Successful grilling is as easy as following these tips!
- Direct Grilling: Food is cooked directly over the heat source.
- Indirect grilling: The grill is set up with a hot side and a cooler side. With a gas grill, this means keeping one or more burners at medium-high heat and one at low heat. Charcoal grills heat indirectly when coals are arranged so one part of the fire is hotter than the other. You can achieve this by banking most of the hot coals to one side of the grill or at the outer edges of the grill.
- Indirect vs. Direct Grilling: Foods that cook in less than 25 minutes are best grilled over direct heat. Foods that need more than 25 minutes cooking time are better when grilled indirectly.
- Make sure your grill is clean before cooking. Optimum flavor and a nonstick surface are possible only with a clean grill grate. To clean, scrub a hot grill grate with a wire brush. Or use tongs to rub an old rag or crumbled up piece of foil over the grate.
- Gather your tools and do all prep in advance. You don’t want to leave your pork tenderloin unattended or miss the window of perfect-temperature fire because you’re looking for tongs or slicing a mountain of vegetables.
- Don’t crowd the grill. Leave enough room around each piece of food for air to circulate properly and allow the fire the air it needs to flame.
- Don’t move food too often. Yes, it’s tempting to check for doneness, but sticking problems are minimized when the food sits long enough to sear. Most foods need to be turned only once.
- Brush on barbecue sauces and sweet glazes towards the end of the grill time. They will burn if brushed on right away.
- Pay attention. You’ll get the best results by keeping a close eye on how quickly your food is cooking.