Become A Better Grill Master With These Simple Eight GrillingTips
Home cooking enthusiasts often ask me for grilling tips and how to grill as the pros do. My first response is always practice, practice, practice. Consider it: professional chefs working the grill station may cook dozens of steaks on any night. That adds up to hundreds of steaks each week cooked to desired temperatures rare, medium rare, medium, medium-well, and well done.
I would imagine if you cooked dozens of steaks or dozens of chicken breasts or hundreds of fish filets each week, you would be an expert and be able to cook them with your eyes closed. But, unfortunately, reality sets in, and you may cook a couple of steaks once a week or twice a month, so how can you be sure you’ll get it right?
Nothing beats experience or the opportunity to cook one thing repeatedly, but that doesn’t mean you can improve your grilling technique.
Here are eight tips that will make you a better home griller and improve your chances of putting perfectly cooked steaks on the table every time. Combine this with experience, and you’ll be grilling like a pro.
Gas or Charcoal Grill
Grilling over gas and grilling over charcoal are two entirely different experiences. Grilling over gas is like cooking in the house on a gas stove, except you are outside.
It’s easier and faster to cook on a gas grill, but the grill racks can only be as hot as the grill is rated in BTUs. This is great for lots of items that don’t need a hot grill and perfect when you are in a hurry, but it is not so good if you want that authentic smokey flavor.
Grilling over charcoal takes a little bit longer to get the fire started and get the grill hot, but once it’s ready to go, you can control the heat by adding more coals or moving them into a confined area.
Not everything you cook needs such intense heat, but it’s nice to have when you need it. Using natural charcoal also produces smoke, which is an added benefit.
These tips work for gas or charcoal grills. Whatever method you use at your house, following these tips will make you a better griller.
Nothing makes grilling less fun than opening the cover and finding a messy grill with the racks caked with barbecues past. I’ve seen grills so impenetrable with a baked-on gooey barbecue sauce that I’m surprised the heat can get through the rack.
And how about when in the middle of grilling, the grease stuck to the sides of the grill, and the grease trap catches fire, only to make your grilling experience even more challenging?
Keep your grill clean! It allows the heat to transfer better, prevents fires, and makes you feel like a better cook. What is the best way to start with a clean grill? Finish with a clean grill.
When the grill is hot, it is much easier to clean, so be sure to pull out your grill brush and clean it before heading inside to eat.
Many of us wait until the last minute before starting the grill. This isn’t as critical with a gas grill as a charcoal grill since you only have to turn on the gas and ignite, but do you give the grill grates enough time to get hot?
More often than not, I find myself rushing to get the grill started before it has time to really get hot, slamming the burgers, strip steaks, or salmon steaks onto the grill before the grates have had time to get hot and then wonder why everything is sticking.
Not everything you cook needs the grill to be super hot, but most of the time, you’ll be starting on an extremely hot portion of a grill to sear what you are cooking and getting those beautiful grill marks and then moving the meat or fish over to a less hot side of the grill. If you don’t start with a hot grill, you won’t get the sear or the marks you may be looking for.
And remember, when you add ingredients to the grill, they absorb heat and cool down the grill. So if you add eight burgers and six hotdogs simultaneously, don’t be surprised when the grill loses some heat.
The best way to prevent this from happening is to start with a hot grill or a hot portion of it.
I don’t remember my dad ever teaching me about grill zones when I was a kid watching him burn and overcook just about everything he put on the grill. God bless him, but I remember what came off the grill as being too charred, a little well done, and having a distinctive lighter fluid taste.
He would get his fire hot with Kingsford charcoal briquets, throw the meat on the grill’s hot spot, and cook until done. No heat zones are required here, but now we know there is a better way.
It doesn’t matter if you are using a cheap charcoal grill or an overpriced stainless steel gas grill; most experts will tell you using a 2-Zone setup is the way to go when grilling. All this means is you set up your grill to have a hot side for direct radiant heat and a less hot side for indirect convection heat. Often the indirect convection heat side is no heat at all.
Depending on what you’re cooking, you may start on the direct heat side for a quick sear and then finish cooking on the indirect side, think steaks, or more often, you may start on the indirect heat and finish over the direct heat, think chicken and ribs.
And if you are cooking several things on the grill simultaneously, some items may require a slow indirect heat so as not to end up like my dad’s charred, overcooked chicken thighs, but you may want to cook the vegetables on the direct heat to cook quickly.
On a gas grill, start by turning all the burners up high to get the entire grill and chamber hot and then turn off one side – left or right or front or back, depending on your grill. If you are using charcoal, have all the coals on one side and one on the other side for indirect heat.
If your charcoal grill is big enough, you can set up three zones for hot, medium, and low heat and really get serious about your grilling.
There will be times when all you have to do is season some steaks with salt and pepper and throw them on the grill, but did you remember to take them out of the refrigerator 15 to 25 minutes before you start grilling? Grilling foods, especially meats, is much more efficient when they start out at room temperature.
What about brines, marinades, and rubs? Are you planning on using any or all of these techniques? Brines are popular now. The idea is to soak poultry and lean meats like pork in a salty solution to help them hold their moisture, resulting in juicy, tender food.
How long you brine your ingredients depends on what you are cooking, but remember to rinse off the brine before cooking, or you may end up with over-salty results.
Marinades are used for tougher cuts of meat, so think of meats you will be grilling on indirect heat. Marinades usually have an acetic element like wine, vinegar, fresh herbs, and spices. Oil is another popular ingredient used in marinades.
Depending on the cut of meat, marinades can take as little as 30 minutes, but you’ll usually do better if you marinate overnight in the refrigerator.
Rubs are blends of spices and herbs applied to foods before grilling to give them more flavor. If a liquid is used like an oil, it is called a wet rub; otherwise, if no liquids are added, it’s called a dry rub.
An excellent example of a popular rub is Cajun rub, which might include pepper, dried thyme, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne pepper, and salt. Like a marinade, rubs can be added 30 minutes before cooking or the night before so the spices can permeate the meat.
So, depending on what you are cooking and what you plan to use to add extra flavor, remember to plan ahead so you’re not scrambling at the last minute.
No one likes their meat sticking to the grates when grilling. Unfortunately, I’ve left the skin on the grill too often when grilling chicken. One way to help prevent this is by greasing the grill before starting.
Some say you should only use a wadded paper towel dipped in oil and applied to the grates with tongs, but I still like spray oil. Either way, if your grill is clean, hot, and greased before you start cooking, you have a better chance of not having any sticking problems.
You don’t have to grease up the grill if you are cooking something marinated in oil or using an oil-based rub. So it’s redundant. What type of oil, you ask?
As I said earlier, I typically use Pam or some generic version, but if I were using oil on a paper towel, I’d most likely use Canola, Grape Seed, or Safflower Oil. There’s no reason to use expensive olive oil to lubricate a grill. It loses its expensive taste when it hits the hot grates.
One of the most prevalent mistakes home cooks make when grilling is adding too many items to the grill and expecting good results. Tip #3 talks about creating grill zones for direct and indirect cooking, but there’s no room for two zones if you overcrowd the grill from the start.
If you add too much to the grill and have a flare-up, there’s no place to move the food. And let’s face it; if you cook foods that start dripping fatty juices, you will have flare-ups.
No way around this, so you want to make sure you have a cooler part of the grill to move these foods over to.
Another reason to not overcrowd the grill is similar to not overcrowding a frying pan when cooking inside. The more you add to the grill, the more heat you remove from the grates. If you remove too much heat, the meats will steam instead of developing the desired grill marks, and the end results will be terrible.
If you don’t have a big enough grill for a large group, cook in stages or borrow a neighbor’s grill but be prepared to stay very busy at the grill.
My girls used to watch the movie Lion King repeatedly when they were little, and there was a line in it when Zazu says to Scar, “Didn’t your mother ever tell you not to play with your food?”
It’s true regarding grilling and a mistake many home cooks make. They can’t help themselves from constantly fiddling with what they are cooking – moving food around, poking it, flipping it, pressing down on it.
What gives most foods you grill so much flavor is the caramelization that takes place when the food is seared and left alone.
Of course, you have to flip what you are cooking at least once to cook both sides and if you use the two-zone technique mentioned previously, you’ll move the food again but try to resist the urge to give it a poke or constantly flip. Instead, let it develop the wonderful flavors available from grilling.
Have you ever found yourself walking away from the grill to, let’s say, get another beer or glass of wine, check out the score of your favorite sporting team, or get something else done in the kitchen only to come back and find what you are cooking up in flames?
It happens to all of us, and I can only say Don’t Walk Away From the Grill once you start cooking!
It’s easy to do and we all think we can do ten things at once (multitask), and most of the time, we can, but there will be times when your multitasking turns into multi-disasters.
In professional kitchens, one person operates the grill station all night. That person is responsible for what goes on the grill to ensure it is adequately cooked.
You might say home cooking is not like cooking in a restaurant, and it isn’t. You only have to stay at the grill for a short time compared to standing in front of a grill all night. Indeed if you are cooking a few steaks, you can handle standing there for 10 minutes without having to run off.
Now, if you are roasting a turkey using indirect heat, no one would expect you to stand there the whole time, but if you are cooking anything in under 15 minutes, try to resist another urge to multitask. Single task on the task at hand so your food is perfectly cooked.
