Potatoes are some of the most versatile foods in the world, and they can be prepared in numerous different ways. One of the most popular - and tasty - ways to prepare them is to bake them. Baked potatoes can be eaten as a light snack, or as an addition to a main meal. You can even have them in a barbecue to make your outdoor eating even more enjoyable.
Cooking on a BBQ grill is a great way to prepare a meal in the summer time, and you don't have to limit yourself to simple meals. A baked potato that was cooked on a BBQ grill can taste amazing, and this article will give you some tips and ideas to help you make the tastiest possible baked potatoes on a BBQ grill.
How To Cook a Baked Potato on a BBQ Grill
It's actually quite simple to make a baked potato on a BBQ grill. The first step is to make sure that the potato is nice and clean - this is good practice no matter what vegetable you are cooking.
Next you should wrap it in tinfoil - some people wrap several potatoes together, but this can lead to them being rather dry once they are cooked. For best results, each potato should be wrapped individually before putting them on the BBQ grill.
Making a great tasting potato is not difficult, but it requires a bit more than just wrapping it up in foil and throwing it on the grill. It's important to make sure that the piece of foil will be large enough to cover the entire potato. The end product will need to be nice and moist, so to achieve this you should put about a tablespoon of oil on the foil. The oil will keep the potato moist until it's ready to be eaten.
Tips For Making An Extra-Special Baked Potato
If you want to make an extra-special baked potato, add a few seasonings in with the oil before you wrap the potato up. Which seasonings you add is up to you, why not experiment with some spices and seasonings that will compliment the other foods in the meal?
It takes about 45 minutes to cook a baked potato on a BBQ grill. You can place them anywhere on the grill, but try to avoid the area with the highest head. To test the potato to see if it is ready, just prick it with a fork - if the fork easily goes into the center of the potato then it is ready to eat.
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Imagine cooking some juicy steaks on your own built in BBQ grill. Sure it will take a lot of work and a good chunk of change, but it will definitely be worth it. Building you own backyard BBQ grill can be a daunting task, but with a little planning it will be a great project with excellent returns. Before you begin digging and building you will need to do some careful planning. Deciding how the grill will look and what functionality you need are the most difficult and important parts of this entire project. As part of the design you will need to decide what design to use and how to customize it to fit your style. Before you begin construction it is imperative to choose what grill insert you will use.
Built in BBQ Plans can be purchased from a variety of online vendors or at a local home improvement store and can be fairly expensive. You can design your own grill using one of two methods: pencil and paper or with computer design software. I recommend starting with the pencil and paper until you have a good idea where you are going, then move into the digital world. There are a variety of design software packages available at many price levels. When I designed my backyard BBQ grill I used Google SketchUp, a free software package that is easy to use.
There are three basic designs to start with. You can customize them once you have decided on a basic design. The first design is a simple island. It can be as long and deep as you like, but the minimum size is really six feet long by two and a half feet deep. The second design is an L. A bar extends perpendicular to the island. This allows for a bit more counter space. The third design adds another bar on the other side of the island forming a U design.
The space that you have for the outdoor kitchen will dictate which design you use. If you are limited on space you will probably need to choose the simple bar design; if you have a large space available you may opt for the U Design. Once you have chosen a starting design you can customize it to fit your style.
After you have chosen the design and dimensions of your grill you will need to decide how you want it to look. There are a variety of facades to choose from including stucco, rock, and traditional brick. Counters need to be a weather resistant durable material both tile and stone work well. If you will install cabinets under the countertop choose a wood that weathers well such as cedar or redwood.
The final and most important choice you will have to make when designing your built in BBQ grill is what type of grill insert to use. If you will use charcoal you can just brick in a grate and start cooking. If you like the taste of charcoal but want the look of stainless steel you can purchase a charcoal stainless steel grill insert, but it will cost you quite a bit of money. Because of convenience and cooking style most will choose a gas grill insert. They come in a variety of sizes and models.
When choosing a grill insert remember the following tips. I know that you will want to purchase the largest and most powerful model available, but it is not necessary. Think about the amount of food that you will be cooking at one time. If you have a small to medium sized family and don't entertain large gatherings as 400 to 500 square inch model ought to work well. Make sure to have the insert handy when construction begins to ensure a proper fit.
Following the steps outlined above when planning and designing your backyard kitchen will ensure that your built in BBQ grill will fit your style and needs.
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I get to see thousands of barbeque grills at their worst. People call me when the grill will not heat properly, can't ignite or begins to fall apart with rust and corrosion. I repair gas barbeque grills and I get to see how you treat your BBQ. The most common misconception I deal with is a belief grill ignitors do not last. Many customers will tell me their barbeque grill has served them for over ten years but the ignitor stopped working within six months. More often than not, when I test the ignition it works just fine aside from being ignored for the past nine and a half years. Inject a little education and most clients are able to use the barbeque grill ignition for many years before needing a replacement part.
A gas grill ignitor is made up of several different parts although most backyard chefs envision it as a single fragile item. The module is often referred to as a spark generator and generate sparks is what it does. A module can contain a button to act as the electronic switch, spark generator and battery pack. These items can also be installed separately depending on the barbecue grill design. The switch is usually accessible but the ignition module is mounted behind the control panel. Placement behind the control panel keeps you from breaking it and keeps the weather from directly affecting its performance.
The electrode is attached to the module by an electrode wire that runs into the firebox of the gas BBQ grill. The electrode acts just like a spark plug in your car. The charge from the battery is activated when the button is pressed, rotary is turned, control knob recessed, etc. The battery charge is converted within the module and sent to the electrode. The electrode sparks and gas ignites. It is really that simple and the simpler the tool, the more difficult to damage.
A barbeque grill ignition electrode should be easy to locate in the firebox of your gas grill once the cooking grates, briquette tray or heat shields have been removed. It will even look like a small spark plug with a porcelain housing and a steel rod coming through it. Often there will be a second steel rod mounted alongside the rod coming through the porcelain. Many barbeque manufacturers will place a stainless steel collector box over the electrode to protect it. Whether your gas grill electrode is a single steel rod in a porcelain sleeve, two steel rods or is contained in a stainless collection box, this is where the electric charge arcs to ignite your gas grill.
One reason a barbeque grill ignitor will seem to function poorly is the same reason the spark plug in your car must have its gap adjusted when it is installed. Whether the electrode is grounding against the gas grill burner, the collector box or secondary steel rod, the distance has to be close enough to make a strong connection but far enough apart to maximize the exposure to gas flowing from the burner. Check the gas grill manual and properly gap the distance to achieve the best spark from your ignitor.
If you purchased your gas barbecue grill from a grill store as opposed to a giant retailer selling everything but properly educated in nothing or buying it online and assembling it yourself the specialty grill store will have completed this for you as part of the assembly of the grill.
The primary reason most people believe their gas BBQ grill ignitor is broken is grease. The electrode must mount inside the grill near the gas burner in order to access the gas as it leaves the burner. The proximity to the gas it ignites also places the electrode in the path of falling grease. Grease, dirt, rain, water and pieces of food all combine to hinder the effectiveness of your gas grill ignition. When the button is pushed, clicked or turned and the gas does not ignite most backyard grillers will assume the ignitor is broken. Often it can be a single drop of grease that is stopping the arc from connecting to the ground.
Even the rare client who truly does clean their gas barbeque regularly will focus on the grill parts they can see or the BBQ parts that touch their food. The more devoted cook may remove the cooking grates to clean the rock tray, heat shields and sometimes poke put the gas ports on the gas burner. All this is great but an extra thirty seconds to lightly brush the collector box or the exposed electrode will keep the ignition function safely through many years of use. When you clean the electrode, rely on your de-greasing spray. If too much pressure is applied and the porcelain sleeve gets cracked, the electrode will have to be replaced. Spray the de-greaser, lightly brush the steel rods then replace the battery and activate the switch. Most ignitors today use a battery operated button but many grills still use rotary knobs or piezo clicking buttons. Check the arc to make sure the spark is a solid blue and adjust the gap if necessary.
I have assisted thousands of backyard chefs over the past several years and a vast majority of them have believed a faulty ignitor was standard practice on a gas grill. It is not. A little education and a little maintenance and your ignitor will exceed your expectations and safely ignite your barbeque grill every time.
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Barbeque ribs are a summertime favorite. With just the right amount of seasoning, grilling, and sauce, you will have a family hit. There are different options for grilling. The two most common are beef and pork ribs. These are varieties of rib that you will find in your local grocery store.
In addition to the meat, you will need the following:
Store bought or homemade dry rub Barbeque sauce Basting brush Tongs to turn meat
To parboil or not to parboil
Parboiling, or leaching as it is also called is when you partially cook a food, either by baking it in the oven or boiling it in water to help speed the cooking process up. Some people cook meat through this process first so that they do not have to keep it on the grill for a longer time, which would dry the meat out. Do this for approximately 45 minutes.
If you decide to parboil, you can add a can of beer to your water or to the pan that you bake the meat in to add flavor.
Seasoning
Once your meat is parboiled, you can let it cool down enough to handle them without burning yourself. Using a store bought dry rub or one that you have mixed yourself; cover your ribs generously with seasoning on both sides. A dry rub is a combination of herbs and spices that you rub into the meat of so that the flavor penetrates deeply.
Preparing the Grill
Before you begin cooking your meat on the grill, be sure to heat the grill up. If you have a temperature gauge on the grill set it to 350 degrees or watch it until it reaches 350. If you do not have a temperature gauge, you will want to get the grill hot enough so that when you spray water onto it, that it instantly sizzles and evaporates.
Grilling
Although you are making barbeque, you do not want to put your sauce on at this point. Now that your grill is ready and your ribs are seasoned, you can place them onto the highest rack of the grill. Keeping it higher and further away from the heat will allow the ribs to cook evenly and slowly so that they do not dry out and become overcooked. Keep your grill lid closed and cook for 30 minutes bone side down. At that point, turn them over and cook them for another 15 minutes.
Sauce it up
Now that they are finished, move them down to the lowest rack of the grill. Here is the fun part. Add the barbeque sauce of your choice. It is best to pour some on and spread it out with a basting brush used for spreading sauce on food. Never leave the grill unattended during this time. The sauce may cause flare-ups of the flame. Cover with sauce completely and flip the ribs regularly for approximately 10 minutes. This allows the sauce to stick and become caramelized.
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