Grilling Tips

You've arrived home with a beautiful Tony's steak, chop or chicken for guests and you want it to look as great as it tastes. Here are some step-by-step tips to better browning and grilling to perfection. Buon Appetito!

Tune Up Your Grill
Ash is an insulator and inhibits grilling, take your grill apart regularly and clean away ash with a wire brush. Conversely, a greasy grill will flare up excessively, attract insects and turn rancid. To solve this, heat your grill past the point of smoking, cool to a safe level, disassemble, clean with a wire brush and repeat. Maintenance tip: occasionally burn your grill on high until it stops smoking (usually 10-15 minutes) after you finish cooking to burn off leftover fats and debris – especially important after high fat grilling.)

Meat Preparation
For steaks, roasts, chops and chicken; rest the meat at cool room temperature for 60 – 90 minutes before grilling; this raises the temperature and helps the meat cook more evenly. For the best browning, use a marinade or rub the meat with oil and sprinkle to taste with seasonings before grilling. Oil also inhibits sticking.

Preheat the Grill
Preheat your grill at the temperature you intend to use it at for 10-15 minutes. If you are cooking with medium heat, preheat on medium. It’s important to get the cooking grates to the right temperature for good browning. Grills vary dramatically, so the air temperature in the grill is the best guide rather than “low, medium or high” settings.

Prepare the Grid
Open the grill and brush the cooking grate clean. If grill is still oily and smoking from the last cookout, close the lid and repeat. Continue to preheat until flare-ups and heavy smoke subsides and grid is clear of grease. If overheated, remove lid and let it cool. Carefully brush or mist cooking grate with oil immediately before adding meats.

Add the Meats
Place your meats on the preheated, cleaned, cooking grid; close the lid and begin browning. If using medium-high to high heat, the meat may be browned in 3-6 minutes. Lift an edge and peek – do not turn or move the meat until there are nice grill marks! Once browned, turn and repeat. Tip: For better browning and less sticking, do not turn until the meat is nicely browned!

Slow Down the Cooking
Once both sides have nice grill marks, turn down the heat or transfer to a cooler portion of the grill. Indirect cooking (turning one side of our grill and leaving the other off or at very low) is the best way to do this. Once the meat is brown, slower cooking will enhance tenderness and juiciness – and give you more control to avoid overcooking.

Rest, Rest, REST
For perfect, juicy results with steaks, chops and chicken, always remove the meat just a little early and rest on a plate. Allow 5 minutes for a small piece of meat, 10 minutes for an average steak, and 15 plus minutes for a thick steak, chicken quarter or small roast – 20-30 minutes for larger roasts. Not overcooking and resting are the only things you can do to keep meats moist. Once rested, slice and serve.