Got my first grill and grilled for the first time yesterday. What is some good beginner stuff to try? Any tips?
Go easy on me I’m new lol. Trying hamburgers today.
by Hottjuicynoob
29 Comments
minesskiier
Congrats! One of the best things to learn is two zone cooking. With this method you place your coals on just one side of the grill… dump the pile on the side then spread them out 1-2 deep on that one side. This allows for better temp control while giving you a hot/direct heat and cooler/indirect heating zone. Try this with some chicken thighs and you won’t be disappointed!
BrownChickenBlackAud
Smash burgers! Or just burgers if you don’t have cast iron yet.
All coals on one side, sear burgers, move to indirect until desired temp.
They’ll come out great!
witandbourbon8
Awesome grill! Looks like you are on the right foot for starting. Burgers and chicken are nice simple grilling foods.
newtonbassist
Congrats and enjoy!
vacuumCleaner555
My weber grill came with some instructions that discussed direct vs. indirect heat and what foods work best in each situation. I found that helpful.
Charming-Mouse-1181
Beer can Chicken !!
ss7164
YouTube is your friend, prolly thousands of videos, check out BBQPITBOYS.COM and be prepared to change your life 😂
Aries_Eats
Don’t be afraid of using a full chimneys worth of charcoal. These grills work best with an entire chimney, and using the vents to control the temperature (more open = more oxygen = hotter grill, and vice-versa). When you completely close the vents, the coals stop burning, and you can reuse any leftover coals in a future cook.
Number one rule of kettle charcoal cooking is “Looking ain’t Cooking.” Keep the lid on as much as possible while preheating and cooking, and don’t keep opening it to peek at the food. This keeps the grill hot while keeping the coals burning longer.
You’re most likely struggling to get the grill hot right now because you’ve spread a thin, light layer of lit coals at the bottom of your grill.
Once you’ve gotten this down, you can play with moving the coals to one side for direct and indirect grilling. Direct is hot fire directly under the food, and gets char on the outside of the food fast, but with thicker foods, the inside might not be fully cooked yet. Good for really fast cooks, like a thin steak or thin burgers patties.
Indirect is cooking on the part of the grate that is not over the fire, and it is essentially like using an oven. It’ll prevent the food from catching on fire and burning if it needs a longer time to cook the inside. Good for things like chicken, Sausages, Hot Dogs, and for finishing thicker steaks after searing them directly over the fire. All things that may burn really easily. The food cooks ONLY when the lid is closed. Open the lid, and the food stops cooking.
Prudent_Instance8243
Google : charcoal snake method This is the way ! Digging the color on the grill 👍
SupermarketSelect578
Center loin pork chops on a 2 zone method. Can’t be beat. Chicken thighs and burgers !!!
Indirect is the most common way to get the most out of a Weber. I recently bought a Flame Tech Sizzle and Sear, which is really upping my game. It’s kinda expensive but really well made. It’s perfect for pork shoulder, which is a good way to start.
cpaulc57
Grab yourself a book it really does help. There are some great grilling/fire cooking cooks on Instagram. @shropshirelad and @ smokinelk are both worth taking a look. Be aware that you’re gonna take some flak if you post on here it’s just the way it is. Whatever you do, don’t lose heart when stuff goes wrong, and most importantly, enjoy yourself.
Many_Consequence7723
Meat loaf! I am about to make one for dinner, myself.
DirtyWhiteTrousers
Direct heat grilling of a spatchcock chicken is life changing. Try it with Walkerswood Jerk marinade and a couple lumps of post oak or hickory for smokiness.
jimbocelli
Whole chicken. Add lots of rosemary into the carcass, push some butter , garlic and lemon juice under the skin, sprinkle smokey rub all over the skin and cook indirectly for about an hour (i start checking after 45 minutes). Straight forward, no need for top up coals, cook until done.
df540148
I love my Weber kettle! Had to buy an “emergency” one at an Air BnB that claimed they had a charcoal grill but didn’t.. Anyway, one recommendation I have for the corn is strip back all but one layer of husk and trim the excess silt at the top. You can get a bit more char, but not too much. I also highly recommend the Slow N Sear insert. It’s not cheap, but I find it really great for creating a good 2 zone cooking set up.
t3xrican91
Check out chudds kettle series on YouTube!
Top-Newspaper2681
All the replies here are great. I will add – learn how to smoke something. I started with baby back ribs. Once I got that figured out, all the fundamentals of grilling made more sense to me.
As others have said, find some people on YouTube that teach the way you like to learn. I love HOWTOBBQRIGHT and DAWGFATHA. Dawg does a lot with the Weber kettle and is good at making things simple and not stressful.
Grilling has become one of my favorite pastimes. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
jay9063
Chicken thighs super cheap super forgiving
shawnewalton1
You could sign up for America’s Test Kitchen online, all of their charcoal based recipes are written for this grill.
BBQCyclist206770
Have fun! Wings and burgers!
Jennysnumber_8675309
Can I just say…and I say this from experience…before you get too deep in charcoal ashes…fix the legs and orient the wheels on the opposite side of the handle on the kettle (you need to take the legs out and put them in the correct alignment). I did what you did (or whoever put this together) when I put mine together and it sucked to move. Put the handle on the opposite side of the two wheels and the thing rolls everywhere with ease. Just a tip from someone who has to learn the hard way.
MysticalCampR
Korean short ribs … to die for!
why_2344
I recently had to deal with a similar grill with handle on the side and not in the middle of the wheels. Its really annoying, I dont know the reason its put there, maybe someone does? Anyway, not trying to shit on your post, getting a grill is amazing you will soon find yourself not wanting to leave it, especially when you have friends around and want to make something nice for them. Happy grilling! My favorite is pork neck steaks, marinated over night and then on the charcoal grill, its miraculous, I dont know why no one really talks about pork neck
tv41
What a great grill choice. You must have done tour research. We’ll done and welcome. I recommend trying cheap chicken and pork for the first grill. Get a thermometer and get good with using it. It really is necessary. Best of luck.
Missouran
Anything you see out there you can make on that grill. I’ve smokes briskets, Boston butt, sausage fatties, Atomic Jalapeno Bombs, Spam, pork belly…it’s like the post office packages…if it fits, it ships.
Get a cover if you’re going to keep it outside.
I still have my first Weber kettle 25 years later…a black silver edition and I can’t count the number of smokes and cooks it’s been through.
Pop over to BBQ Pit Boys on YouTube.
Now, what to try? Smoked Spam.
The nice thing about smoked Spam is…it’s already cooked. You can learn to use your kettle as a low and slow smoker without having to worry about internal temps and stalls. Plus it’s delicious.
Buy side baskets from Amazon. Learn to do a whole-bird chicken. Everything you need to know is on YouTube. My instant-read thermometer comes in very handy.
29 Comments
Congrats! One of the best things to learn is two zone cooking. With this method you place your coals on just one side of the grill… dump the pile on the side then spread them out 1-2 deep on that one side. This allows for better temp control while giving you a hot/direct heat and cooler/indirect heating zone. Try this with some chicken thighs and you won’t be disappointed!
Smash burgers! Or just burgers if you don’t have cast iron yet.
All coals on one side, sear burgers, move to indirect until desired temp.
They’ll come out great!
Awesome grill! Looks like you are on the right foot for starting. Burgers and chicken are nice simple grilling foods.
Congrats and enjoy!
My weber grill came with some instructions that discussed direct vs. indirect heat and what foods work best in each situation. I found that helpful.
Beer can Chicken !!
YouTube is your friend, prolly thousands of videos, check out BBQPITBOYS.COM and be prepared to change your life 😂
Don’t be afraid of using a full chimneys worth of charcoal. These grills work best with an entire chimney, and using the vents to control the temperature (more open = more oxygen = hotter grill, and vice-versa). When you completely close the vents, the coals stop burning, and you can reuse any leftover coals in a future cook.
Number one rule of kettle charcoal cooking is “Looking ain’t Cooking.” Keep the lid on as much as possible while preheating and cooking, and don’t keep opening it to peek at the food. This keeps the grill hot while keeping the coals burning longer.
You’re most likely struggling to get the grill hot right now because you’ve spread a thin, light layer of lit coals at the bottom of your grill.
Once you’ve gotten this down, you can play with moving the coals to one side for direct and indirect grilling. Direct is hot fire directly under the food, and gets char on the outside of the food fast, but with thicker foods, the inside might not be fully cooked yet. Good for really fast cooks, like a thin steak or thin burgers patties.
Indirect is cooking on the part of the grate that is not over the fire, and it is essentially like using an oven. It’ll prevent the food from catching on fire and burning if it needs a longer time to cook the inside. Good for things like chicken, Sausages, Hot Dogs, and for finishing thicker steaks after searing them directly over the fire. All things that may burn really easily. The food cooks ONLY when the lid is closed. Open the lid, and the food stops cooking.
Google : charcoal snake method
This is the way ! Digging the color on the grill 👍
Center loin pork chops on a 2 zone method. Can’t be beat. Chicken thighs and burgers !!!
Here’s some awesome videos
https://youtu.be/4obx-InjT84?si=TuinOLZDYbNi-OmG
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmrZantoFPM_mOoclYc9Xqv49v51UdP4-&si=vY5linfnfHLmq9-2
Indirect is the most common way to get the most out of a Weber. I recently bought a Flame Tech Sizzle and Sear, which is really upping my game. It’s kinda expensive but really well made. It’s perfect for pork shoulder, which is a good way to start.
Grab yourself a book it really does help. There are some great grilling/fire cooking cooks on Instagram. @shropshirelad and @ smokinelk are both worth taking a look. Be aware that you’re gonna take some flak if you post on here it’s just the way it is. Whatever you do, don’t lose heart when stuff goes wrong, and most importantly, enjoy yourself.
Meat loaf! I am about to make one for dinner, myself.
Direct heat grilling of a spatchcock chicken is life changing. Try it with Walkerswood Jerk marinade and a couple lumps of post oak or hickory for smokiness.
Whole chicken. Add lots of rosemary into the carcass, push some butter , garlic and lemon juice under the skin, sprinkle smokey rub all over the skin and cook indirectly for about an hour (i start checking after 45 minutes). Straight forward, no need for top up coals, cook until done.
I love my Weber kettle! Had to buy an “emergency” one at an Air BnB that claimed they had a charcoal grill but didn’t.. Anyway, one recommendation I have for the corn is strip back all but one layer of husk and trim the excess silt at the top. You can get a bit more char, but not too much. I also highly recommend the Slow N Sear insert. It’s not cheap, but I find it really great for creating a good 2 zone cooking set up.
Check out chudds kettle series on YouTube!
All the replies here are great. I will add – learn how to smoke something. I started with baby back ribs. Once I got that figured out, all the fundamentals of grilling made more sense to me.
As others have said, find some people on YouTube that teach the way you like to learn. I love HOWTOBBQRIGHT and DAWGFATHA. Dawg does a lot with the Weber kettle and is good at making things simple and not stressful.
Grilling has become one of my favorite pastimes. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
Chicken thighs super cheap super forgiving
You could sign up for America’s Test Kitchen online, all of their charcoal based recipes are written for this grill.
Have fun! Wings and burgers!
Can I just say…and I say this from experience…before you get too deep in charcoal ashes…fix the legs and orient the wheels on the opposite side of the handle on the kettle (you need to take the legs out and put them in the correct alignment). I did what you did (or whoever put this together) when I put mine together and it sucked to move. Put the handle on the opposite side of the two wheels and the thing rolls everywhere with ease. Just a tip from someone who has to learn the hard way.
Korean short ribs … to die for!
I recently had to deal with a similar grill with handle on the side and not in the middle of the wheels. Its really annoying, I dont know the reason its put there, maybe someone does? Anyway, not trying to shit on your post, getting a grill is amazing you will soon find yourself not wanting to leave it, especially when you have friends around and want to make something nice for them. Happy grilling! My favorite is pork neck steaks, marinated over night and then on the charcoal grill, its miraculous, I dont know why no one really talks about pork neck
What a great grill choice. You must have done tour research. We’ll done and welcome. I recommend trying cheap chicken and pork for the first grill. Get a thermometer and get good with using it. It really is necessary. Best of luck.
Anything you see out there you can make on that grill. I’ve smokes briskets, Boston butt, sausage fatties, Atomic Jalapeno Bombs, Spam, pork belly…it’s like the post office packages…if it fits, it ships.
Get a cover if you’re going to keep it outside.
I still have my first Weber kettle 25 years later…a black silver edition and I can’t count the number of smokes and cooks it’s been through.
Pop over to BBQ Pit Boys on YouTube.
Now, what to try? Smoked Spam.
The nice thing about smoked Spam is…it’s already cooked. You can learn to use your kettle as a low and slow smoker without having to worry about internal temps and stalls. Plus it’s delicious.
Here’s how to set your kettle up for smoking…
https://youtube.com/shorts/M8yaxMjXWqI?si=MkhyY6uP7llGtQgV
Buy side baskets from Amazon. Learn to do a whole-bird chicken. Everything you need to know is on YouTube. My instant-read thermometer comes in very handy.
Crack a beer or seven