How To Grill Like A Pro

When you fire up the grill, there’s every chance that you’re cooking for the whole family or even your neighbors get involved.

10:57 18 June 2021

You don’t want to disappoint, so you want to be at your best when behind the grill. Fortunately, you’ll find out how to become a grilling pro in the next few minutes.

 

In this short post, we have the ten tips and tricks that’ll push your grilling skills from hobbyist to professional. They’re relatively simple things that some people miss out on when operating the grill that, when practiced, will make the food you’re grilling come out even better.

 

We’ve also assumed that you’re operating a standard grill, too. There is a lot of other equipment that will improve your grilling performance too, like using a charcoal chimney, but we wanted to keep your transformation into a pro as budget-friendly as possible.

 

1. Know Your Grill

 

Before you start cooking anything, let’s start at the very beginning with your grill. You probably already have one if you’re here, so let’s talk about the pros and cons of charcoal and gas grills so you know what you’re dealing with.

 

Charcoal grills are renowned for having a more authentic, grilled flavor, and you can improve that flavor through the use of different wood chips. It’s this versatility that attracts a lot of grilling connoisseurs to charcoal grills. With that versatility comes more skill that’s needed to tame the grill, but anybody can become a pro at these grills.

 

Gas grills are much easier to control. Lighting them is easier and controlling the temperature is as easy as turning a dial. Wood chips can be used with gas grills but you need to soak them first and then wrap them in foil.

 

Whichever grill you have, you can become a pro at both with the right tactics and enough hours behind the grill. Experience is the best teacher, so learn all about your grill so you can use it to its fullest potential. Know the brand and model of your grill too, since each one will have different capabilities that you need to consider.

 

If you’re cooking at a grill that you don’t own, as a guest, for example, you should take the time to get to know the grill before you attempt cooking anything.

 

2. Mise En Place

 

Mise en place is a chef term for having an organized working area, so this is something you should keep in mind before you first fire up the grill. You need to have the right tools before you try grilling, like a spatula, tongs, a long fork, and a sauce brush if you plan to use sauces to enhance the taste of your food while cooking. Keep all these tools besides your grill, so you aren’t abandoning your post to gather everything when you should be using your grill. Abandoning your grill is a surefire way to lose food to overcooking.

 

3. Prep The Grill

 

You shouldn’t start grilling until your grill is ready. This means it needs to be cleaned, preheated, and oiled. Preheating and cleaning are simple, you need the grill to be preheated to properly clean it anyway. Scrub it with a wire brush while it’s warm. Then oil the grate with the cooking oil of your choice.

 

Then you can start cooking, though you should try and cook evenly across the whole grill so one part of it doesn’t become dirtier than the rest, as these can be stubborn to clean.

 

4. Use Cooking Zones

 

This one is especially important if you’re grilling a lot of different foods, which will typically require different cooking times. They may need different heat levels, so cooking them all on the same grill is a no-no. Move charcoal around or, if you’re using gas, your grill might have adjustable trays that make cooking zones much easier to create. Keep the lid closed too, so the flames don’t get fed and your food doesn’t burn.

 

5. Use Timers & Thermometers

 

It’s easy to let your ego get in the way when you’re at the grill, especially if it’s the centerpiece of a social event. Don’t “eyeball” food to determine when it’s done, use timers and thermometers no matter your skill level. Grilling isn’t the same as cooking in an oven, there are a lot of conditions that change how your food cooks. Your grill is outside, after all, so you have wind to contest with.

 

Use a timer to keep track of how long your food has been cooking and, when it seems done, still use a thermometer to make absolutely sure. Remember that it’s better to undercook food and then make up for the difference since you can’t un-cook burned food.

 

6. Get A Basket And/Or Grill Pan

 

This is a relatively inexpensive addition to your grill that can greatly improve your grilling. Every griller has made this rookie mistake – losing valuable food by letting them fall through the grill. If you’re cooking small vegetables or narrow cuts of meat, you should have some kind of pan or griddle that keeps the food safe while allowing it to cook to perfection.

 

7. Make Burgers Thin

 

When grilling ground meat, you’ve probably noticed that patties puff out at the center. You can’t construct a decent burger when the toppings and the bun slide off the patty, so it’s best to keep them as flat as possible. How do you do that? By forming the patties to make them much thinner, particularly in the middle. It’s an easy fix that everybody can do, and it’ll still fit in whatever buns you’ve brought to the BBQ.

 

8. Dark Meat Cooks Better

 

Another quick tip that can elevate your cooking game is knowing which meats to cook. It’s simple, dark meat cooks better. When choosing which meats to cook, favor the dark meat parts over the lighter parts. Many animals, like chickens, have dark meat that you should choose when grilling. Cook the thighs instead of the breast if you’re grilling birds.

 

9. Remove Cooked Food

 

This is a simple but vital piece of advice that many beginners don’t practice. If you have a lot of food on the go but some meats finish before others, do not leave it on the grill. Even when there’s a minute or two between them, don’t be tempted to wait until they’re all done to remove them. That extra minute could be vital, toughening up and ruining your meat by overcooking it slightly.

 

Keep a plate to the side with some aluminum foil, which will conserve heat and keep the meat hot until it’s served. Cover them with the foil too, for complete protection.

 

10. Don’t Stick To Meat

 

When we think of grilling, steaks, burgers, and sausages come to mind. Meat tastes great when cooked on the grill but you can, and should, cook vegetables too if you want to make a full meal. Many vegetable items can be grilled, even lettuce if you cut it in half and oil it, and it’ll take much less time to cook too. You can also make sauces or salsas by cooking the vegetable ingredients and then cutting or mashing them up.

 

If you’re hosting a social event, you may have vegetarians who would prefer non-meat items from the grill, so check out those recipes. You’d be surprised at how tasty vegetables can become when they’re oiled up and cooked on the grill.