Grilling Tips - Grilling Recipes
Hot Tips for Grilling Season
Try these insider tips to better grilled food
By Kat Kinsman
All summer long, we'll be sharing our most sizzling cooking and equipment care secrets from the grilling trenches, and featuring tips from readers just like you. Read on for savvy ways to maximize meat, fish and veggies' natural deliciousness and find out how you can help your fellow grillers fan the flames.
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Hot Tips for Grilling Season
All summer long, we'll be sharing our most sizzling cooking and equipment care secrets from the grilling trenches, and featuring tips from readers just like you. Read on for savvy ways to maximize meat, fish and veggies' natural deliciousness and find out how you can help your fellow grillers fan the flames.
CHICKEN
-According to a study conducted by the Food Safety Consortium, adding Thai spices or rosemary to grilled food can significantly reduce the risk of exposure to carcinogenic compounds. Add flavor while protecting your family.
- Premarinate or brine chicken in a salty or acidic solution to keep your meat ultra moist. Even just a two-hour soak in salted water will work, but we like to squeeze in some lemon or vinegar -- or delicious sweet iced tea or bourbon.
- If your grill has hot and cold spots, sear the chicken lightly (don't burn it!) on the hot zone first and then let it cook more slowly in the cooler area.
- How do you make sure chicken is fully cooked without slicing it open and sacrificing the juices? Easy -- a meat thermometer should register 165 degrees F when you slide it into thigh (or similarly thick) meat. Just make sure you're not touching the bone, as that will register a false read.
Get Steven Raichlen's Recipe for Basic Beer-Can Chicken
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MORE CHICKEN
- White meat cooks more quickly than dark meat, so stagger your cooking times.
- Ask your butcher to butterfly a whole chicken. It'll cook much more quickly since increased surface area will be exposed to the flame. Or, read our article on learning to spatchcock a chicken at home!
- For seriously sealed-in flavor, get your hand up under chicken skin, loosen the membrane, and spread your rub or marinade. You can use a spoon and gloves if you're squeamish, but either way -- make sure to sanitize your hands afterward.
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SELECTING MEAT
- A pricey grill set-up is dandy, but you're really paying the price if you decide to skimp on meat quality. That's not to say that you've got to shell out for filet mignon -- in fact many of the best grill cuts are the cheaper ones. Just make sure you've got a decent amount of marbling, 'cause more fat means more flavor (don't worry, calorie-phobes -- most of it drips out), and keeps your meat moist.
STEAK
- Test for steak doneness by pressing a finger into the meat. Rare feels like your chin, medium like the tip of your nose, and well done feels like your forehead.
- Let steaks sit for 10-15 minutes after they come off the grill so the juices have time to redistribute.
- Meat should be blotted dry with paper towels before it meets the heat. Otherwise it's boiling, steaming and braising -- not grilling.
MORE STEAK
- You may have heard that salting steaks pre-grilling dries them out, but grilling gurus like Steven Raichlen want to smoke out the truth. Salt (try the coarse, kosher variety) forms a crust that locks in the beef's flavorful juices, so go ahead and shake it, baby!
- If you're one of the many people opting for a leaner lifestyle, you don't have to trim out the flavor and juiciness when you trim off the fat. Wait until after your meat is off the grill to slice off the excess fat. You'll still save calories, and much more flavor.
BURGERS
- Prevent burger bulge by pressing your thumb into the center of patties while they're still raw. They'll fill out again as the meat cooks.
- Hands off! While constantly flipping the burgers might make you feel like you're really playing with fire, it doesn't do much good for your meat's moisture. For killer grill marks and a juicy patty, let the meat sit on the hot grill for at least a few minutes, and then flip just once.
Get Steven Raichlen's Recipe for Hamburgers with Herb Butter
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FISH
- If you're grilling a whole fish, when it's time to flip -- don't. Instead, use two spatulas to roll it over.
- Fish shouldn't smell, well, fishy. Also look for non-cloudy eyes and red gills as signs of super-fresh seafood.
- Properly cooked fish steaks should flake when lightly pressed.
Get Steven Raichlen's Recipe for Salmon with Mustard Glaze
MORE FISH
- Fish is delish, and a healthy grilling option to boot. Consider investing in a fish basket and prevent delicate morsels from sticking to the grate (which you ALWAYS oil properly, don't you?) and flaking off into the flames.
- Cook fish skin-side down, and don't turn it at all. The fish will peel right off the skin which you can then grill until crispy, pry up with a spatula, salt, and snack on.
RIBS
- Cut down on cooking time for sausages and ribs by boiling them in water or beer before grilling.
Get Steven Raichlen's Recipe for Chinatown Ribs
Recent Comments
redhoefler 09:17:58 PM Jun 08 2009
for those messages with the piggish comments; if you're going to act or type like a pig, at least learn how to spell simple words you should have learned as a child. What's a bionic "sauge" If you meant "sausage", that's how it's spelled, moron
redhoefler 09:15:58 PM Jun 08 2009
There is help for cancer; it's called prevention. By eating fresh fruits and veggies, whole grain pastas, breads, and like foods, rather than everything with white flour, white sugar, white this and white that, not so much red meat. not too many processed foods, few junk treats, we could all reduce the number of cancers. There have been people cured with pure anitoxidants instead of chemo, so there are cures, but how cheap whould that be compared to chemo treatments? You have to search out these alternatives, your doctor will advise you how long you have to live, and if you believe his/her negativity, you will die around that time frame. Dispute the prognosis and search for other answers. Lots of people ;have and they are still aroung to this day; long after their doctor gave them. They'll rarely send you elsewhere, just home to die.
pauljpro 08:04:02 PM Jun 08 2009
cancer, heart disease, etc--nature's way of thinning out the population so we wont all starve to death. Why fight nature? Death is inevitable anyway? Just live your life like today is the last (James Dean)
arabiagks1 06:56:53 PM Jun 08 2009
You people are conpsiracy idiots. Dont' you know any cancer researchers...they have lots of money and are dedicated to finding cures. Your idiot "CEO's are heartless bastards" theories have nothing to do with the people who are doign the research. There would be a huge market for cancer cures..and you have to be worried about being first in case someone jumps in front of you...that's how markets works. Caner is tricky and complicated...like AIDS....there are no cures because it's complicated..might take another 100 years to figure out...but the lasck of cures is not because of a giant conspiracy. You idiots who believe that need to leave my country and leave it for us sane people.
dstock3321 06:06:32 PM Jun 08 2009
Comments are so ridiculous that they are not even worth answering.
palmersp 06:04:26 PM Jun 08 2009
Any of you cancer freaks seen Elvis lately; oh, and lbj ordered the hit on jfk.
burfly49 05:58:15 PM Jun 08 2009
When my husband got cancer I was on the internet day and night 24-7 trying to find help for him. Other country's have a cure except ours. If you want to read a real horror story read the book Stepping out of the box. This book is a real eye opener for cancer patients. Our government doesn't want to give us the cure. They had a cure for cancer many years ago but our crooked government refused us the right to life. It's all about money and power and greed. Shame on them. It would be a different story if our goverment all came down with cancer!! See how fast the cancer cure would be found then. My husband was my best friend and soul mate and die of a needless death.
rachaellockhart 05:55:26 PM Jun 08 2009
I agree with all of you! The gov. will not care until it happens to someone they love or themselves... Its soo sad!!!
landslowrance 05:47:32 PM Jun 08 2009
They don't want us to have the cure for the common cold or cancer. There is no money to be made from these cures. They can only make money from so called treatments.When the super rich die of cancer something is wrong, because certainly they could afford the cure.
kmccreary41 05:42:41 PM Jun 08 2009
i agree completely, cancer would have been cured a long time ago if it werent so profitable lots of ppl making lots of money
