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Bifteki is a recipe that is an authentic traditional Greek dish. It reminds me of home and my mom, and is so tasty. They are essentially baked beef patties. The beef is mixed with veggies like tomatoes and onions, breadcrumbs, and parsley. Consider it a Greek version of a burger patty. I served these with delicious potatoes and with crumbled feta on top.
Why You’ll Love Bifteki
- Easy: Bifteki are so easy to make and the whole family will love them
- Healthy: These protein-packed patties are so good for you
- Meal Prep: Prep a batch of Bifteki and freeze them or keep them in the fridge to eat all week
Ingredients
Ground Beef – Ground beef is a great source of protein and a budget-friendly meat option for the whole family. Although you can use other types of ground meat in this recipe, beef is the most traditional.
Maria Koutsogiannia
Maria is the creator of FoodByMaria and your go-to Greek food expert for cozy, flavor-packed recipes. Inspired by her Mediterranean roots, she brings traditional Greek flavors, feel-good ingredients, and a whole lot of joy to everyday cooking.
Parsley – Fresh parsley will be best in this recipe as it packs the most flavor and adds some freshness to this recipe.
How to Make Bifteki
- Preheat the oven to 375F.
- Into a large mixing bowl add lemon juice, olive oil, mustard, oregano, pressed garlic cloves, and salt and whisk together to combine. Add the peeled potato wedges to the baking sheet or baking pan, drizzle over the lemon-mustard mixture, and toss to coat the potatoes. Add 1/2 cup water to the pan. Set aside.
- Prepare the burgers (Biftekia): In a mixing bowl combine the ground beef, grated onion, grated tomato and their juices, egg, breadcrumbs, olive oil, parsley, salt, and pepper. Mix to fully combine. Divide the mixture into 8-10 portions and use your hands to form into burger-sized patties.
- Place meat patties on top of the potatoes. Bake for 30 minutes, flip the burgers and bake for 30 more minutes.
- Serve with feta, lemon wedges, and our easy tzatziki.
Tips and Tricks
- Eggs and breadcrumbs are your binders in this recipe to help the patties hold their shape
- If your meat is sticking to your hands too much when making the patties, wet them slightly under the tap before handling the meat
Substitutions
- Meat: Substitute the ground beef for leaner ground meat like turkey or chicken. You can also use ground lamb or pork. However, beef is the most traditional
- Egg: If you don’t eat eggs you can leave these out but it does help with making the meat bind together better so you may end up with crumbly patties
- Potatoes: You can make just the burger patties of this recipe and skip the potatoes, but to make it a full meal, the potatoes are highly recommended
Best served with
How to Store Leftovers
Store in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days. You can also freeze just the patties between wax paper in the freezer to have easy Greek burgers to pull out and add to salads, etc.
Common Questions
Bifteki means hamburger. This is a Greek version of your traditional hamburger.
The primary difference here is the way the meat is shaped. Keftedes are more like meatballs or logs, where biftekia are shaped like hamburger patties.
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Ingredients
For the potatoes
- 6 large yellow potatoes, peeled and cut into wedges
- 1 ½ lemons (juice of)
- 5 tbsp olive oil
- ¼ cup yellow mustard
- 2 tbsp dried oregano
- 4 garlic cloves, pressed
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ cup water
For the burgers (bifteki)
- 1 ½ lbs lean ground beef
- 1 large white or yellow onions, grated
- 2 small tomatoes, grated (use roma)
- 1 egg
- ¾ cup breadcrumbs
- 1 ½ tbsp olive oil
- ¼ cup fresh chopped parsley
- 2 tsp salt
- ½ tsp pepper
For serving
Instructions
Start Cooking- Preheat the oven to 375F.
- Into a large mixing bowl add lemon juice, olive oil, mustard, oregano, pressed garlic cloves and salt and whisk together to combine. Add the peeled potato wedges to the baking sheet or baking pan, drizzle over the lemon-mustard mixture and toss to coat the potatoes. Add 1/2 cup water to the pan. Set aside.
- Prepare the burgers (biftekia): In a mixing bowl combine the ground beef, grated onion, grated tomato and their juices, egg, breadcrumbs, olive oil, parsley, salt and pepper. Mix together to fully combine. Divide the mixture into 8-10 portions and use your hands to form into burger-sized patties.
- Place meat patties on top of the potatoes. Bake for 30 minutes, flip the burgers and bake for 30 more minutes.
- Serve with feta, lemon wedges and our easy tzatziki.
Notes
- Pair these biftekia with one of our popular Greek salads – Maroulosalata aka my Mama’s Salad or Greek Cabbage Salad
- Serve with our Easy Authentic Tzatziki Recipe
- If you like this recipe you’re likely to enjoy our Greek Meatball Recipe (Keftedes)
55 people are discussing this recipe. Join in
❤️bifteka.read your answer how they are different than kiftedes.id add, that these arent fried like kiftedes.great RECIPES
I just wanted to say a big thank you for sharing your experience! Every detail you mentioned is so helpful and eye-opening. It’s great to learn from someone who has such genuine and in-depth knowledge. This share has definitely made my day a lot brighter.Veo 3
Made for the third time now and love the flavor!
My only issue is that I seem to always have to cook the potatoes for 1.5 hours instead of 1 hour, at this temperature. Any tips on getting this cooked quicker, but still juicy?
This might depend on your oven! I would keep doing what you’re doing or reducing the amount of lemon to help with cooking them quicker.
This is the second time I’ve made this dish now. The kids love them. They’re so easy to make, yet so full of flavour. I do a Greek salad with feta and tzatziki on the side.
I LOVE to hear this, thank you so much Clare!!
I made this last night Maria, it was so good I paired it with a Greek salad also from your recipes. I have leftovers and I have frozen the bifteki for another day when I’m short on time. Thank you for such great easy flavourful recipes from your heart to my home.
Thank you so much for the love, Joey!!!
What happens if you make it without the tomatoes?
They just won’t be as juicy!
Biftekia was my favorite meal I had in Greece and this one did not disappoint! What an absolute flavor bomb!
I used less EVOO in the mustard mixture and added Greek & Moroccan spices to the meat mixture. I also checked the potatoes at 45 minutes in and they were still hard. So I covered the pan with foil and let it steam the potatoes for 20 minutes. Then I uncovered it and let it cook for another 10. Even though I cooked for 15 minutes longer than directed, the patties were still super tender!
Prep time also took me a lot longer than 10 minutes haha. It took me almost an hour. I guess I’m slow! Regardless, it was worth every minute. Can’t wait to make this again!
Thank you so much for the insight and love hun!
So easy to make and sooooo Delish! My picky toddler was even impressed.
oh this makes me so happy!! Thank you so much!!
Y’all, I made this recipe for the first time for some Greek friends and everyone said it was an A+ and that we knocked it out of the park! The meat was tender and the potatoes were super flavorful. I followed the recipe exactly. Leftovers the next day were amazing as well. I will be making again and can’t wait to try other recipes. Thank you, Maria!
you are so sweet, chelsea! Thank you so much!
What kind of tomatoes are you using? I have one large heirloom tomato and wondering if I should just use one or if you used large beefsteak tomoatoes?
One lasrge heirloom will be fine hun!!
Omg I wish I had seen this before making!! I used TWO beefsteak and omg they were falling all over the place and not staying together. The meat was almost glop lol I had to reshape them after flipping! I’m sure they will still be good but I will def make again soon using two ROMAs. I love all of your recipes, koukla!