Cooking Tips For Gas Grills

Here you'll find some basic cooking tips for gas grills so that you can get the most out of your gas grill cooking including how to light a gas grill.

It might seem obvious to anyone who has a gas cooker in their kitchen at home how to light a gas grill but at the risk of stating the obvious I think it worthwhile running through the process so that you don't get caught out or indeed injure yourself.

Rule number one for lighting a gas grill for the first time is to look at the manufacturers instructions for any specific lighting instructions. After that there's a couple of good safety rules to follow every time you light up:

Check that there is enough fuel in your gas tank
Ensure that all burner control knobs are off
Turn the gas on at source and light the burners
Once lit, close the lid to let the flavour bars get up to temperature. This usually takes about ten minutes
When hot, use a long armed wire brush to dust down your cooking grate before cooking. (This is easier to do when the grill is hot)
Now you are ready to cook

The Basic Cooking Tips For Gas Grills

When it comes to the actual grilling one of the beauties of the gas grill is that you've got a dedicated area for searing. (If you haven't then you can always improvise with a griddle over the burner). When searing it's always tempting to be “doing something” but this always isn't the right course of action:

Every time you flip a piece of meat you cool the side that was starting to cook. Resist the temptation to flip and turn just the once.
Resist also the urge to squeeze your spatula and press down on food such as burgers and steaks. All this serves to do is drive out the moisture and make the end result dry.
Don't prick food. This is just another way to dry it out. Meat should cook in its fat, that's what adds the flavour. On this same point, beware of serrated tongs as these have the same impact as pricking the food.

But do:

Season steaks only on one side. When searing a steak you want a really hot grill and the seasoning acts as a heat barrier so by only seasoning on one side you are allowing as much heat as possible to get to the steak without compromising on flavor.
Use a marinade, this will add flavour and succulence to your cooking. A little sugar in the marinade also tenderises meat.

Indirect Cooking

Provided you have a gas grill with a lid then you can also cook indirectly. This basically means that the food is not directly over the heat source and so by closing the lid you are creating an oven. My drawing below shows how you would set up a gas grill for indirect cooking when using a rotisserie.