Carl's Jr. Famous Star Copycat Recipe (With Cheese, Makes 2)

To make a Carl’s Jr. Famous Star copycat at home, grill a 100–115 g (about 1/4 lb) beef patty over very high heat on a ridged cast-iron grill pan or a barbecue, melt a slice of American cheese on it, and stack it on a toasted seeded bun with lettuce, tomato, sliced onion, dill pickles, a ketchup-and-sweet-relish special sauce and mayonnaise. This Famous Star with Cheese recipe makes 2 burgers in under an hour, including 30 minutes of chilling. Most copycats skip what makes the original a Carl’s Jr. burger: the grilled, charbroiled taste. This one is built around it.

Homemade reproduction, not the official recipe. Carl’s Jr. publishes the ingredient list of the Famous Star, but not its patty weight, its build order or its Special Sauce formula. I built this recipe from the official US description, the two best-known copycats (Top Secret Recipes and Food.com) and my own choices, and I flag which is which below. Reference market: United States, menu and data checked on carlsjr.com on October 9, 2026, with a note on Mexico.

What’s on a Famous Star from Carl’s Jr.?

A Carl’s Jr. Famous Star is one grilled all-beef patty with melted American cheese, lettuce, tomato, sliced onions, dill pickles, Special Sauce and mayonnaise on a seeded bun. The official US description reads: “an all-beef patty—cooked on the grill right when you order— topped with melted American cheese, lettuce, tomato, sliced onions, dill pickles, Special Sauce, and mayonnaise on a seeded bun” (Carl’s Jr.). Cheese comes standard. That is why fans still search for the “Famous Star with Cheese”, a name left over from older menus.

The table separates what Carl’s Jr. says, what the copycat recipes add and what I chose.

Component	Carl’s Jr. official (US)	Copycat sources	My copycat choice
Bun	“Seeded bun”	Sesame seed bun (Top Secret Recipes, Food.com, Mexican listings)	Toasted sesame seed bun
Patty	All-beef, cooked on the grill to order	1/4 lb beef (Top Secret Recipes); sirloin with salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder (Food.com)	100–115 g (3.5–4 oz) ground beef, grill pan or barbecue
Cheese	Melted American cheese	American cheese	1 slice American cheese
Sauce	Special Sauce and mayonnaise	Ketchup + sweet relish, plus mayo	3:1 ketchup and sweet relish, plus mayo
Pickles	Dill pickles	3 slices (Top Secret Recipes)	3 dill pickle slices
Lettuce	Lettuce	Shredded (Top Secret Recipes)	Shredded iceberg
Tomato	Tomato	2 slices (Top Secret Recipes)	2 thin slices
Onion	Sliced onions	2 rings cut in quarters (Top Secret Recipes)	2 thin rings, quartered

Single, Double and Triple Famous Star

The current US menu no longer lists an item called Famous Star with Cheese: the line is sold as the Single, Double and Triple Famous Star, at 670, 920 and 1,190 calories, in the Charbroiled Burgers category (Carl’s Jr. menu). The Double Famous Star has “two all-beef patties” with the same toppings (Carl’s Jr.). This recipe is the Single. Want a Double? Grill a second patty per burger and change nothing else.

How much does the Famous Star patty weigh?

Carl’s Jr. does not publish the weight of the Famous Star patty. The quarter pound (113 g) you see online comes from Top Secret Recipes and third-party summaries, not from the chain. So I treat it as an estimate and use 100–115 g of raw beef per burger, 200–230 g for two. A few of those summaries also claim the Single has two patties. It doesn’t. The official page lists one.

Carl’s Jr. special sauce recipe

A good Carl’s Jr. special sauce copycat is about 3 parts ketchup to 1 part sweet pickle relish. That ratio is my call, not a confirmed formula: Carl’s Jr. has never published its Special Sauce. Top Secret Recipes builds it from ketchup and sweet relish. Food.com uses 1/2 cup ketchup with 2 tbsp relish, closer to 4 to 1 (Food.com). I push the relish a little further because the sauce has to hold its own against a full layer of mayo.

For 2 burgers, stir 3 tbsp ketchup with 1 tbsp sweet pickle relish. You will have a little left over. Keep the mayonnaise out of it. On the official build it is a separate layer, and the contrast between cool mayo and the sweet, tangy red sauce is half of what this burger tastes like. Pre-mixing them gives you a generic burger sauce.

Sweet pickle relish, the base of the Carl’s Jr. special sauce copycat: stir 1 tbsp into 3 tbsp ketchup for 2 burgers (Photo: Selinarif (via Wikimedia Commons), CC BY-SA 3.0)

Ingredients for 2 Famous Star burgers

For 2 Famous Star copycats you need 200–230 g of ground beef, 2 slices of American cheese, 2 seeded buns, a quick ketchup-relish sauce and the classic toppings. The weights are mine, not Carl’s Jr.’s.

• 200–230 g (7–8 oz) ground beef, split into two portions of 100–115 g
• Fine salt and ground black pepper
• Optional: 1 pinch each of garlic powder and onion powder (the Food.com seasoning)
• 2 slices American cheese
• 2 sesame seed hamburger buns
• 3 tbsp ketchup
• 1 tbsp sweet pickle relish
• 2 tbsp mayonnaise
• 6 dill pickle slices
• 1 handful shredded iceberg lettuce (about 40 g / 1.5 oz)
• 4 thin tomato slices
• 2 thin white onion rings, cut in quarters

Equipment: a ridged cast-iron grill pan or a barbecue, parchment paper, a thin spatula and an instant-read thermometer. Want to bake the buns yourself? My homemade sesame burger buns recipe gives you the seeded bun this burger needs.

Step by step: the Famous Star with Cheese copycat recipe

Mix the sauce, chill the patties, then grill them hard and fast and build the burger in under 10 minutes. Count about 55 minutes in total, 30 of them in the freezer.

1. Mix the special sauce

Stir 3 tbsp ketchup and 1 tbsp sweet pickle relish in a small bowl. Keep it in the fridge while you prepare the rest. A few minutes of rest lets the relish flavor the ketchup.

2. Shape and chill the patties

Divide the beef into two portions of 100–115 g. Press each one between parchment into a round about 12 cm (4.75 in) wide and 1 cm (3/8 in) thick, slightly wider than the bun because it shrinks on the grill. Freeze for 30 minutes. It’s a Food.com trick and the best idea in their recipe: a cold, firm patty can sit on a very hot grill long enough to char without falling apart.

3. Prepare the toppings

Shred the lettuce, slice the tomato thin and cut 2 thin onion rings into quarters. Lay out the pickles and the mayonnaise. Once the patties hit the grill, everything moves fast.

4. Toast the buns

Toast the cut sides of the buns on the grill pan over medium heat for about 1 minute, until lightly golden, then set them aside. Do it before the pan gets very hot, or the bread burns.

5. Grill the patties

Heat the ridged cast-iron grill pan over high heat for at least 5 minutes, until it smokes lightly, or fire up the barbecue for direct high heat. Season the cold patties with salt, pepper and, if you like, the garlic and onion powder. Grill 3–4 minutes without moving them, flip once and grill 2–3 minutes more, until the center reaches 71 °C (160 °F), the safe minimum for ground beef (FoodSafety.gov).

6. Melt the cheese

Lay one slice of American cheese on each patty right after the flip. It melts during the last 2–3 minutes. On a grill pan, cover it with a lid or a metal bowl for 20 seconds if the corners stay stiff.

7. Assemble the burger

Spread about 1 tbsp special sauce on the bottom bun, then add 3 pickles, the quartered onion and the cheesy patty. Top with 2 tomato slices and the shredded lettuce, spread 1 tbsp mayonnaise on the top bun and close. Carl’s Jr. does not publish its build order, so this one is mine. The wet sauce goes on the bottom, and the lettuce sits under the mayo so the top bun stays crisp.

How to get a charbroiled burger taste without a barbecue

The charbroiled flavor comes from direct, intense heat that chars the surface of the beef in lines, and a smoking-hot ridged cast-iron grill pan gets you close indoors. Grilling is the chain’s identity: “Charbroiled Burgers” is still written on its signs, and Carl’s Jr. has served charbroiled hamburgers since 1968 (Wikipedia). Neither leading copycat explains how to get that taste without a barbecue. Here is how I do it.

A Carl’s Jr. restaurant in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with “Charbroiled Burgers” on the sign, the grilling identity the chain has kept since 1968 (Photo: Lumen Wilde (via Wikimedia Commons), CC BY 2.0)

• Use a ridged cast-iron pan, not a flat skillet. The ridges brand the patty with dark lines while the fat drips into the grooves and sizzles.
• Preheat longer than you think. At least 5 minutes on high heat. If the patty does not hiss loudly when it lands, the pan is not ready.
• Don’t move the patty. Leave it 3–4 minutes on the first side so the marks set.
• Start cold. The 30-minute freeze gives you time to char the outside before the center overcooks.
• On a barbecue, use direct high heat. Top Secret Recipes grills its quarter-pound patty 2–3 minutes per side over high heat; check the 71 °C (160 °F) core anyway.

Beef burger patty searing over high, direct heat: the charbroiled taste of a Famous Star comes from this kind of intense grilling, on a barbecue or a smoking-hot ridged cast-iron grill pan (Photo: Joshua Kantarges on Unsplash, Unsplash License)

What keeps this copycat close to the original

This Famous Star copycat stays close to the original because it keeps the five things that define it, and it says clearly what is official and what is a guess.

• Grilled beef. The official description says the patty is “cooked on the grill”. So the grill pan or barbecue is not optional. A flat griddle gives you a different burger.
• Two sauces, not one. Special Sauce and mayonnaise are listed separately: a sweet-tangy red layer and a creamy white one.
• The full official topping list. Lettuce, tomato, sliced onions, dill pickles and American cheese, nothing added, nothing missing.
• A seeded bun. Sesame is what the copycats and Mexican listings show; the official wording is just “seeded”.
• A realistic patty. 100–115 g matches the quarter-pound estimate without pretending it is an official figure.

Famous Star calories

A Single Famous Star has 670 calories on the official US site, the Double 920 and the Triple 1,190 (Carl’s Jr.). Those are the only figures I could confirm. Third-party nutrition sites disagree widely on the rest (from 610 to 790 calories, 28 g or 48 g of protein, 1,050 to 1,430 mg of sodium), so I don’t repeat them. I give no nutrition for the homemade version either: it depends too much on your bun, beef and cheese.

Famous Star calories on the US Carl’s Jr. menu (bar chart): Single 670, Double 920, Triple 1,190 calories, cheese included (Chart: Burger Breton, data from carlsjr.com/menu (checked 2026-10-09))

Famous Star vs Whopper: two grilled burgers

The Famous Star and the Burger King Whopper both put grilled beef at the center, where most fast-food burgers use a flat griddle. Carl’s Jr. calls it charbroiled, Burger King calls it flame-grilled, and both copycats depend on very high direct heat. Where they split is the sauce and the cheese. The Famous Star brings a ketchup-relish Special Sauce and American cheese as standard. If I had to cook only one of them at home, I’d pick the Famous Star: the sauce takes two minutes and gives it a character the Whopper’s plain ketchup doesn’t have. For the side-by-side technique, read my breakdown of what’s in a Whopper, plus the copycat recipe.

Carl’s Jr. history: from hot dog cart to charbroiled burgers

Carl’s Jr. started with a hot dog cart that Carl Karcher bought in Los Angeles in 1941. He opened Carl’s Drive-In Barbecue in Anaheim in 1945, the first Carl’s Jr. restaurants followed in 1956, and he founded CKE in 1964 (Mental Floss; dates cross-checked with Top Secret Recipes). In 1997, CKE bought Hardee’s for $327 million. For the bigger story of how the burger moved from lunch carts to drive-ins, read our history of the hamburger.

The Famous Star is sold under the same name at Hardee’s, the sister brand owned by CKE, which is why Top Secret Recipes titles its version “Carl’s Jr. Famous Star – Hardee’s Burger Recipe”. A plant-based Beyond Famous Star rolled out across the US network in late 2018 and early 2019 (VegNews). As for the Famous Star’s launch year, the only date I found (1982) comes from a fan wiki I could not verify, so I leave it out.

Where to taste the original Famous Star

You can taste the original in the US, at Hardee’s under the same name, and in Mexico, where it is called the Famous Star con Queso. Mexican listings on Rappi and carlsjr.com.mx show the same build: 100% grilled beef, special sauce, American cheese, mayo, lettuce, onion, tomato and pickles (Rappi). It costs about 99 MXN on its own (unofficial national price, October 2026), and on September 30, 2026 it sold for 35 MXN for one day to mark the brand’s 35 years in Mexico. All the details are in our guide to Carl’s Jr. in Cancún.

Carl’s Jr. does not publish a national US price for the Famous Star, and prices vary by restaurant, so I give none. In France, the chain has been present since January 18, 2018, starting in La Garde near Toulon, then Vélizy 2, Paris-CDG Terminal 2 and Marseille Saint-Charles station (Toute la Franchise). I could not verify whether the current French menu carries the Famous Star.

Where to taste the original Famous Star: countries with Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s restaurants, including the United States and Mexico (sold there as the Famous Star con Queso, about 99 MXN) (Map: Daniel.9 (via Wikimedia Commons), CC BY 4.0)

More American fast-food burgers to make at home

If you like this one, these other US chain copycats use the same approach: official composition first, then a recipe for two.

• Wendy’s Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger copycat: a small square-patty cheeseburger with oven-baked bacon.
• Whopper ingredients and copycat recipe: the other big grilled-beef classic.
• Triple Meat Whataburger copycat: the Texas chain’s three-patty stack.
• Five Guys cheeseburger copycat: double patty, toppings of your choice.
• ShackBurger copycat recipe: Shake Shack’s smashed cheeseburger and its ShackSauce.

Browse all our burger recipes for more chain copycats and techniques.

Famous Star FAQ

What’s on a Famous Star from Carl’s Jr.? One grilled all-beef patty, melted American cheese, lettuce, tomato, sliced onions, dill pickles, Special Sauce and mayonnaise on a seeded bun, according to the official US menu checked on October 9, 2026.

What is in Carl’s Jr. special sauce? Carl’s Jr. has never published it. Copycat recipes agree on ketchup and sweet pickle relish, at 3 to 1 or 4 to 1 depending on the source. I use 3 to 1. Treat it as a close homemade version, not the real formula.

How much does the Famous Star patty weigh? Carl’s Jr. does not say. A quarter pound (113 g) is the usual copycat estimate, so I use 100–115 g of raw beef per burger.

How do I get the charbroiled taste without a grill? Use a ridged cast-iron grill pan preheated on high for at least 5 minutes, start with a frozen-firm patty and leave it untouched 3–4 minutes on the first side to set dark grill marks.

How many calories are in a Famous Star with Cheese? The US Single Famous Star, which includes cheese, has 670 calories on carlsjr.com. The Double has 920 and the Triple 1,190.

Is the Hardee’s Famous Star the same as the Carl’s Jr. one? Yes. Hardee’s is Carl’s Jr.’s sister brand, both are owned by CKE, and Hardee’s sells the burger under the same Famous Star name. Top Secret Recipes even uses one copycat for both.

Can I get a Famous Star outside the US? Yes, in Mexico, where it is sold as the Famous Star con Queso for about 99 MXN (October 2026). Carl’s Jr. has had restaurants in France since 2018, but I could not confirm the current French menu.

Is this the official Carl’s Jr. recipe? No. It is a homemade reproduction. The ingredient list is official; the patty weight, sauce ratio, cooking times and build order are my choices or come from Top Secret Recipes and Food.com.