Greek-Style Lamb Burgers

Tested & Perfected Recipes

This post may contain affiliate links. Read my full disclosure policy.

If you like Greek food, you’ll love these flavorful lamb burgers topped with tzatziki, feta, tomatoes and red onions.

Greek-style lamb burgers on a wooden surface with burger toppings.

These Greek-style lamb burgers topped with tzatziki, feta, and all the fixins’ are a fun way to change up the standard cookout fare. The secret to making the burgers extra flavorful and juicy is mixing a panade, or bread and milk paste, into the ground meat along with lots of seasoning. You can’t taste the panade, but it guarantees tender and juicy burgers every time, especially if you like your burgers a little more well done or you accidentally overcook them (a little insurance never hurts!). If you can’t find ground lamb, feel free to substitute 80/20 ground beef.

What You’ll Need To Make Greek-Style Lamb Burgers

lamb burger ingredients

Step-by-Step Instructions

Combine the bread pieces and milk in a medium bowl. Mash with a fork until a paste forms. Fork in a bowl with panade.

Add the shallots, garlic, mint, oregano, salt, and pepper.

adding seasonings to the panade

Mix well.

panade and seasoning mixture

Add the lamb.

Ground meat in a bowl with seasonings.

Use your hands to mix until well combined.

lamb burger mixture

Form the meat mixture into 6 oval-shaped patties about ½-inch thick.

lamb burger patties

Oil the grilling grates. Grill the patties, covered, until nicely browned on the first side, 2 to 4 minutes. Flip the burgers and cook for a few minutes more until desired doneness is reached.

lamb burgers on the grill

Place the burgers on a tray and cover with foil while you warm the pita rounds on the grill. Assemble the burgers and pass the toppings and tzatziki sauce alongside.

Two Greek lamb burgers on a wooden surface.

You May Also Like

Greek-Style Lamb Burgers

If you like Greek food, you’ll love these flavorful lamb burgers topped with tzatziki, feta, tomatoes and red onions.

Servings: Makes 6 burgers
Total Time: 20 Minutes

Ingredients

For the Lamb Burgers

  • 1 slice white bread, crust removed and cut into ¼-inch pieces
  • 2 tablespoons milk
  • ¼ cup finely chopped shallots, from 1 to 2 shallots
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh mint
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • ¾ teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 1½ pounds ground lamb (not lean; 80/20 beef may be substituted)
  • 6 pita bread rounds* (hamburger buns may be substituted)

For The Toppings

  • 1 small head iceberg lettuce, shredded
  • 2 tomatoes, thinly sliced
  • 1 red onion, thinly sliced
  • 6 ounces crumbled feta cheese
  • Tzatziki sauce

Instructions

  1. Preheat the grill to high heat.
  2. Combine the bread pieces and milk in a medium bowl. Mash with a fork until a paste forms. Add the shallots, garlic, mint, oregano, salt, and pepper; mix well. Add the lamb, then use your hands to mix until well combined. Form the meat mixture into 6 oval-shaped patties about ½-inch thick.
  3. Oil the grilling grates. Grill the patties, covered, until nicely browned on the first side, 2 to 4 minutes. Flip the burgers and cook for a few minutes more until desired doneness is reached. Place burgers on a tray and cover with foil while you warm pita rounds on the grill. Assemble the burgers and pass toppings and tzatziki sauce alongside.
  4. Note: There are two types of pita bread: pita pockets and pocketless pitas. You can use either for this recipe. For pita pockets, be sure they are at least 6 inches wide. Trim off the top ¼ of each round and stuff the burgers and toppings inside. For pocketless pitas, serve burgers open-faced or, if pitas are large enough, wrap them around burgers.
  5. Make-Ahead/Freezer-Friendly Instructions: The uncooked burgers can be made and refrigerated up to one day ahead of time or frozen for up to three months. (Freeze the burgers on a baking sheet or plate so their shape sets, then transfer them to a sealable plastic bag for easy storage.) Defrost the burgers overnight in the refrigerator prior to serving and then cook as directed.

Pair with

Nutrition Information

Powered by Edamam

  • Per serving (6 servings)
  • Serving size: 1 burger
  • Calories: 514
  • Fat: 29 g
  • Saturated fat: 12 g
  • Carbohydrates: 40 g
  • Sugar: 2 g
  • Fiber: 5 g
  • Protein: 26 g
  • Sodium: 456 mg
  • Cholesterol: 83 mg

This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.

See more recipes:

Comments

  • My daughter made these lamb burgers. They were moist, tender and flavorful. Excellent recipe!! We loved them. We’ll be making them again. Thanks for sharing!!

  • Just made your Greek-style lamb burgers last night and they were fantastic! Even my non-lamb loving husband thought they were outstanding. Will be making these again for sure.

  • Made these burgers for our Moroccan friends who eat a lot of lamb and they were impressed. Best lamb I have ever had. So moist and tasty. The combination of spices were perfect.

    • — Bonnie McKinney
    • Reply
  • I loved these! I only had 1 lb of lamb on hand so I mixed beef into the mix and these still turned out to be delightful. The seasoning is spot on without being too overpowering. I took you cue and also made your tzatziki recipe as well and the two work beautifully together, especially since I like to throw my burgers on a bed of greens and needed no other type of dressing.

  • This is a go to Lamb mix for any thing – burgers, meatloaf, meatbals. I’be made stuffed bugers feta centers.

  • These lamb burgers are fabulous! Like them better than beef burgers.

  • I love to cook with ground lamb ~ infiniftely more flavorful than ground beef! I can’t wait to try this recipe but I do have my own favorite:

    I never actually measure anything when I’m cooking (baking is the exception!) but the just is pretty much along the lines of your recipe here except that add chopped Kalamata olive and crumbled Feta to the meat mixture itself ~ then I cut back on the fresh mint (and salt!) and add a good dose of dried (ground) fennel (one of these days I’ll have to try chopping up some fresh fennel/anise and either adding it raw or after sauteing it a little.)

    Thanks for all of your delicious recipes ~ and all of them ARE delicious… Best wishes with your new adventure at Serious Eating!

    • — Jesselyn Andersyn
    • Reply
  • My family absolutely loves these lamb burgers. I double the recipe and freeze the leftovers. Yum!

  • These burgers are soooo good. We have made them several times and people are so surprised they are made from lamb. They are yummy with the tzatsiki sauce.

  • These were fabulous. It was my first attempt at making lamb burgers and they came out great. I followed the exact recipe; I was surprised by the amount of chopped mint it called for but it turned out to be the right amount. Recipe with photos was very easy to follow. It didn’t need the tzatziki, or ketchup and mustard for that matter.

Add a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.