Top 10 Tips for a Perfect Meat Grill

Gas, multiple burners, wood-grilled flavor and indirect heat for thicker meats.

Who knew?

Top Chef Joe Guli, of the GrillSmith restaurant chain, for one, who offers in time for the Fourth of July barbecue season his top 10 tips for getting the grill just right.

But first a bit on Guli: he studied at the Florida Culinary Academy; he’s been a chef for 10 years; he’s worked with chefs renowned worldwide, including master chef Wolfgang Puck; he previously served as executive chef for the Cheesecake Factory in Las Vegas; and for the Cheesecake chain of 144 restaurants he once was named top chef.

Worth hearing are these 10 tips for a perfect burger .

1. Go With Gas

• Use a gas grill to help control cooking temperature. Most gas grills have a number of heat settings and many include built-in temperature gauges to determine the correct cooking temperature required for a certain food. 

2. Use Multiple Burners

• Grilling different foods that require different cooking temperatures? Use a gas grill with multiple burners to better control the temperature for each food. 

3. Add Wood-Grilled Flavor

• Use wooden grilling planks to add wood flavor to food as it is being grilled.

4. Use The Best Heat  

• Direct heat grilling is the best approach for grilling foods such as hamburgers, steaks, hot dogs, brats, pork chops, chicken breast and fish. To grill with direct heat, place food on the grilling grate in the area directly over the heat source.
• Use indirect heat for thicker meats, including whole chickens, whole turkeys, beef roasts and pork roasts. Thick meats are best cooked with a heat source that is not directly under the food.This allows them to cook slowly to ensure that the food does not burn on the outside before the inside reaches the necessary level of doneness.

• Alternate direct and indirect heat grilling for large meat cuts. It’s a good idea to sear large meat cuts directly over high heat to help seal in the juices and maintain tenderness. Then, place them in an area of the grilling grate that is away from the heat source to allow the indirect heat to cook the meat slowly until it’s done.

5. Choose The Right Lean-To-Fat Ratio

• Use ground beef that contains 77 perfect lean and 23 percent fat. This will result in juicy, flavorful burgers that won’t flare up on the grill due to too much fat content.

6. Don’t Overwork Burger Meat

• When making burger patties, touch the patties lightly and be careful not to overwork the meat.
• Overworked meat will become tough, dried out and could fall apart on the grill.

7. Cut And Coat Vegetables

• Cut vegetables into uniform-sized pieces to help them cook evenly.
• Rub vegetables with vegetable oil or toss them with a clear or light marinade prior to grilling over indirect heat. 

8. Avoid Overcooking

• A digital meat thermometer can be your best friend.
• Cook poultry to an internal temperature of 165 degrees.
• Cook hamburgers and medium steaks to an internal temp of 160 degrees.
• Cook pork to an internal temperature of 150 degrees.

9. Add Flavor The Easy Way

• Pre-mixed seasonings, marinades, rubs and sauces can be a big help.
• Poultry such as chicken breasts should be marinated for 30 minutes to one hour.
• Marinate tender steaks — like sirloin — for 15 minutes to two hours.
• Less tender steaks — like flank — should be marinated for six to 24 hours. 

10. Give It A Rest

• Let meat rest after removing it from the grill for at least three minutes — 10 minutes for larger cuts — before slicing. This allows for the juices to redistribute evenly and for the flavor to stays in the meat, rather than leak out onto the cutting board.
• Place the meat on a hot serving plate and cover it loosely with foil while resting to keep it from getting cold.