How to Grill Just ABout Anything

Grilling is one of the best ways to make a variety of meat and seafood. Whether you enjoy a good Ribeye steak, a fresh ground hamburger or veggies grilled to perfection, learning how to grill can be tricky. Depending on where you live in the country, what type of grill you have and what type of meat or seafood you use can determine the overall outcome of your meal. We’ve put together some great grilling instructions to get you started right.

How to Grill

For smaller grilled items, like hot dogs, kabobs and pork chops, you want to use the grill hot and fast. This means cooking on high, which may not be something you’re used to doing when grilling. Even when a recipe calls for you to cook on a lower heat, if you’re not doing anything special to the meat, cook it on high.

If cooking fish, chicken or veggies, avoid the high heat. These items should be cooked over a medium flame. They’ll take longer to cook but they’ll be delicious on your grill.

Indirect grilling creates a wonderful flavor on the grill when done right. This is where you only cook on one side of the grill and keep uncooked food on the other side. You move food back and forth during the grilling process and the uncooked food slowly cooks, much like baking in the oven. This works best for ribs, roasts and whole chickens.

Don’t forget to flip your meat. Some recipes say not to, others say do it too often. You should always flip your food to cook it evenly on the grill. When flipping, you want to move it to another section of the grill to keep it hot. When you flip and place the piece of meat back on the same grill spots, it actually cools down the meat slightly which can affect the overall outcome.

Meat is done when it’s best done for you. While many recipes will give you time frames, it really depends on the type of grill, the flame, how often you flip and how attentive you are. One day you may cook the perfect steak, the next not so much. Grilling takes practice and learning to live with the frustration of a bad piece of meat here or there while you’re learning the ins and outs of your grill.