turkey and seasonings together until fully combined, being careful not to overmix.
3: Divide the mixture evenly into 4 balls. Each one should weigh about 3.8 to 4 ounces.
4: Using a pastry brush, lightly grease the air fryer tray with olive oil. Preheat the air fryer to 350 degrees.
5: Press the turkey burger balls into ½-inch-thick patties and place them on the greased air fryer basket tray, leaving space between each for even cooking.
6: Cook turkey burgers at 350 for 7 minutes. Then, flip the burgers and fry for another 3 to 5 minutes. The burgers are done when they reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees.
Top Tips
- I recommend using Costabile olive oil for any recipe that calls for olive oil. They have amazing quality and flavor, and they are an authentic Italian olive oil company!
- Mixing the ground turkey and spices by hand is the easiest way to quickly and efficiently combine the ingredients without overmixing.
- Always wash your hands before and after mixing the meat to avoid cross-contamination.
- Preheat your air fryer before cooking the burgers for even cooking.
- Be sure to brush your air fryer tray with olive oil before cooking the burgers so they don't stick.
Storage
These air fryer turkey burgers can be refrigerated for up to 4 days in an air-tight container. For longer storage, wrap them in plastic wrap and freeze them for up to 3 months in an air-tight, freezer-safe container or heavy-duty freezer bag.
To reheat turkey burgers, defrost them overnight in the fridge if frozen. Then, microwave them at 1-minute intervals until heated through.
Pairing Suggestions
These turkey burgers are perfect with sides like these air fryer sweet potato fries, air fryer French fries, potato chips, or any of your other favorite burger sides.
More Turkey and Chicken Recipes
If you love flavorful, healthier chicken and turkey versions of classic recipes, then you'll enjoy these meals!
Air Fryer Turkey Burgers FAQ's
Turkey burgers are a very healthy alternative to classic ground beef burgers. Ground turkey is extremely low in fat and high in protein, drastically reducing the saturated fat found in classic hamburgers.
Yes, they do! Turkey burgers have a bad reputation for being bland, but that's because they need to be seasoned. Turkey is so lean that it doesn't have the kick of flavor that beef burgers have. Using salt, pepper, and other herbs and spices make turkey burgers flavorful and delicious alternative.
Yes, it is. Air fryers use a very small amount of oil and hot circulating air to cook food. This means the food cooks faster, more evenly, and with a wonderful exterior without the need for a lot of butter or oil.
If you added extra moisture and your burgers were still tough, you probably overmixed the meat mixture. Overmixing can causes a sticky protein called myosin in the ground turkey to contract tightly, making dense, tough burgers.
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📖 Recipe
Air Fryer Turkey Burgers
Video
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground turkey 93% lean
- ¼ teaspoon cumin
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon OliveNation paprika
- ¼ teaspoon onion powder
- ¼ teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon dried cilantro
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¾ teaspoon Costabile chili olive oil
- ¼ teaspoon Costabile garlic olive oil
Instructions
- Add the ground turkey, cumin, salt, paprika, onion powder, chili powder, dried cilantro, garlic powder, and both oils to a large bowl.
- Using clean hands, mix the ground turkey and seasonings together until fully combined, being careful not to overmix.
- Divide the mixture evenly into 4 balls. Each one should weigh about 3.8 to 4 ounces.
- Using a pastry brush, lightly grease the air fryer tray with olive oil. Preheat the air fryer to 350 degrees.
- Press the turkey burger balls into ½-inch-thick patties and place them on the greased air fryer basket tray, leaving space between each for even cooking.
- Air fry at 350 for 7 minutes. Then, flip the burgers and fry for another 3 to 5 minutes. The burgers are done when they reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees.
Notes
- Refrigerate for up to 4 days in an airtight container.
- Wrap the burgers in plastic wrap and freeze for up to 3 months in an airtight, freezer-safe container or heavy-duty freezer bag. Defrost overnight in the refrigerator before reheating.
- Microwave burgers at 1-minute intervals until heated through.
- Preheat the air fryer for even cooking and accurate cooking times. It only takes about 5 minutes!
- Brush your air fryer tray with olive oil rather than using nonstick spray.
- Never use nonstick spray on your air fryer basket. The spray can damage the nonstick coating over time.
- Don't overmix the turkey. Overmixing causes the proteins to contract when the meat cooks, squeezing out the juice and making dry burgers.
Anonymous says
Thank you for sharing this recipe
Nora says
My family loved this!
Amy Liu Dong says
This worked exactly as written, thanks!