6 Common Grilling Mistakes to Avoid, According to Pitmasters

There’s nothing like grilling season when food just seems to taste better—and can be enjoyed outdoors. Because you grill regularly, you may assume you’ve got your techniques down pat, but many of us make common grilling mistakes. Avoiding these pitfalls will result in better tasting grilled chicken, burgers, steaks, and more. Even better, you'll spend less time cleaning the grill. Grilling experts and chefs share the most common grilling mishaps—and how to avoid them.

Rushing the Cook

Tell hungry onlookers kindly to leave you alone when you’re handling the grill. "When you’re entertaining or just plain distracted, time can get away from you and you feel rushed on the grill or smoker. This can lead to under- or overcooked food, uneven cooking, or just bland-tasting food," says fire cooking enthusiast Derek Wolf, founder of overthefirecooking.com and brand ambassador for Breeo. Make sure to keep tabs on how much time you need to cook various dishes, a process made easier by setting a few timers.

Crowding the Grill

Wolf also urges folks to avoid crowding on the grill. "You only have so much space in a grill and some might be tempted to hurry things up and grill everything all at once. What will actually happen is that the food will cook but not at a high enough temperature," he says. To prevent this, cooking in batches as needed with "the longer cooks (brisket, ribs, whole chicken)" going on the grill first and "the shorter cooks (steak, shrimp, vegetables)" going on the grill near the end of cooking, he says.

Not Paying Attention to Temperature

Monitoring and managing the temperature of your grill is key if you want to sink your chops into that otherworldly steak, burger, or grilled zucchini masterpiece. Amy Mills, owner of 17th Street Barbecue and author of Peace, Love, and Barbecue and Praise the Lard, says the most common grilling mistake is the inability to manage the fire.

"You’ll always be managing fire throughout the cook, and there will always be variables that affect your ability to hold a steady temperature, such as the grill itself, weather, air quality, brand of charcoal, and how many times you open the lid," Mills says. "Once you learn the principles of fire—how to build it slowly, what feeds it, and how to increase and decrease it when necessary—you will be able to turn out quality food," she says, adding that using the lowest heat you can consistently maintain and having patience while you grill is critical.

Cooking Cold Meat

Chef Laurent Tourondel, proprietor Chef Laurent Tourondel Hospitality, says his favorite part about grilling is being able to tackle larger ingredients, like certain vegetables and big steaks that you would not normally cook on a stove top or in the oven. We agree. But when cooking that steak, "it is crucial that the meat is room temperature and not freezing cold right out of the fridge," he says, noting that this will allow for a more even cooking experience. "If the meat is cold when it gets placed on the grill, then the outside will cook much faster than the inside, which could lead to (both) burning and undercooked meat," he says.

Using Too Mich Lighter Fluid

If you’re using a charcoal grill, excess lighter fluid can leave the meat flavor a little off from the fumes, says Robbie Shoults, pitmaster and owner of Bear Creek Smokehouse  in Marshall, Texas, and author of the cookbook Bear Bottom Bliss. "An easy remedy for this is using charcoal, chimney, and newspaper to get the charcoal lit first and then transferred to the grill," he says. If you can, skip lighter fluid altogether. We’re a fan of this innovative gadget lights your grill in seconds without dangerous chemicals. 

Not Resting the Meat

Picture this: You just cooked up an amazing bundle of brats on the grill, and bite in a minute later. But you shouldn't. "All meat, and I mean all meat, that comes off a grill should rest before serving. This is for two major reasons," says Wolf. "The first is so that it's not piping hot when you eat it and you burn your mouth! The second is to let the juices redistribute into the meat and not onto your plate." Though Wolf says you don’t need to wait hours (although you might with a large brisket or pork shoulder), you should wait 10 minutes before eating.