Grilled veggies, grilled chicken, grilled fish, who does not love all of this? Having a grilling machine at home has become essential. Irrespective of what time of the year it is, pulling out your grilling machine is always a good idea.
But before you whip out those hot dogs and burgers to throw on the grill, it would be best if you learned some new tricks to improvise your grilling technique. So here are 5 little tips that will make you better at grilling on your barbecue smokers for outdoors.
Let Your Hand Guide the Heat
Some grilling machines come with a built-in thermometer to help you see the temperature and heat level for grilling. Regardless of whether your device has it or not, it is always a good idea to let your hand guide you and determine how hot it is. Preheating the grill is always a good idea since it allows the plates to contract the heat for better food grilling.
High Heat– You can determine whether the grill grate is high heat by the amount of time you can hold your hand above it. If you are holding your hand 4-6 inches above the gate and can only manage to keep for 1-3 seconds before you pull away, it is on high heat.
Medium Heat- Your grill gate is on medium heat if you are able to hold your palm above it for 4-6 seconds.
Low Heat– You know the grill gate is on low heat if you are able to hold your palm for at least 7-10 seconds.
Direct and Indirect Heat
No matter what kind of grill machine you have at home, gas or charcoal, it is always necessary to create heat zones in it. If you are preheating your grill, it should have both direct and indirect heat.
Direct heat- When you apply direct heat, it means that you are cooking your food items directly on top of an open flame. This is a good recourse if you want grill lines or want to sear the food nicely.
However, it is also possible that you overcook the outer layer of the food and the inner part of it remains uncooked. And this is where you need indirect heat.
Indirect Heat- This part of the grill is separate from the direct heat part and remains hot if you preheat the grill. However, there are no direct flames below the grill plate. This gives you a chance to move your food item from direct heat to indirect heat and prevent it from overcooking.
Do You Need the Lid?
The decision to keep the lid on depends on what kind of food you are cooking. Frequently opening or closing the grill lid can lead to temperature fluctuations in the grill, so you need to decide before you start the grilling process.
If you are cooking thin and quickly cooked pieces of meat, you need not put a lid on top of it. However, if you choose to grill thick and more significant pieces of meat, placing a cover on top of it is a good idea since it can hold in the heat.
Pro tip- If you want the lid closed, remember to close it as soon as you open it, or the temperature may cool down inside.
Keep the Sauce For the End
People often wish to make their grilled foods more flavorful by drizzling some sauce or glaze on top of it. It is delicious, no doubt about that! But, it is always a better idea to wait for a while and not instantly add the sauce onto the meat.
You see, the thing is, the moment you start to add the sauce on it while it is still grilling, the outer side of your meat will begin to char or burn. So instead, you should wait till the end of the cooking time to brush the sauce a bit on the meat. Save the remaining till the serving time; your meat will turn out to be much better cooked.
Let it Stay For a While
You may not be able to resist cutting into that beautifully cooked meat, but your patience will be worth it. Letting the grilled meat rest for 5-10 minutes allows it to distribute the juices in it and settle perfectly evenly.
On the other hand, cutting it immediately will leave most of its flavor on the cutting board. Now the choice is yours!
Final Words
So the next time you have friends or family over and want to impress them with your cooking, follow these tips and become a master griller.