McDonald's Hamburger Happy Meal Copycat Recipe

"[Nothing is as] simple and easy as a hamburger," says chef and recipe developer Susan Olayinka of The Flexible Fridge – and she means that in the best possible way. It's no wonder why a classic hamburger just like this recipe we're serving up has been on the menu at McDonald's since the first location opened back in the 1940s (which sold hamburgers for just 15 cents).

With this copycat McDonald's Hamburger Happy Meal recipe on deck, you don't even have to leave the house in order to sink your teeth into the meal that made the Golden Arches a global phenomenon. "I think that these would do well in a blind taste test," says Olaynika, adding, "They taste absolutely delicious ... I cook burgers and [fries] every once in a while for my family, [and] even my 20-month-old son absolutely loves it. It's a treat for him!"

For the record, there really is no better side to pair with a burger than crispy French fries, and McDonald's gets it right. But note that "you can [also] pair [your burgers] with sweet potato fries, or even mashed potatoes," says Olayinka.

Now, let's get cooking!

As you might expect from a burger that's so delicious but also so incredibly simple, the ingredient list here is nothing fancy. When it comes to a McDonald's copycat burger, it's all in how you handle the ingredients, which include 2 thin beef patties, ketchup, yellow mustard, finely diced white onion, burger buns, about 2 cups of oven-cooked thin fries (the kind you buy from the store and cook from frozen — and yes these are technically optional here), salt, black pepper, and vegetable oil for frying.

If you want to be authentic here, you should know that McDonald's uses dehydrated onions, which they rehydrate by soaking in ice water. You're more than welcome to go that route, but we're all for easy chef work here on Mashed, so you we used fresh onions. 

Cook the fries in the oven as per the instructions on the packaging, timing things so that they will be done at about the same time the burgers are ready. For the record, it will almost surely take more time to bake the fries than it will to cook and assemble the burgers.

Start by adding equal portions of salt and pepper to both sides of both of the patties. Next, pour the oil onto a frying pan and heat it up over low-medium heat, then place the patties on the pan to start cooking them.

Fry the burgers on each side for five to six minutes on low-medium heat, or for about ten to 12 minutes total. Be sure to not overcook either of the patties, because according to Olayinka, "If you overcook the patty, it will become very hard and would make the burger quite unpleasant."

Once the patties are done cooking, place one of the burgers onto the bottom of each burger bun. Top the cooked burger patties with ketchup, mustard, pickle slices, and then chopped white onion. Cover the assembled burgers with the top part of the bun.

Get the fries out of the oven, serve with the burgers, and enjoy! That's it — you're already done. This McDonald's copycat recipe really is that simple. And as such, it is a perfectly easy (and crowd-pleasing) option for when you have a lot of people coming over for dinner. Just make a dozen burgers, and keep on serving them up fast and fresh.