Hardee's Monster Thickburger Copycat Recipe

To make a Monster Thickburger copycat at home, grill two 1/3-lb (150 g) Angus beef patties per burger over very high heat. Stack them with three slices of American cheese and four strips of crisp bacon, then finish with mayonnaise on a buttered, toasted bun. That is the whole published build. No lettuce, no tomato, no special sauce. This recipe makes 2 burgers in about 40 minutes. It is my reproduction, not Hardee’s recipe: the chain has never published one.

What is the Hardee’s Monster Thickburger?

The Monster Thickburger is Hardee’s double bacon cheeseburger, launched in the US on Monday, November 15, 2004: two 1/3-lb charbroiled Angus patties, at least four strips of crispy bacon, three slices of American cheese and mayonnaise on a buttered, toasted sesame bun (NBC News). Its 1,420 calories made national headlines the day after launch. Hardee’s is the sister chain of Carl’s Jr., and both belong to CKE Restaurants Holdings (Hardee’s). “Thickburger” is the name of the thick-patty Angus line Hardee’s introduced in 2003 (Nation’s Restaurant News).

Andrew Puzder, then CEO of CKE, was blunt about who it was for: “This is a burger for young hungry guys who want a really big, delicious, juicy, decadent burger” (NBC News). It sold for $5.49 on its own and $7.09 as a combo with fries and a drink.

Which version this recipe reproduces

This recipe reproduces the Monster Angus Thickburger as sold in the US in 2020–2021: two 1/3-lb patties, four strips of bacon, three slices of American cheese and mayo per burger. Hardee’s US sells something smaller today (checked October 12, 2026): the Monster Burger, with two quarter-pound patties on a brioche-style bun (Hardee’s). I give a “current version” variation further down.

Most copycats I found online get this wrong. One uses 1 lb of beef for two single-patty burgers, which is not a Monster at all. Others are really the Original Thickburger, with lettuce, tomato and pickles. I wanted a true double, weighed to the gram, with every fact sourced.

Hardee’s Monster Thickburger ingredients, version by version

The Monster’s core has never changed: two Angus patties, bacon, three slices of American cheese and mayo. Over 20 years, only the patty weight, the bun and the name moved.

Monster Thickburger beef per burger over time: 2/3 lb (302 g) in 2004, July 2020 and December 2021, down to 2 x 1/4 lb (227 g) for the 2026 Monster Burger. Sources: NBC News, Brand Eating, hardees.com (Chart: Burger Breton, data from NBC News (2004), Brand Eating (2020, 2021) and hardees.com (checked 2026-10-12), rendered with QuickChart. Download locally as src/assets/charts/monster-thickburger-beef-weight-by-version.png (1600x900); lazy, async)

Ingredients for 2 Monster Thickburgers

For 2 burgers you need 600 g (1 1/3 lb) of ground Angus beef, 8 strips of bacon, 6 slices of American cheese, mayonnaise and 2 buns. The quantities are my deductions from the published build, not an official formulation.

• 600 g (1 1/3 lb) ground Angus beef, 15–20% fat (80/20 or 85/15), shaped into 4 patties of 150 g (5.3 oz, close to 1/3 lb)
• 8 strips of bacon
• 6 slices of American cheese
• 2–3 tbsp mayonnaise
• 2 burger buns: sesame for the 2004 version, potato or brioche for the recent ones
• 15–20 g (1–1 1/2 tbsp) butter, softened, for toasting the buns
• Fine salt and freshly ground black pepper

Equipment: a ridged cast-iron grill pan or a barbecue, a sheet pan with a wire rack, parchment paper, a thin metal spatula and an instant-read thermometer.

Hardee’s doesn’t publish its seasoning, bacon or mayo specs. I use salt and pepper only. With four strips of bacon and three slices of cheese on top, the beef doesn’t need more.

Step by step: the Monster Thickburger copycat recipe

Cook the bacon in the oven while you shape the patties, then grill the beef hard and fast and build the burgers within a few minutes. Count about 20 minutes of prep and 20 minutes of cooking.

1. Shape the patties

Divide the beef into 4 portions of 150 g (5.3 oz). Press each one between parchment into a round about 1.5 cm (5/8 in) thick and 11–12 cm (4.5 in) wide. Brand Eating noted the patties overhang the bun, so go slightly wider than your buns. Keep them in the fridge until the grill is ready. Cold patties hold their shape when you flip them.

2. Bake the bacon until crisp

Lay the 8 strips on a wire rack over a sheet pan and bake at 200 °C (400 °F) until fully crisp, 15 to 18 minutes in my oven. Start checking at 15: thin bacon goes from crisp to burnt fast. The 2004 launch promised “crispy” bacon. The 2021 Brand Eating reviewer got “limp and paper-thin” strips, and that is the one detail I refuse to copy. Drain on paper towels.

Bacon strips laid flat on a sheet pan going into the oven, the hands-off way to cook the 8 strips for two Monster Thickburger copycats (illustrative photo, not taken during this recipe test) (Photo: Alex Shultz, CC BY 2.0, https://www.flickr.com/photos/98288842@N00/40739838. 1024x814; lazy, async. FLAG: shows raw bacon on a plain sheet pan, not on a wire rack; replace with an original photo of crisp bacon on a rack)

3. Butter and toast the buns

Spread the softened butter on the cut sides of the buns. Toast them face down on the grill pan over medium heat for about 1 minute, until golden. Do this before the pan gets very hot, or the bread burns.

4. Grill the patties

Heat the ridged grill pan over high heat for at least 5 minutes, until it smokes lightly, or set up the barbecue for direct high heat. Season the patties with salt and pepper and grill them 4 minutes without moving them. Flip once and grill 3 to 4 minutes more, until the center reaches 71 °C (160 °F), the USDA safe minimum for ground beef (USDA FSIS). Don’t press down on them with the spatula. Every press pushes out juice you’ll miss at 71 °C.

5. Melt the cheese

Right after the flip, lay 1 slice of American cheese on two of the patties and 2 slices on the other two. The cheese melts during the last minutes of cooking. If the corners stay stiff, cover with a metal bowl for 20 seconds.

6. Assemble the burgers

Spread mayonnaise on both halves of each bun. On the bottom bun, place a patty with 1 slice of cheese, then a patty with 2 slices, then 4 strips of bacon, and close. Hardee’s doesn’t publish its build order. The 2021 review suggests one slice of cheese sits between the patties, so I follow that. Treat it as my choice, not a rule.

Current version: the Hardee’s Monster Burger copycat

To copy today’s Hardee’s Monster Burger, use 4 patties of 113 g (1/4 lb) instead of 150 g and a brioche bun. Keep the 4 strips of bacon, 3 slices of American cheese and mayo per burger, as listed on hardees.com. Shape the patties about 1.2 cm (1/2 in) thick and shorten the second side by a minute, still checking for 71 °C (160 °F) at the center.

How to get a charbroiled taste without a barbecue

A smoking-hot ridged cast-iron grill pan is the closest indoor substitute for Hardee’s charbroiling: the ridges char the beef in lines while the fat drips away. Hardee’s still files the Monster under “Charbroiled Burgers” on its site, and that grilled taste is what separates it from a griddle-smashed burger.

Hardee’s restaurant on Durham-Chapel Hill Boulevard in Durham, North Carolina, in May 2009, under the ‘Charbroiled Burgers’ sign that defines the Monster Thickburger’s grilled taste (Photo: Ildar Sagdejev (Specious), CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2009-05-02\_Hardee%27s\_in\_Durham.jpg. 3617x2411 (serve a resized WebP with matching width/height); lazy, async)

• Ridged pan over flat skillet. A flat skillet sears the whole surface and gives you a different burger.
• Preheat for 5 minutes or more. If the patty doesn’t hiss loudly, the pan isn’t ready.
• Hands off. Leave the patty 4 minutes on the first side so the marks set and it releases cleanly.
• Barbecue option. Direct high heat, lid open, same timings. Trust the thermometer, not the clock.

For the full temperature chart and how to pick your beef, see my burger patty internal temperature guide.

Why this copycat tastes like the original

This recipe stays close to the Monster Angus Thickburger because it keeps the four things that define it: grilled thick Angus patties, three slices of cheese, crisp bacon and mayo as the only sauce.

• Grilled, not griddled. Two thick patties with charred grill lines, not a smashed crust. At 150 g each, they have enough mass to stay juicy at 71 °C.
• Three slices of American cheese. One between the patties holds the stack together. The two on top melt into the bacon.
• Four strips of bacon per burger. Salt and crunch. Baked on a rack, it stays crisp under the melted cheese.
• Mayo alone. No ketchup, no mustard, no pickles. Nothing acidic cuts the richness, and that is deliberate.
• Honest about the gaps. Seasoning, bacon cut, mayo formula and bun recipe are my choices, because Hardee’s publishes none of them.

My advice: make the 2/3-lb version. The quarter-pound Monster Burger is a reasonable double, but excess was the whole point of the Monster. With thinner patties you lose the thick, charred bite that made it a Thickburger. If one feels like too much, split it between two people rather than shrinking it.

Monster Thickburger calories

The original Monster Thickburger had 1,420 calories and 107 g of fat for the burger alone in 2004 (NBC News). Today’s smaller Monster Burger lists 1,010 calories on hardees.com. Those are the only two figures I could source. Third-party nutrition sites give contradictory numbers in between, so I don’t repeat them.

Source: NBC News, 2004. I give no nutrition for my homemade version: it depends too much on your beef, bacon and bun.

Where the Monster Thickburger’s 1,420 calories came from in 2004: beef 664, bun 230, cheese 186, mayo 160, bacon 150, butter 30. Source: NBC News (Chart: Burger Breton, data from NBC News (2004, https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna6505575), rendered with QuickChart. Download locally as src/assets/charts/monster-thickburger-calories-breakdown-2004.png (1600x900); lazy, async. FLAG: axis labels are in English; render es/fr variants with localized labels)

What happened to the Monster Thickburger?

The Monster Thickburger hasn’t vanished. In the US it is now sold as the Monster Burger, with two quarter-pound patties instead of two 1/3-lb ones. I found no primary source dating the name change or the smaller patties, so I won’t guess when it happened. The 2/3-lb version was still on Carl’s Jr. menus in July 2020 and was reviewed in December 2021, when it cost $10.79 in Los Angeles, or $5.49 with a coupon (Brand Eating).

Prices vary by restaurant, and I haven’t logged a dated price at an identified location, so I give no current price. For menu items that really did disappear and return, see our roundup of fast-food items coming back in 2026.

Monster Thickburger vs Original Thickburger vs Monster Burger

The Monster Thickburger is a 2/3-lb double with bacon and cheese, the Original Thickburger is a single 1/3-lb patty, and the Monster Burger is today’s smaller double with two quarter-pound patties.

In 2008, Hardee’s also added a Little Thickburger with a 1/4-lb Black Angus patty for $1.99 (Nation’s Restaurant News).

More bacon double cheeseburgers to make at home

If you like the Monster, these copycats follow the same method: published build first, then a recipe for two.

• Carl’s Jr. Famous Star copycat recipe: the same CKE charbroiled technique, from Hardee’s sister chain.
• Bacon King copycat recipe: Burger King’s direct rival, with double patties, bacon, cheese and mayo.
• Son of Baconator copycat recipe: Wendy’s smaller double bacon cheeseburger.
• Jack in the Box Ultimate Cheeseburger recipe: the double that Brand Eating compares to the Monster Angus Thickburger.

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

FAQ: Hardee’s Monster Thickburger

What are the ingredients in a Hardee’s Monster Thickburger?

The 2004 original had two 1/3-lb charbroiled Angus patties, at least four strips of crispy bacon, three slices of American cheese and mayonnaise on a buttered, toasted sesame bun (NBC News). Today’s Monster Burger keeps the bacon, cheese and mayo but uses two quarter-pound patties on a brioche-style bun.

How many calories are in a Monster Thickburger?

The original Monster Thickburger had 1,420 calories and 107 g of fat in 2004. The current Hardee’s Monster Burger lists 1,010 calories on hardees.com.

Does the Monster Angus Thickburger still exist?

Not under that name at Hardee’s US. As of October 12, 2026, hardees.com sells the Monster Burger, a smaller double with two quarter-pound Angus patties, 4 strips of bacon, 3 slices of American cheese and mayo.

Is the Hardee’s Monster Thickburger the same as Carl’s Jr.’s?

Yes, in the 2020 version. When Carl’s Jr. added the 2/3-lb Monster Angus Thickburger in July 2020, Brand Eating described it as identical to Hardee’s burger. Both chains belong to CKE Restaurants Holdings.

What patty weight should I use for a Monster Thickburger copycat?

Use 150 g (5.3 oz, about 1/3 lb) per patty, two per burger, for the classic Monster Angus Thickburger. For today’s Monster Burger, use 113 g (1/4 lb) per patty.

Can I eat a Monster Thickburger outside the US?

I couldn’t find a source confirming it on any menu outside the US. To try a CKE charbroiled burger abroad, see our guide to Carl’s Jr. in Cancún.

How do I get the charbroiled taste without a barbecue?

Use a ridged cast-iron grill pan preheated on high for at least 5 minutes, and leave the patties untouched for 4 minutes on the first side. A flat skillet won’t give you the grill marks or the smoky char.

Sources

• NBC News / AP, “Hardee’s serves up 1,420-calorie burger”, November 16, 2004: nbcnews.com
• NBC News, “Hardee’s unveils the ‘Monster Thickburger’” (calorie breakdown): nbcnews.com
• CNN Money, November 2004: money.cnn.com
• Lawrence Journal-World, “Hardee’s eats up attention from Monster Thickburger”, December 8, 2004: ljworld.com
• Nation’s Restaurant News, “Hardee’s adds smaller Thickburger”, 2008: nrn.com
• Brand Eating, “Carl’s Jr. Adds Monster Thickburger to the Menu”, July 1, 2020: brandeating.com
• Brand Eating, “Review: Carl’s Jr. / Hardee’s - Monster Angus Thickburger”, December 17, 2021: brandeating.com
• Hardee’s, official Monster Burger® page, checked October 12, 2026: hardees.com
• USDA FSIS, Safe Minimum Internal Temperature Chart: fsis.usda.gov