Tips and tricks on how to stop meat sticking to BBQ grill grates

Are you ready to get your BBQ gear out this weekend and relax after a hectic week? From juggling work every day to maintaining a household, do you feel like you want to unwind with a couple of cold beverages and a lovely grilled feast with the family on a quiet Saturday evening?

But the dream stops when your worst nightmare begins—scraping chunks of charred meat off the grill grates. Apart from how difficult the cleaning process is, there are other issues that come with the meat sticking to the BBQ grill grates.

One issue is that when the meat starts sticking to the grill grates, it is always the perfectly caramelised crust that you will be losing to the grill. As a result, there’s a chance your meat will lose its moisture and become dry.

So to make it easier for you, this blog post will look into a few tips and tricks on how to stop meat sticking to BBQ grill grates.

1. Preheat your grill

Make sure that you never ever throw raw food on a cold grill—you will miss out on the perfectly caramelised criss-cross-marked grilled steak. So why is it so important that you don’t lose these marks? These markings are where your meat sugars caramelise and offer you that delicious smoky flavour that we all look for in good grilled meat.

So why should you preheat your grill? From a technical point of view, if your grill is not adequately preheated, the metal’s pores will not have fully expanded and closed up, causing your food to stick to the grate. Your meat can drop into the open holes due to gravity, and when the metal expands, the pores shut, biting onto your food, and this is how your food can get stuck on your BBQ grill grates.

2. Invest in a BBQ grill mat

Since the cleaning process is the majority of the hassle, grill mats are the perfect solution to your problem. It is an innovation that no BBQ enthusiast can get over. Get excited, because apart from minimising cleaning up the grill every weekend, its flat surface allows you to cook steaks to perfection!

Grill mats are definitely a pitmaster’s secret weapon. To properly cook smaller or more bite-sized food items, it is a must-have BBQ accessory. A BBQ grill mat is a non-stick heat mat that may be placed on top of any gas, charcoal, or electric grill grate. They facilitate easy cleanup in addition to preventing food from falling through the grill gates.

3. Oil and clean the grates

It is no secret that you will always have to clean the grill grates after every grilling occasion to keep them clean and avoid new BBQ chunks sticking to them. Not only will sticking create wear and tear on the meat, but it will also ruin the representation. So be sure to scrub every possible debris left from the previous grilling sessions.

After thoroughly cleaning your grill, apply a thin layer of high-heat cooking oil to the grill grates using a brush or a folded paper towel. Between the meat and the grates, this oil layer serves as a barrier, lowering the likelihood of sticking. This method is one of the conventional methods on how to stop meat sticking to BBQ grill grates.

4. Select the proper cut of meat

One final trick on how to stop meat sticking to BBQ grill grates is making sure to choose the right cuts of meat. Rib eye or skin-on chicken thighs, which are fattier meat cuts, have extra oil that can seep out and act as an oil barrier between the meat and the grill, preventing sticking.

Ensure that the meat is completely pat-dried with paper towels before putting it on the grill. Meat surface moisture might contribute to sticking, so just before grilling, season the meat with salt and spices to help improve the flavour and produce a crust, further lowering the chances of sticking.

Now you know how to stop meat sticking to BBQ grill grates with these tips and tricks

Now that you know all about how to stop meat from sticking to BBQ grill grates, try these tips and tricks to make sure that you don’t have to go through the nightmare of a lengthy cleaning process every time you want to whip out the grill to smoke a feast for your family.