8 Grilling and Barbecue Mistakes to Avoid, According to a Pro

Pointing out and correcting grilling mistakes is a dicey proposition because grilling and barbecuing are two of the most belief-driven cooking forms. People have strong opinions about outdoor cooking; sometimes, those opinions are more deeply held convictions handed down generationally than grounded in fact. I’m not here to convince you that pouring your half-drunk beer over your burgers is a poor technique (because science), but there are some areas where we can safely tread without starting a blood feud.

If you’re interested, however, we know little about grilling and are happy to share. I’ve made some suggestions to improve your technique more indirectly, like maintaining your grill or smoker and using a better-suited tool for the job. For every mistake, there’s an easy fix, and we’ve included some of the best equipment we’ve tested to help.

Grills are an investment. Whether that investment is sub-$100 or over $1,000, it benefits from protection from the elements. Sunlight breaks down finishes; moisture creeps insidiously into any porous substance, like ash or carbonized food, and — at least where I live — wee beasts like lizards or hornets often make themselves at home in open-air grills. You can move your grill in and out of covered storage if you have it, or you could use a grill cover.

Which type and size to use, of course, depends on the size of your grill and your budget. We like the Grillman Premium BBQ Grill Cover because of its UV resistance, waterproof and windproof qualities, and the range of sizes, from 30 to 72 inches wide, which will accommodate almost any grill, be it gas or charcoal.

Cleanup is certainly the least glamorous part of grilling, but if you’d like your grill, especially the grates, to last, cleaning at the right time makes a significant difference in longevity. In the past, I was not kind to my grills and didn’t feel the need to thoroughly clean them immediately after cooking, leaving the task for the next time I heated the grill. 

That thought process changed after I let my grill sit slightly dirty for a few months, then threw some chicken thighs on to cook. After cooking, I was confused by the hard bits embedded in the chicken skin, and further examination showed them to be bits of my cast iron grates.

Yes, I’d brushed the grates (a bit) after the last grilling, and I’d brushed them before cooking, but in the meantime, the carbonized bits clinging to them acted like micro-sponges, sucking ambient moisture from the air, corroding the grates, which then peeled off into my food. That situation could have ended far worse, but I now clean my grill more diligently. After cooking, I burn my grill grates off for a few minutes and brush them vigorously with a GrillArt Grill Brush and Scraper (our Best Overall pick), then scrape them again before cooking. Dual cleaning keeps moisture-attracting deposits at bay, extends the life of the grates, and keeps uninvited supplemental iron out of my meals.

At the risk of having a “get off my lawn” moment, I will tell you I never had options for wearing grill gloves until recently. I’ve withstood minor (sometimes more substantial) burns and considerable amounts of singed arm hair, lingering too long over the fire trying to roll sausage to the right spot while grilling bare-handed. I’m past the point of indulging in such activities. 

The Grill Armor Gloves Heat-Resistant Oven Gloves were the top pick in our testing and provide over-the-wrist protection for sensitive areas that see frequent heat exposure while grilling. Let’s be clear: they protect your hands from radiant heat and allow you to pick up some hot objects, but they are not the do-all and end-all. I picked up a chimney charcoal starter wearing these gloves and accidentally touched the side with my thumb. Story short, there is now a hole in my glove’s thumb, and I had an irritating burn on mine. Armed with gained experience after that occurrence, I have zero complaints about the Grill Armor gloves.

Tongs are frustrating when grilling. They’re typically too short, exposing one’s hands to heat (unless using a grill glove), or comically long, which keeps hands safe but sacrifices dexterity. These tongs from OXO solve those issues. First, they’re long enough at about 16 inches to keep your hands safe without being cartoonish. “I even feel comfortable using them to move food when flare-ups happen,” says Commerce Editor Mary Claire Lagroue. Second, the tapered, scalloped heads allow easy, delicate gripping but have no issues grasping thicker items like kebabs or ears of corn. The non-slip handles are a plus, as they serve their purpose even when wearing gloves, and there’s a built-in bottle opener.

I’ll not slight anyone for buying an inexpensive grill, but there’s a difference between inexpensive and cheap. A cheap grill has little heat retention, allowing the gas or charcoal-generated heat to dissipate without contributing to the cooking process, and has little heat control via baffles or responsive temperature knobs. In short, a cheap grill will burn (or worse, barely cook) your food and burn through fuel in doing so. You can’t afford a cheap grill.

We’ve reviewed many gas and charcoal grills that balance quality and low price points. The Weber Original Kettle Premium Charcoal Grill is a great example of a grill that holds and distributes heat well without demanding half your bank account as tribute. It’s also a versatile grill that allows you to high-heat grill, slow roast, or smoke using the same configuration and just tweaking the top and bottom baffles to accomplish the changes.

Charcoal is burnt wood, so why does it matter what type you use? Testing several brands told us that all charcoal is not equal, and inexpensive does the job better than cheap. Good charcoal, whether lump or briquettes, simply burns, while cheap charcoal snaps, pops, and belches dark smoke. 

I’m not typically a briquette fan, but Royal Oak Premium Charcoal is a good performer at an approachable price — again, inexpensive, but not cheap. The briquettes are pressed from more hardwood than other leading brands and therefore tend to burn hotter with a distinct wood aroma and flavor. The briquettes themselves benefit from a specific cross-top design that increases airflow for even burning and easy lighting.

People who grill rely on cooking by “feel” or intuition more than any other technique I can think of. People who grill are often confident in their cooking temperatures and the doneness of their food because they can feel it — by holding their hand over a flame, poking meat, or pulling a bone out of a pork butt, for example. However deeply rooted in tradition, these methods leave much to interpretation, and it’s my stance that balancing art with science can still maintain the art.

We’ve tested a lot of meat thermometers, and I can safely say if you have no other thermometers, at the very least, buy a probed model that monitors food and the ambient grill temperature. My current favorite is the ThermoPro Twin TempSpike, a two-probe wireless set with a food sensor and ambient sensor built into each probe. It gives me the freedom to monitor disparate food types or multiple grills or smokers.

There are an alarming number of videos on the Internet that show an overblown process of grilling a steak, usually with multiple pounds of butter and no shortage of cross-contamination footage, before taking a knife to said steak right off the grill, placing the halves on top of each other, and squeezing. (What’s with the squeezing?) Slicing and stacking are, truthfully, the least egregious issues in play, or they would be if the cook allowed their meat to rest before cutting. 

One of the best tools for resting is a carving board, which differs from a cutting board in that it has channels for catching liquid that drains from the meat while resting and carving, preventing it from running across the countertop and onto the floor. Our winner from our testing was this wooden model from Made In that features deep channels, ample room, and is quite stable thanks to its substantial 8-pound heft.

Our Expertise

Greg Baker is an award-winning chef, restaurateur, and food writer with four decades of experience in the food industry. His written work appears in Food & Wine, Serious Eats, and other publications.