Learn to make awesome air fryer burgers that are stuffed with delicious, melty cheese! You’ll wonder why you haven’t tried air frying hamburgers before when you see how easy this recipe is. All you need is ground beef, steak seasoning, and your favorite cheese to make the best burgers ever! Forget the grill this season, air fry is where it is at!
Welcome to day 3 of my week of daily air fryer recipes! I’ve already shared a side dish with my air fryer carrots, as well as a snack in the form of air fryer jicama fries. Now we’re moving on to the main course: this air fried burger recipe.
But these aren’t any old burgers, we can’t have that. Instead, I’ve decided to stuff the burgers with cheese. The cheese melts while the burgers cook, leaving you with a delicious cheeseburger, minus the mess.
I’ve heard horror stories of people trying to make cheeseburgers in air fryers. Apparently, when you use shredded cheese, there’s a risk that it will blow all over the fryer.
Cleaning up melted cheese that is stuck all over the inside of an air fryer does not sound like a fun time. Here, I’ve sidestepped that potential disaster entirely by putting the cheese in the burger. No wasted cheese, and no mess!
(Note: If you forget to stuff your air fryer burgers but decide you want cheese, put the cheese on right after cooking. The warmth of the burger should be just enough to melt the cheese a bit.)
One of the things that I dislike about beef burgers is how much they shrink with cooking. Not only that, but they also tend to bulge in the middle. This creates a situation where the toppings can fall off. Grrr...
Making an air fryer burger that holds its shape while cooking
There are some excellent tips around if you want a beef burger that doesn’t bulge up in the middle. If you’re making big burgers (>6 ounces), shape each patty to be flatter and wider than you want it to be. And to help prevent bulging, put a small indentation (a “dimple”) in the center of each patty.
These cheese-stuffed hamburgers in the air fryer really didn’t shrink much at all. I think the cheese worked in place of the “dimple” to weigh the center of the burger down. If anything, the burger became flatter as it cooked and the cheese melted.
Basically, this air fryer recipe for burgers is super if you want a big burger that will fill your hamburger bun. You can also load these hamburgers up with toppings without worrying that they will slide off.
Beef is a wonderful source of highly bioavailable heme iron, as well as high-quality protein, zinc, and vitamin B12. I consider it an excellent food choice, particularly for premenopausal women who have high iron needs (and may struggle with low iron). Personally, I’ve found that I no longer need to supplement with iron after adding beef to my diet.
Though plant foods have many positive attributes, the iron and zinc they contain are not as available to the body. Additionally, plant foods naturally provide no vitamin B12 (though this essential nutrient may be added to fortified foods). If you are trying to meet your nutrient needs with whole foods rather than supplements and fortified foods, beef can help get you there.
These air fryer burgers cook fast and make getting a high-protein meal simple. With air frying, some of the oil drips off the burger while it cooks, so you get a lower calorie burger too. Best of all, they are delicious!
And now for the disclaimer…
All recipes on this website may or may not be appropriate for you, depending on your medical needs and personal preferences. Consult with a registered dietitian or your physician if you need help determining the dietary pattern that may be best for you.
The nutrition information is an estimate provided as a courtesy. It will differ depending on the specific brands and ingredients that you use. Calorie information on food labels may be wildly inaccurate, so please don't sweat the numbers too much.
For more information on how the three recipe levels may help with a weight management goal, refer to this post. Let's get cooking!
Air Fryer Burgers Stuffed with Cheese
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 lb lean ground beef
- 1 tablespoon Montreal steak seasoning (or your favorite burger seasoning)
- 3 slices Muenster cheese (or your favorite sliced cheese)
- cooking oil spray of choice
Instructions
- With clean hands, thoroughly mix the seaoning and ground beef together.
- Divide the beef mixture into 6 equal pieces. Make 3 of the pieces large and very flat patties with no holes. Make the other 3 pieces into balls.
- Cut each slice of the cheese into four pieces. Stack four pieces (one slice) of cheese atop each of the flattened patties.
- Take the burger pieces that you formed into balls. Flatten each one out and use them to completely cover the cheese on the patties. Seal the edges of each burger. The cheese should now be completely encased within each patty.
- Mist an air fryer rack with the cooking spray. Your burgers should all fit on one rack in a single-layer (if you have a large air fryer oven).
- Put the rack with the burgers in the top position in the oven. Bake at 375°F for 5 minutes. Then carefully flip the burgers and replace the rack in the top position in the oven. Bake for an additional 5 minutes at 375°F.
- This recipe makes burgers that are cooked to medium doneness. Feel free to adjust the cooking times to meet your taste preferences!
Video
Notes
This is a level 2 recipe (transition or weight maintenance). The overall energy balance of this meal will ultimately depend on what you serve it with. If you wanted to lighten up the burger specifically, I’d skip the cheese and use extra lean (96/4) beef. Really though, the added starches (bun, fries, etc.) are the factors that tend to bump the calories in burger meals without an equally large bump in feelings of satiety. Nutrition information is for one serving of the recipe.
Nutrition
I served our air fryer hamburgers over a sourdough biscuit with a large side salad and air fryer squash. I really enjoyed this well-balanced and colorful meal.
If the air fryer butternut squash recipe sounds like it might interest you, you won’t have to wait long! That might just be the recipe for air frying that I’m planning on sharing tomorrow. It’s so great to have a way to roast winter squash that doesn’t require turning on the oven.
Do you ever cook burgers in an air fryer? Let me know, and please leave a rating if you try my recipe for air fryer burgers stuffed with cheese!
I would like to thank you for the efforts you've put in writing this blog. I'm hoping to check out the same high-grade content from you later on as well. In fact, your creative writing abilities has motivated me to get my very own blog now 😉
Great idea, Summer, particularly as it avoids the exposed cheese-air fryer catastrophe just waiting to happen.
As you may know, I'm not among cheese's most passionate advocates. A few worthy exceptions notwithstanding.
Still, your idea is entirely too noteworthy not to give it lots more thought. So...in that spirit...how do you think sauteed mushrooms would work, instead of the cheese? Yours is too intriguing a concept not to maximize the experience.
Now I want the mushrooms and the cheese! How much can I fit into a single burger? hahaha
Unfortunately, our area has been hit by quite a storm and we've been without power and well water for the past 24+ hours. I'll get back to you more soon when our power is restored. I only have a short time on the computer right now 🙁