Top 10 Grilling Tips…To Keep Your Eyebrows Intact

As the south Georgia sun starts to heat up, who am I kidding it’s been hot here for at least a month, anyway, as I was saying, as we approach the start of the “official” summer according to whatever crazy person decided that was June 21, it’s a great time to grill in Liberty County. So I put together my Top 10 Grilling Tips, learned from trial and error. Some of these “lessons” it is better not to ask how I know. Enjoy & bon appetit!

1. Read the instructions on the bag of charcoal if you’re using a charcoal grill. Make sure you’re using a charcoal grill if you’re purchasing charcoal. Propane grills and charcoal don’t mix. Some types of charcoal are “self-light” and others require something called LIGHTER FLUID. Who knew?
2. When using charcoal be sure to read the instructions. Ok this sounds like a repeat of #1, however, I reiterate only to point out that it doesn’t take the WHOLE bag of self-light charcoal to cook 4 hamburgers and it will get in fact quite a bit warmer in the vicinity of your grill if you use the entire 10lb. bag and not the recommended 20-ish briquettes instead.
3. When using lighter fluid be sure to read the instructions. Again, very similar to #1 and #2, just in regards to the lighting apparatus. A little goes a long way, kinda like kids. I’m a one and done person.
4. Use a LONG grill lighter. Not the little cigarette lighters you may light your house candles with. In this instance size is everything! You need a long 6-8 inch super duty lighter. Trust me, your hair and eyebrows will appreciate you if you ignore #3 (it takes at least two weeks to re-generate eyebrows, if not longer).
5. Pam is your friend. Not like your BFF, but she’s pretty close in the grilling world. This all-purpose cooking spray, when applied to your grill grate will keep your meats and veggies from sticking and getting lost in your cooking efforts.
6. It takes MUCH longer to cook chicken than it takes to cook a steak. Unless you like steak bricks. The key to not giving yourself salmonella when cooking chicken on the grill is to buy thinner cuts of chicken or pound the meat with a meat mallet before grilling.
7. Just cause it looks done on the outside doesn’t mean it’s done on the INSIDE. Seems kinda like superfluous info, however, once you start smelling the grilling meat and see the yummy steak grilling to perfection you can’t automatically assume the inside matches what your nose is telling you. There are numerous YouTube videos that can help in this department, as far as timing on grilling different items. Again, have faith, I’ve done the pre-work for you on this one.
8. There is such a thing as flipping too much. Just like when you grill yourself in the sun seeking the perfect tan, you don’t flip you every 20 seconds, flipping your grilling food often will result in food that falls apart and has the tendency to fall in the grate of the grill. Again, lots of YouTube videos to help with your flipping problems!
9. You cannot just eat meat. Yes, we all love grilled meat, however, eating steak, chicken, sausage, hamburgers, whatever, 7 days a week on the grill without the addition of some of those green leafies will lead to unhappy tummies! There are food groups for a reason! We recently tried shish kabobs (pictured on the link) so we INCORPORATED the veggies into the grilling and voila!
10. If you’re going to try shish kabobs soaking your skewers for at least an hour in cold water (if you’re using wooden ones, which seriously who owns shish kabob skewers?) is a MUST. Another one of those “tried and true” you gotta believe me things. Otherwise your skewers are made out of wood and you are putting them OVER FIRE, what do you think happens? Shush, we’re not all prodigies.
11. An extra tip because I’m on a roll. Snap-On (who did not pay me for this endorsement) needle nose pliers make an excellent shish kabob turning apparatus.

So if you love the great outdoors or just like eating foods grilled outdoors, now is the perfect time to begin the exploration into grilling. Just please, for the sake of your body hair, keep the above tips in mind when you begin!

-Leah Poole, CEO of the Liberty County Chamber & CVB

The Right Blend Blog is written by three different authors employed by the Liberty County Chamber/CVB. As we are able, we rotate weeks and each write about our individual experiences, opinions and let our writing reflect our personalities and creativity. All content provided on The Right Blend blog is for informational purposes only. The owner of this blog makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of any information on this site or found by following any link on this site.