The aroma of sizzling delicacies on the barbecue grill in the summer will never fail to impress guests and family. Be it chicken, beef, or pork. An outdoor barbecue is always best enjoyed with a group of family and friends.
To impress your guests and even outdo yourself, you will need to know the best grilling tips for perfecting the best barbecue experience that will even make celebrated Chef Ramsey nod in approval.
Tips for a Perfect BBQ
Food is the number one factor that brings people together. Good food results in a happy family that will in turn want to engage in some fun outdoor activities and bond even better.
1. Season Your Food Well Ahead Of Time
Seasoning meat can not be over-emphasized. If you want to make delicious meals for your guests, then seasoning meat ahead of time will make them tasty. The reason behind this approach is simple, certain spices and seasonings like rosemary and oregano need sufficient time to penetrate into the meat you want to grill.
2. Use Vinegar-Based Marinade
For those who want to experience some excellent barbecue dishes, remember to try marinating your meat in an oil and vinegar mixture. Vinegar-based marinade with spices like garlic, onion’s or lemon is bound to leave your taste buds wanting more. Soaking the meat in the mixture for a few hours before cooking it on the grill will moisten the grilled meat with an extra tasty kick that your taste buds will love.
3. Clean The Grill Properly
Before you place any food on the grill, make sure it is clean. Use a wire brush or take out its food residue with the help of a damp paper towel. This will ensure that your food is not contaminated.
4. Grill on Medium to High Temperature
While you use the best gas grill to barbecue your meat, you can set the temperature on high to get great grilled food in summer. But still, you have to be cautious since there could be chances of a flare-up and smoking. Also, depending on what you are cooking, you can use the medium setting, which would result in a better barbeque experience.
5. Space The Pieces
While cooking your food on the barbecue grill, leave some space between the pieces of meat you are barbequing. The reason behind this is simple; if you place too many pieces of meat together, then they will become soggy because of the steam generated from them.
6. Take Your Time
Tasty foods are not rushed! This is a principle that nicely fits with barbequed dishes. If you want to make perfect barbeque meals for your guests in the summer, then you should grill slowly over a low gas flame to retain the juices and flavors. For this, close the lid when grilling your meat so that the smoke and the aroma won’t escape.
7. Keep Checking Your Meal
Unless you want to eat some burned offering, do not forget to check your food when grilling regularly. Checking your food regularly will help the meat to cook evenly. You can also use a meat thermometer and insert it into the thickest part of the meat to ensure even cooking throughout.
8. Use Indirect Heat
Barbeque your meat over a low to medium gas flame. This will ensure an evenly cooked dish. If you place the meat directly on the grill, it might cause burning and charring of food, making it lose its flavor. The food might also get overcooked, spoiling the meal you took hours to prepare. Also, don’t start grilling until after letting the charcoal burn for 10 minutes or longer, depending on how hot you want it to be.
9. Toss Water on the Tire
If you are using a charcoal barbeque grill, you can toss some water on the fire or use a squirt bottle of water when needed. This will help you keep the fire under control while your food grill sizzles slowly.
Cleaning Your Barbeque Grill
It is easy to postpone cleaning your grill after a successful grilling session. Yet, the best time to clean your grill is after the flame has died down, and the coals are still hot. A grill brush will help scrape off all the ashes and food residue from your grill.
Make sure that you do not use water on the grill when it is hot. Let it cool down first before cleaning it with water to avoid rusting of metal grates, or worse yet, getting burned.
Remember to clean out the ash from your charcoal basket, as well. You can use a shovel or simply dump it out.
Clean-up is best done right away while your grill is still hot. If you let it cool down first and decide to postpone cleaning until the next time you plan on using the grill, then you will have a much harder time cleaning it up since the food and residue will have solidified into a hard-to-remove substance.
It is best to clean your charcoal grill immediately after you are done with it, whenever possible. If not, clean it as soon as possible so that grease and other substances won’t dry up in the grill basket, on the grate, and on the chimney walls. There are some simple steps of how to clean a gas grill as well.
In Conclusion
Simply following these tips will make your next barbecue a success. So, before you head outside with the grill and tongs in hand, take some time to read through our list of simple guidelines for perfecting that smoky taste from sizzling hot meat on an open flame.