Knowing how to approach BBQ with confidence is the key to great food and great memories. These are my top 10 tips to enjoy better bbq that will change your life.

Best Tips for a Better BBQ Experience

I always love learning a new tip to help me make better BBQ, and I’m sure you do, too. Whether you’re a BBQ beginner or a seasoned pitmaster, you know a truly useful grilling tip comes in handy. My number one priority here at Hey Grill Hey is making sure you have everything you need to make delicious food for the people you love. That’s why I decided to put together this simple guide loaded with all the best BBQ tips I’ve learn over my years in the BBQ game. From grill care and maintenance, to shopping tips and mastering seasonings and sauces, this thing covers it all. So, if you’re ready to take your BBQ game to the next level, no matter what level you’re on, this is for you. Let’s get started.

Grilling Tips for Better BBQ

Making great BBQ starts with your grill. Learn what you need to know to use and understand your grill, and even some tips on cleaning it.

Clean Your Grill

Let’s start with an important one: clean your grill! You wouldn’t cook food or serve it with dirty cookware, so don’t cook on a dirty grill. I recommend a deep clean seasonally. For regular, everyday cooking, be sure to clean the grates between uses. You don’t need to buy a wire brush or anything fancy. All you need is a ball of heavy-duty aluminum foil and a pair of tongs. Rub the foil across the hot grates to easily remove any buildup and debris from previous use. This will give you a nice clean surface to start on and you won’t have to worry about leftover bits from meals long past. If you’re using a pellet smoker, I have a walkthrough for that here:

Get to Know Your Grill

If you’re going to master your fire, so to speak, then you need to know your grill. Does it have hot or cool zones? Where do you set your dials for the perfect temperature and air flow control? Are you getting consistent flame from all of your burners? These are all things that you won’t know until you really spend some time with your grill. For this, I recommend challenging yourself to use your grill 5 days in a row. By the end of that week, you’ll be more confident using your grill and have a better understanding of how it works.

Check Your Fuel Levels

A common mistake when grilling or smoking is running out of fuel halfway through the cook. If that happens, you’re going to end up cooking inside, which defeats the whole purpose of the experience. I find it useful to add the various fuels I use to my weekly grocery list just so I can keep it in mind. Obviously, double check fuel levels before getting started as well. There’s nothing worse than getting friends and family together to bbq and running out of fuel when the meat is halfway cooked.

Shopping Tips for BBQ Beginners and Pros

Smart shopping sets the stage for BBQ success. Discover how to choose cuts that will fit your needs and impress your guests without breaking the bank.

Start Cheap

As you’re getting started or trying something new, don’t break the bank on expensive cuts of meat. Start with something more affordable, like sirloin for steak, or chicken, to cut your teeth on and you can work your way up from there. Once you have some comfortability with your grill or a new recipe, then you can take on some of the more expensive, and sometimes more intimidating, cuts with confidence.

Pick the Right Cut for You

Knowing the right cut and matching it with the right cooking method is paramount to success. Bigger cuts like pork shoulders or chuck roast are great for low and slow cooking. Thinner cuts like steak and chicken breast work well cooked hot and fast on a grill. You can find a post to help you choose the right cuts for low and slow smoking here. There’s also a post to help you get to know your steak cuts. Additionally, if you have questions about what cuts work with different cooking methods while you’re looking at your options, get comfortable asking the person behind the counter at the butcher shop or your grocery store.

Cooking Tips to Help You Make Better BBQ

With a trusted recipe and the right ingredients, you’ll have your own mouth watering in anticipation. I dare you to try not to make better BBQ after reading this.

Start with a Good Recipe

One key thing to really help you on your way is to start with a good recipe and then take notes as you go. There are hundreds of recipes available to try all across the site that will help you start cooking even if you have little to no experience. Once you’ve chosen a recipe, cook it a few times to master it. Then you can use your notes to start tweaking things to make it your own. That’s where the real fun starts. Remember, you’ve got over 600 BBQ recipes available to try in your Recipe Library, and the Hey Grill Hey App.

Season with Authority

Have you ever wondered why when you grill at home it doesn’t seem as flavorful as the steak you ordered at a restaurant? It all comes down to seasoning. Chefs tend to use more seasoning and fat compared to home cooks. This leads to significantly more flavorful results. One key way to help you enjoy better bbq is by upping your seasoning game. A great place to start with this is seasoning with salt and pepper until you start to develop your palate and from there you can expand to whatever you like. I have tons of recipes for rubs and seasonings that you can make yourself. If you’d prefer to buy them premade, you can find them here.

Save it with Sauce

If you overcook anything on the grill, and let’s face it, it happens, you may be able to save it with sauce. Adding BBQ sauce or melted butter at the end can help restore moisture and salvage overcooked food. Now obviously, this won’t be able to save everything. Just remember to give this trick a try before giving up on a perfectly savable (and pricy) cut of meat.

More Tips for Better BBQ

Oh, we’re not done yet. I’ve still got a couple more tips to help you make better BBQ, and I saved the best for last.

Use a Food Thermometer

One thing that can’t be overlooked when trying to make better BBQ is to get yourself a really good thermometer. Specifically, you want an instant-read thermometer that you can use to probe the meat and get a quick read of how things are coming along. You don’t want to be cutting into your meat to check for doneness as this can leave you with a less juicy final result. My preferred brand is ThermoWorks. Having a probe thermometer on hand will help ensure you avoid undercooking, food poisoning, or overcooking your food.

Share your BBQ

After years of working in the BBQ space, the best piece of advice that I can give is to worry about it less and invite friends and family over more. The memories you make sharing BBQ with people you care about are the ones that will last. Spend your time improving your skills surrounded by friends and family and before you know it, you’ll not only be more confident and comfortable grilling, but you’ll be making better bbq and have a great time doing it.

Top Tips for Better BBQ

You can do this! Start with these top 10 tips for better bbq, then watch the video below for a closer look at them all. When you’re ready to test those newly-sharpened skills, check out The Grill Squad. With Pitmaster classes on everything from making your own sauces to smoking brisket, your BBQ game will never be the same.

For even more how-to videos on all things BBQ, plus step-by-step guides for all my most popular recipes, head to the Hey Grill Hey YouTube channel. And of course, don’t forget to tag @heygrillhey on Facebook and Instagram to share some photos of your progress becoming a Backyard BBQ Hero.