27 Common Grilling Mistakes and How to Fix Them

Even though it’s one of the most popular cooking techniques around the world, grilling (BBQ) is not as simple as firing up the grill and throwing some meat on it.

We’ve all encountered grease flare-ups, coals that take forever to ignite, and food that sticks to the grates. The good news, though, is that every one of these issues is avoidable. The right tweaks can turn your cookout from good to great… but the wrong ones can turn it from great to “What the heck did you do to this poor cow?”

To become an outstanding griller, you must take an orderly approach to your grilling. Think of it as both an art and a science. It requires technical know-how, patience, precision, and preparation along with a dash of good old elbow grease.

Here are our best practices for avoiding common grilling mistakes:

Choosing the Wrong Grilling Method

Before you even start grilling, it is important to know the difference between gas and charcoal. Though gas is easier to work with (easy on and off, easy-to-read temperature controls, and a steady heat source), it steams more than it smokes, which may mean your chicken skin won’t get as crisp or flavorful. Charcoal takes a little more finesse and has the chance of flare-ups, but it also gives you a richer, smokier flavor. So, what do you choose? That depends on the amount of work you want to put into dinner and your desired flavor result.

Being Unorganized

Take your cues from people who cook professionally. Plan your cook before you do anything else. Organize what you’ll need grill-side, everything from food to seasoning to essential tools to clean sheet pans or platters for finished food. Hopefully, you have a clean and uncluttered flat space near your grill—even a sturdy folding table is a help.

Cooking on Dirty Grates

When you cook a meal in your kitchen, do you clean the pots and pans after you’ve used them? Of course you do… we hope. Few would ever reuse a frying pan or roasting dish after cooking with them. Yet for whatever reason, so many of us are willing to reuse dirty, uncleaned grates when grilling. The charred remnants of last week’s barbecued chicken won’t improve the flavor profile of tonight’s fresh piece of swordfish.

Old food residue and grease build-up can cause unwanted flare-ups and impart off-putting flavors on your food. It will also impact how your food sticks to the grates. When flipping the meat, it could rip or tear some of it off and stay on the grates.

A dirty grill can also lead to health hazards by harboring harmful bacteria that can contaminate your food. To prevent this, use a grill brush to clean your grill grates after each use and perform a deeper clean regularly (at least twice a year).

Not Letting Your Grill Heat Up

Knowing how long to heat up a charcoal or gas grill before you put anything on it is one of the most important keys for grilling success. High heat is what gives steaks and burgers an awesome sear and flavor.

Charcoal grills usually need about 20 minutes to get to the right temperature. Gas grills typically take a little less time—generally between 10 to 15 minutes.

If you have removed the grate in order to dump coals into the firebox, be sure to replace the grate so it has a chance to heat up before you start grilling. This is crucial if you want those grill marks. (This will not be an option if you own a pellet grill, as they function more like convection ovens.)

Oiling the Grill Grates

Greasing up your hot grill grates before throwing food on the grill is a common grilling mistake. If you search online for this topic, you might find contradicting information. The thought is that greasing your grates will help keep your meat from sticking. However, the oil will smoke and carbonize. It can also cause dangerous flare-ups as it drips down into the fire. This doesn’t help the meat taste and could affect the quality of your meal.

Another option is to put some oil on the meat itself prior to placing it on the grill. This method will help your food stick less to the grates.

Starting With Lighter Fluid

Just because Dad did it doesn’t make it right. Unless you want your meal to smell like a gas tank, don’t use lighter fluid (or match-light coals).

Yes, using lighter fluid makes it much easier to get your fire roaring quickly, but the problem is that those burning chemicals also tend to give your food an acrid or bitter taste.

Instead, what you really need is a charcoal starter. Place some crumpled newspaper underneath it, pack the top with coals, set the paper on fire with a single match or lighter, then let it work its magic as oxygen is drawn up and through the coals, lighting them efficiently without the need for any lighter fluid at all.

Starting a Gas Grill Without the Lid Closed

Lighting a gas grill with a closed lid can cause a dangerous buildup of gas, creating a fireball. This is easily preventable by keeping your gas grill lid open when lighting it. If the flame goes out, turn the grill and gas off and wait at least five minutes before relighting.

Not Cranking Up the Heat Enough

You basically need those grill plates to be screaming hot. High heat helps steaks adopt a steakhouse-worthy crust.

If your grill isn’t hot enough, you could end up steaming your steak, and all the juices will escape, leaving you with a sad, grey meal. There’s a lot of room inside the grill for the heat to move around, so don’t be afraid of high heat.

Trying to Spread Your Coals Before They’re Fully Hot

Patience is one of the biggest keys to great grilling results, and this is particularly true when starting your fire. In this case, spreading the coals out before they’re completely ready can make the results far harder to predict and control.

Bad flavors from improperly burning coals, inconsistent heat, and dramatic variations in cooking times are just a few of the problems you could experience if you fail to wait until your coals are completely ready.

Letting Your Entire Grilling Area Get Too Hot

Making your grill get too hot can cause just as many problems as not letting it heat up enough. In this case, you could burn the outside of your steak before it has even begun to fully cook the center as desired.

Of course, too much heat is easy to control. Unfortunately, the problem is that most people spread their coals evenly across the entire grill, which doesn’t leave you with any options if one piece of meat is cooking too quickly. Therefore, it is always a good idea to spread your coals to create two or three different temperature zones to give yourself more options when cooking.

If using a gas grill, you can turn one burner way up for the initial grilling and use another burner at a lower gauge. This gives you zones or different spaces on the grill with different temperatures. That way, if your steak is cooking too much, you can move your meat around to a separate area of the grill to avoid burning the outside of your food.

Putting the Meat on the Grill Too Cold

If you put your meat on the grill when it is too cold, then the outside will finish well before the inside cooks properly. This causes the meat to take much longer to finish, and you increase your chances of burning the outside of the meat. When the outside is done, you will find the inside is not. Then you have no choice but to keep grilling, increasing the odds of overcooking.

The solution to this problem is to allow your meat to come to room temperature before grilling it. This will give you a more even cooking process and less chance of charring the outside of the meat before the inside finishes. You should take your meat out of the fridge and let it sit covered for 15–20 minutes prior to grilling.

Not Using an Instant Read Thermometer

How do you know when your meat is done? A lot of people try to go by the look (warning: it may look cooked on the outside but can still be raw in the middle), smell (everything smells good on the grill though!), or feel (a good poke or two or three or four—but unless you’re a professional, it’s hard to tell). The only way to ensure you’ve really cooked that chicken thigh or porterhouse steak to perfection? Invest in an instant-read thermometer and use it.

Not Utilizing Your Vents on Your Charcoal Grill

A lot of people using a charcoal grill for the first time do not realize what the vent is. It might look like it is there for show. Yet adjusting the position of the vents is the best way to control oxygen and heat within your charcoal grill.

Access to oxygen can have a major impact on how efficiently your coals combust. Too much and they can erupt into soot-inducing flames. Too little and they can choke themselves out. The lower and upper vents on your charcoal grill can be used to adjust the flow of oxygen, thereby adjusting the heat inside your grill. Cooking chicken, ribs, or brisket low and slow over indirect heat? Keep those vents closed. Searing the outside of a big fat steak or burger? Keep them open to encourage higher heat (just don’t let those flames lick the meat!).

Taking the Lid Off Your Grill Too Frequently

Being patient also means understanding that grilling takes time. Typically, there’s not much you can do to speed up the process, and staring at the meat while it’s cooking won’t make things go any quicker. Constantly opening the grill to see if your food is done will make it take much longer since you let a ton of heat escape each time you take off the lid. Instead, it’s better to have an approximate idea of how long it should take based on the type of meat, how your fire is, and the desired level of doneness. You can easily find all of the information online.

Not Opening the Grill Away from Your Face

Burning your face (or the hair on your face or head) would be one of the top grilling mistakes to avoid. When you open the grill’s lid, you should always open it away from your face. Flames could shoot out and you do not want to potentially burn yourself.

Not Using Tongs and Turners

The more you slice, dice, pierce, poke, and puncture your meat, the drier it will become. Valuable juices are lost every time you poke your meat. So, toss out the prongs and forks and use tongs and turners instead. Also, avoid the temptation to poke, prod, and pierce your meat in the grill. Set it and forget it for a few minutes so it can cook undisturbed.

Cooking Too Many Things at Once

Backyard barbecues are great and all, but when you’ve got a herd of people to feed, the pressure’s on—and that doesn’t play out well on the grill.

Instead of working everything at once and crowding your burgers, hot dogs, corn, veggies, kabobs—until some are overcooked and others are undercooked—stick to grilling one type of food at a time. By trying to do too many things at once, you may not be able to get them all right. Cook one and really get it right before moving to the next.

Cross-Contamination

Food safety is always important when cooking, but we often throw it out the window when grilling. Cross-contamination of raw and cooked foods is a big no-no during cookouts. Remember to use a new, clean plate for food that has been grilled—do not place it on the same plate you used to carry it out raw. The same goes for tongs, turners, forks, and sauce brushes. And it’s always a good idea to split your sauces in half: use half for brushing on the grill and the other half for serving. This way, you won’t get raw meat juices in ready-to-serve sauce.

Constantly Flipping Your Steaks and Burgers

While tempting, flipping your steaks and burgers can disrupt the cooking process and prevent the formation of a crisp, caramelized exterior. So when should you flip?

You should only flip a steak once through the cooking process. Wait until the first side is fully seared. You can lift it slightly to check before flipping to the other side. Depending on the cut of the steak, it can take anywhere from two to five minutes on each side to get that crispy brown crust.

For your burgers, it’s better to let them develop a sear and only flip them once or at most twice during cooking—this will achieve that perfect crispy exterior.

Pressing Down on Burgers and Meats

While pressing down on meat with a spatula might seem harmless, it actually forces out the juices that make your meat tender and flavorful. This can lead to dry, tough, and less enjoyable burgers and steaks. Instead, allow your meat to cook undisturbed for a few minutes on each side to help it retain moisture and flavor.

Saucing Too Early

Since most BBQ sauces have significant amounts of sugar, they can burn at high temperatures, resulting in a bitter and overly charred exterior. By adding it too early, you can ruin the texture and flavor of the meat.

Serving or Slicing the Food Too Soon

After grilling your meat, you should not just cut right into it and serve. After cooking, you always want to let it rest. This will allow the juices to run back into the center. Waiting will allow these juices to thicken and redistribute within your food. More juices will stay within your meat and less juice spillage will occur when you cut into them.

So, you should wait about 10 minutes or more. Then, right before serving, toss it back over the highest possible heat on your grill for around 30 seconds per side. You’ll end up with perfectly rested, juicy meat and a nice crisp, sizzling crust.

Grilling All Vegetables in the Same Way

Maybe you won’t win friends with salad at your cookout, but if you’re serving a platter of nicely blackened corn-on-the-cob, asparagus, and sweet potatoes?

Of course, you won’t enjoy a bounty of deliciously grilled veggies if they’re raw, botched, or torched into oblivion. But no different than how you can’t presume all meat grills the same way, it’s crucial to remember there’s no one-size-fits-all grilling technique for cooking vegetables. In other words, if you’re assuming a whole potato will cook the same way as a thin slice of squash or zucchini, you’re asking to be let down.

It’s important to adjust tools, temperature, and time accordingly when grilling vegetables. Some items, like small tomatoes, need a short time over high heat, while others, such as portobello mushrooms, require lower heat and a longer cooking time. Whatever vegetable you bring to the grill, do yourself a favor and make sure you’re cooking it in the best manner possible.

Not Learning the Idiosyncrasies of Your Grill

The sooner you learn grills have their own quirks, the more consistent your results will be. Perhaps your gas or pellet grill has hot spots. You can identify them by laying slices of cheap white bread shoulder-to-shoulder on the preheated grill grates, covering it entirely. Flip the slices in their places—it’s easier if another person helps—then take a photo.

Next time, you’ll have an accurate map of the grill’s temperature zones. Or maybe your grill has trouble maintaining heat in cold temperatures or wind. You may need to adjust your cooking times to compensate. Generally speaking, it’s a good idea to maintain a grilling log to chart your experiences.

Taking Your Eyes Off the Prize

Try not to get distracted by the drink cooler or your Instagram feed while you’re cooking up some food.

Don’t walk away or get too distracted while grilling. And if you’re cooking steaks, you may want to leave the lid open so they don’t steam and overcook. Just crank it up and keep your focus on the meat until it reaches an internal temperature of 130–135 degrees F.

Not Learning From Your Grilling Mistakes

So, you ruined a steak by cooking it too long. Then the next time you undercooked it. Why not start keeping track of how you cooked your meals and how you feel they turned out? Chances are that you will never become a grilling expert that can always cook by feel. But if you can learn from your mistakes and take a scientific approach, you will avoid a lot of grilling mistakes. Start writing down your successes and failures, so the next time you need to do it right (when you’re hosting a big party), it will go seamlessly and everyone will rave about your grilling skills.

Not Having Baking Soda Nearby for Potential Grease Fires

Finally, you should be prepared for the worst-case scenario: fires. You should learn what you need to do if a grease fire occurs. One of the best things you can use to smother a grease fire is baking soda. It would be wise to have this nearby if a grill fire occurs. And read your grill safety instructions to make sure that you know what to do in case of a fire.

The Most Important Tip: Don’t Put Too Much Pressure on Yourself

If you’re worried about ruining your cookout dining experience by making some of the common grilling mistakes, try not to put too much pressure on yourself and definitely don’t worry about trying to become a pitmaster overnight. Fine BBQ cooking takes practice, but following our grilling tips is certainly a great starting point.