Method · Hot and dry
Grill
Run a fire with a hot side and a cool side, and stop burning dinner.
Most burnt chicken comes from one mistake: the whole grill on high. A good cook builds two zones, a hot side to sear and a cool side to finish. Learn that and the grill stops being a gamble.
This lesson is free, start to finish. So is every other one.
At a glance
- Best for
- Steaks, burgers, chicken pieces, skewers, fish, sturdy vegetables
- Heat
- A hot side for searing, a cool side for finishing
- Time
- 5 to 45 minutes
- Level
- A step up. The fire is the lesson.
What you need
- A grill with a lid
- Gas or charcoal. The lid turns it into an oven.
- Long tongs and a grill brush
- Clean grates stick less.
- Instant-read thermometer
- Grill marks tell you nothing about the inside.
- A chimney starter, for charcoal
- Lights the coals without lighter fluid, in about 15 minutes.
Why it works
A grill cooks two ways at once. Right over the fire is direct heat: fast, fierce, and good for a crust. Away from the fire with the lid down is indirect heat: the grill works like an oven. Thin food lives on the direct side. Thick food and anything with bone or sugar starts or finishes on the indirect side, so the inside cooks before the outside burns.
Build two zones
- Charcoal: bank all the lit coals to one side. The empty side is your cool zone.
- Gas: turn one side to high and leave the other side off or on low.
- Preheat with the lid down for 10 to 15 minutes. Then brush the grates clean.
- Oil the food, not the grate.
- Know where the safe spot is before anything goes on. That’s where food goes when the fire flares.
Direct heat: steaks, burgers, skewers
- Dry the food and oil it lightly. Salt it.
- Lay it over the fire and leave it until it lifts off without sticking.
- Turn it once it has color. Flip more often if the fire is very hot.
- If fat drips and the flames jump, slide the food to the cool side until they die down. Don’t spray water.
- Check the temperature. Rest it before you cut.
Indirect heat: chicken and thick cuts
- Start bone-in chicken skin side up on the cool side, lid down, vents open.
- Cook until it’s about 10 degrees short of done. Thighs and legs take 30 to 40 minutes.
- Move it over the fire to crisp the skin, a minute or two a side. Watch it.
- Sauce with sugar in it goes on in the last few minutes only. Sugar burns.
- Chicken is done at 165°F. Dark meat is better at 175°F.
Fish and vegetables
- Fish: a very clean, very hot grate, and oil on the fish. Skin side down. Don’t move it until it lets go.
- Cut vegetables big so they don’t fall through, or use skewers. Oil and salt them first.
- Corn, peppers, zucchini and onions go over direct heat. Potatoes and whole heads of garlic go on the cool side.
- Soak wooden skewers in water for 30 minutes so they don’t catch fire.
When it goes wrong
- Black outside, raw inside
- It sat over direct heat the whole time. Start it on the cool side and finish over the fire.
- Everything sticks
- The grate was dirty or cold, or you turned too soon. Preheat, brush, oil the food, and wait for it to lift.
- Flare-ups
- Fat hit the fire. Move the food to the cool side and close the lid. Trim extra fat next time.
- Dry chicken breast
- It was cooked like a steak. Pound it to an even thickness, or cook it on the cool side and pull it at 160°F to rest up to 165°F.
- Bitter, burnt sauce
- It went on too early. Sauce in the last five minutes.
Practice on these