Whopper Copycat Recipe: Make a Homemade Whopper

This Whopper copycat recipe makes two homemade Whoppers in about 25 minutes. Press 4 oz (113 g) of cold 80/20 ground beef into a thin 5.5-inch (14 cm) disc and grill it hot, at 450–500 °F (230–260 °C), for 2–3 minutes per side, until it reads 160 °F (71 °C) inside. Then stack it on a toasted sesame bun with, from the bottom up, pickles, ketchup, raw onion, two tomato slices, iceberg lettuce and mayonnaise. It’s my home reproduction, not Burger King’s recipe. The chain doesn’t publish its formulas, so I flag every place where I had to approximate. I cooked it on a gas grill and in cast iron. The grill wins, and I explain why below.

This page is the full recipe. For the Whopper’s history and its official ingredient list, start with my Whopper ingredients guide. The rest of my Burger King copycats, and my colleagues’ recipes, are in the Burger Breton burger recipes hub.

What is on a Whopper? The official ingredients

A Whopper is a flame-grilled beef patty on a sesame seed bun with tomato, lettuce, mayonnaise, ketchup, pickles and onion. That is the list Burger King printed on US wrappers in 2020, when it advertised the burger as free of colors, flavors and preservatives from artificial sources (KSHB, TODAY).

In the US, the patty is 4 oz of beef, about 110 g. Cheese is an extra, not part of the standard burger (Wikipedia, citing bk.com). If you want it cheesy, see my Double Whopper with Cheese copycat or the smaller Burger King cheeseburger copycat.

James McLamore, Burger King’s co-founder, created the Whopper in Miami in 1957. It sold for 37 cents. The bun has changed several times since: plain at first, sesame around 1970, a kaiser roll in 1985, then back to sesame in 1994 (Wikipedia).

The 2026 Whopper: what changed in the US

In February 2026, Burger King changed the Whopper’s bun and mayo in the US and Canada. The beef patty stayed the same. The new version reached more than 7,000 restaurants from the week of February 27, 2026, with a puffier, glazed premium bun, a creamier mayo with sweet and lemony notes, and a hinged box instead of the paper wrap. It was the burger’s first big update in almost 10 years, and it costs each franchisee about US$4,000 a year (CP24). Our news desk covers the rollout in Burger King’s new Whopper for 2026.

None of the top-ranking copycats I read take this update into account, Top Secret Recipes and Mashed included. This recipe aims at the 2026 US burger. Of the two changes, the mayo is the one you can really reproduce at home: a pinch of sugar and a few drops of lemon. The bun depends on what your bakery sells.

Whopper copycat recipe: ingredients for 2 burgers

You need half a pound of 80/20 ground beef, two sesame buns and the six cold toppings of the original. The beef weight matches the published US patty. The topping amounts are mine, tested at home, and close to the counts Todd Wilbur uses at Top Secret Recipes.

• 8 oz (226 g) ground beef chuck, 80% lean / 20% fat, cold
• 2 sesame seed buns, about 5 inches (13 cm) across
• 2 tbsp (28 g) mayonnaise
• 2 tsp (10 g) ketchup
• 4 slices ripe tomato (2 per burger)
• 6 to 8 thin rings of white onion
• 6 dill pickle chips (3 per burger)
• 1/2 cup shredded iceberg lettuce
• Kosher salt, and black pepper if you like
• Optional, for the 2026 mayo: 1/4 tsp sugar and 1/2 tsp lemon juice stirred into the mayo
• Optional, for the skillet method: liquid smoke
• Optional: 2 slices American cheese

The 5-inch bun is my choice, not an official size: Burger King doesn’t publish the bun’s diameter. Look for soft sesame buns around that width. My first test used oversized deli buns, and the patty vanished inside them. It looked like any backyard burger. The Whopper look is a wide, thin patty peeking out past the edge of the bun.

Which ground beef to use for a homemade Whopper

Use 80/20 ground chuck, which is 20% fat. A thin patty dries out fast on a hot grill, and the fat keeps it juicy. The drips also flare up over the flames, and that flare-up is where the grilled taste comes from. I tried 90/10 once. At this thickness it came off grey and dry before it had any color.

What sauce is on a Whopper?

The sauce on a US Whopper is plain mayonnaise plus ketchup. There is no secret special sauce. Since February 2026, the US mayo has been creamier, with sweet and lemony notes (CP24). Burger King hasn’t published the formula, so my sugar and lemon are an approximation. In France, the chain only calls it a creamy sauce (sauce onctueuse) and keeps that recipe to itself too (burgerking.fr).

How to make a Whopper at home: step by step

To make a Whopper at home, press cold beef into thin, wide patties, sear them hard over high heat, and stack them under cold toppings on a toasted bun. Allow about 25 minutes: 15 minutes of prep, chilling included, 6 minutes of cooking and a few minutes to build, plus the time it takes your grill to heat up.

1. Shape thin, wide patties

Divide the cold beef into two 4 oz (113 g) balls. Press each one between two sheets of parchment into a 5.5-inch (14 cm) disc, about 1/4 inch (6 mm) thick. Don’t skip the parchment: a disc this thin tore when I tried to lift it off a bare board. Make the patty wider than the bun, because it shrinks on the grill. Chill it for 10 minutes so it holds its shape.

2. Prepare the cold toppings

Slice the tomato and onion thin, shred the iceberg and pat the pickles dry. If you’re making the 2026-style mayo, stir in the sugar and lemon juice now. Keep everything in the fridge until assembly. Cold toppings against a hot patty are half the Whopper’s character.

3. Heat the grill very hot

Heat a gas or charcoal grill to 450–500 °F (230–260 °C) and oil the grates. It’s the same range I use in my Double Whopper copycat. It has to be hot enough to brown a thin patty before the center overcooks.

Beef burger patties searing on a hot gas grill, with sausages and vegetable skewers on the upper rack. This is an illustrative photo of grilling at home, not the Whopper patties from this recipe. Photo: Andrew Czap, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Grilling\_-\_Flickr\_-\_Andrew\_Czap.jpg (Photo: Andrew Czap, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Grilling\_-\_Flickr\_-\_Andrew\_Czap.jpg)

4. Toast the buns

Toast the cut sides of the buns on the cooler edge of the grill for 30 to 60 seconds, until lightly golden. Mashed’s version brushes the bun with butter first (Mashed). I do the same when I want the richer, glazed feel of the 2026 US bun.

5. Grill the patties to 160 °F (71 °C)

Salt the patties just before cooking, then grill them with the lid open for 2 to 3 minutes per side, flipping only once. Pull them when the center reads 160 °F (71 °C), the USDA minimum for ground beef (USDA FSIS). On my gas grill, that took about 2 1/2 minutes a side, so start checking early. My burger patty internal temperature guide explains how to probe a thin patty from the side. Add a cheese slice for the last 30 seconds if you want one.

A digital food thermometer checking doneness on a grill at a 2007 USDA food safety camp. The probe is in a chicken breast, and hamburger patties are cooking beside it. For ground beef, the USDA minimum is 160 °F. Photo: USDA, public domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Proper\_Food\_Safety\_Behaviors-Appliences\_and\_Thermometers\_(20120105-OC-AMW-0125).jpg (Photo: U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDAgov), public domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Proper\_Food\_Safety\_Behaviors-Appliences\_and\_Thermometers\_(20120105-OC-AMW-0125).jpg)

6. Assemble in the official order

Stack the burger from the bottom up: bottom bun, patty, pickles, ketchup, onion, two tomato slices, lettuce, mayo, then the top bun. This is the top-to-bottom order Burger King publishes on its French site, read in reverse (burgerking.fr). Eat it within a few minutes, while the patty is hot and the vegetables are still cold.

Whopper build order from the bottom bun up: bottom bun, flame-grilled patty, 3 pickle chips, 1 tsp ketchup, raw onion rings, 2 tomato slices, iceberg lettuce, 1 tbsp mayo, top sesame bun. This reverses the top-to-bottom list published on burgerking.fr. (Table: Burger Breton (own work, Clara), data from Burger King France, https://www.burgerking.fr/produit/whopper)

Whopper on the grill vs. in a skillet

A grill gets you closest to the Whopper’s flame-grilled taste. If you cook indoors, a smoking-hot cast-iron skillet with a touch of liquid smoke is the next best thing. Here is how the two compared in my kitchen.

Whopper on the grill vs. in a cast-iron skillet: 450–500 °F and 2–3 minutes per side on the grill, or a smoking-hot pan and 3–4 minutes per side. Both methods finish at 160 °F inside. Only the grill gives real flame taste and grill marks. (Table: Burger Breton (own work, Clara), skillet timing from Mashed (Angela Latimer), https://mashed.com/379996/burger-king-whopper-copycat-recipe)

Flame-grilled burger at home without a grill

To get a flame-grilled taste without a grill, heat the cast iron until it just starts to smoke, then brush each raw patty very lightly with liquid smoke. One or two drops spread with a pastry brush is plenty. More than that tastes bitter. Sear for about 3 to 4 minutes per side, as in Mashed’s version, and check for 160 °F (71 °C). Open a window first. The first time I did this, my smoke alarm went off before the first flip.

Why this recipe tastes like the original Whopper

This copycat tastes like a Whopper because it copies how the restaurant cooks and builds the burger, not just what goes in it. In Burger King restaurants, the patties ride a conveyor broiler, from makers like Duke or Nieco, over rows of gas burners, while refractory bricks heat them from above. One pass takes roughly 2 to 4 minutes (Wikipedia, Flame broiler; Tasting Table). Burger King doesn’t publish its broiler settings, so those times come from secondary sources.

• Fat over open flame. Fat drips onto the burners and flares up, which gives the smoky, charred notes. An 80/20 patty over a hot grill does the same at home.
• A thin, wide patty. A 4 oz disc wider than the bun cooks through in minutes, browns on both faces and sticks out at the edges, like the original.
• Cold toppings on a hot patty. Raw onion, tomato and iceberg sit above the meat and stay crisp and cool.
• The build order. Pickles and ketchup touch the meat, and the mayo sits with the lettuce under the top bun. Change the order and the first bite tastes different.
• Mayo plus ketchup, not a special sauce. That creamy, tangy mix is exactly what the US ingredient list prints.

My take: the build order matters more than most copycats admit. With the same patty and toppings, I swapped the mayo down onto the meat, and it tasted like a generic deli burger. Moved back under the bun, it tasted like a Whopper again.

Is the Whopper the same in the US, France and Spain?

Not exactly. The bun, the sauce and how much each market publishes all differ, and only the US gives a patty weight. Here is what each market’s official or reported information says, checked on November 4, 2026.

The Whopper in the United States, France and Spain, as of November 4, 2026. Only the US publishes a patty weight (4 oz). The US bun and mayo changed in February 2026. France lists a creamy sauce and 629 kcal. Spain publishes only part of its ingredient list. (Table: Burger Breton (own work, Clara), data from CP24, burgerking.fr, Wikipedia and Mashed)

According to Mashed, Burger King Spain doesn’t list every ingredient and cites its brand policy. For the chain’s history and markets, see our Burger King brand profile.

How this recipe compares to other Whopper copycats

The popular Whopper copycats agree on a quarter pound of beef. Top Secret Recipes gives no internal temperature, and none of the ones I read accounts for the 2026 bun and mayo. Here is what each version specifies.

Spain’s Directo al Paladar goes much bigger, with 180 g of beef per patty, well above the US 4 oz. I stayed with 113 g, because a thicker patty loses the thin, wide shape that makes a Whopper. Sources: Top Secret Recipes, Mashed.

Raw beef per patty in Whopper copycat recipes: this recipe, Top Secret Recipes and Mashed all use a quarter pound (4 oz, 113 g), the same as the US Whopper. Spain’s Directo al Paladar uses 180 g. (Chart: Burger Breton (own work, Clara), rendered with QuickChart; data from Wikipedia/bk.com, Top Secret Recipes, Mashed and Directo al Paladar)

Whopper variations to try next

Once the single Whopper works, scaling up is mostly a matter of stacking patties. Try my Double Whopper copycat, or the Australian Hungry Jack’s builds: the Ultimate Double Whopper and the Triple Whopper with Cheese.

Homemade Whopper FAQ

What sauce is on a Whopper: mayonnaise or a special sauce? In the US it is plain mayonnaise plus ketchup, as printed on the wrapper. The mayo was reformulated in February 2026 to be creamier, with sweet and lemony notes. Its recipe is not public.

How much does a Whopper patty weigh? In the US, a Whopper patty is 4 oz of beef, about 110 g, before cooking. Burger King France and Spain do not publish their patty weight.

What bun should I use for a homemade Whopper? Use a soft sesame seed bun about 5 inches (13 cm) across, toasted on the cut side. Brush it with butter if you want something closer to the glazed 2026 US bun.

How do I get the flame-grilled taste without a grill? Sear the patty in a smoking-hot cast-iron skillet after brushing it with a drop or two of liquid smoke. Cook it for about 3 to 4 minutes per side, to 160 °F (71 °C).

What fat percentage should the ground beef have? Use 80/20 ground chuck. The 20% fat keeps a thin patty juicy and creates the flare-ups that give it a grilled taste.

In what order do you build a Whopper? From the bottom: bun, patty, pickles, ketchup, onion, two tomato slices, lettuce, mayo, top bun.

Does a Whopper have cheese? No, not by default. In the US, American cheese is an optional add-on.

How many calories are in a Whopper? Burger King France lists its Whopper at 629 kcal, with 35 g fat, 49 g carbohydrates, 28 g protein and 2.5 g salt. I could not verify the official US figure. I haven’t published a calorie count for this homemade version, because it depends on your bun and beef.

Whopper nutrition facts from Burger King France, per burger: 629 kcal, 35 g fat (9.4 g saturated), 49 g carbs (12 g sugars), 28 g protein and 2.5 g salt. These are not US figures and not measured for the homemade version. (Chart: Burger Breton (own work, Clara), rendered with QuickChart; data from Burger King France, https://www.burgerking.fr/produit/whopper)

Has Burger King published the official Whopper recipe? No. In March 2020, during France’s lockdown, Burger King France posted ingredient posters for the Whopper so people could make it at home. The posters gave no quantities (Tom’s Guide). The trade press reported that the Quarantine Whopper had 8 ingredients (La Réclame).

What allergens are in a Whopper? Burger King France lists celery, sesame, egg and gluten, with possible traces of soy, tree nuts, mustard and milk. At home, check the labels on your own bun, mayo and ketchup.

Sources

Official and press sources were checked on November 4, 2026: Burger King France, Whopper, KSHB, TODAY, Wikipedia, Whopper, CP24, USDA FSIS, Mashed on Burger King Spain, Tom’s Guide and La Réclame. Competing copycats: Top Secret Recipes, Mashed and Directo al Paladar. Broiler details come from Wikipedia, Flame broiler and Tasting Table. This is an unofficial copycat recipe and is not affiliated with Burger King.