Common Grilling Mistakes and How to Fix Them

People always ask me, what’s the most common grilling mistake you see?

The most frequent mistake I see is people choosing the wrong cooking/grilling method. There are three types of grilling: direct, indirect, or a combo.

DIRECT = Food that takes less than 20 minutes

INDIRECT = Food that takes more than 20 minutes

COMBO = Sear over DIRECT heat for 1-2 minutes a side, and move to INDIRECT heat to finish cooking 

My rule of thumb is anything that takes 20 minutes or less to cook uses the direct method, and if the food takes more than 20 minutes to cook, I use the indirect cooking method. Here is more information on the cooking/grilling methods.

Once you’ve mastered the direct and indirect cooking methods, you can use the combo method: sear over direct heat and finish cooking over indirect.This is the method that I use the most. Searing everything from thick steaks to roasts over direct heat and finishing the cooking over a gentle indirect heat.

If you don’t know how long your food will take to cook, think about it this way:  The heavier and denser the food, the longer it will take to cook.  If a potato and a large shrimp are about the same diameter, how do you cook them? The heavier and denser potato needs indirect heat to cook through, and the quick-cooking shrimp needs direct heat. 

People think grilling is more hands-on than it really is, what are they doing wrong?

I think we see “grilling” on tv and think it’s supposed to be high-stakes action, but it’s actually a very hands-off technique! Remember, it’s a heat source just like your stove or oven—only outdoors.

  • Too-frequent “peeking” Repeatedly lifting the lid to check the food while it’s cooking lengthens cooking time. 

  • Too-frequent flipping The rule of thumb is to only turn food once, halfway through grilling time—this will help seal in juices and keep all foods from burgers to fish from sticking and breaking apart.

A lot of people think that grilling over the highest heat possible is the best way to that “good char.” Is that true?

More than likely, you will be burning the exterior of your food and the interior will be raw. Many people think that grilling meat for a short time at high temperatures seals in juices. Actually, all this does is to burn the meat on the surface and while leaving it raw on the inside. 

You will get great grill marks, a.k.a. “good char” if you use the grilling trilogy and brush all your food with EVOO before seasoning it. The oil promotes caramelization (good char) and keeps the food juicy. I get my best grill marks by searing over a higher direct heat and moving to indirect heat, a.k.a. the Combo method. You don’t want to actually “char” your food which literally means to burn or reduce to charcoal.

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Copyright 2023 Elizabeth Karmel

Elizabeth Karmel