How To Use A Charcoal Grill For Direct Grilling
Oct 15, 2024
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Grilling with charcoal can be intimidating for beginners, but with the right guidance, it can be a breeze. In this guide, we break down how to use a charcoal grill for direct grilling, which is a great method for anything you want to grill quickly.
Whether you are grilling burgers, salmon, corn, or thin steaks, direct grilling is a go-to method to achieve flavor and a proper char to your meat. It’s also the only method available for some smaller grills. Let’s walk through what direct grilling is and how to achieve this method of grilling.
Table of Contents
How Grilling Works
Grilling is when you apply a heat source like charcoal or a propane flame to the meat or other protein or vegetable. The higher temperature of grilling, versus smoking, creates a crust, which is created using a “Maillard reaction”. This is similar to searing in a cast iron pan on a stovetop.
If the grill is not hot enough, then you don’t get a sear and you run the risk of overcooking your meat. If the grill is too hot then you run the risk of burning the meat before it’s cooked to a proper internal temperature.
There are two main types of techniques you should master. Direct Grilling and Indirect Grilling, also known as two-zone grilling. The direct grilling method is best for any meat that can be cooked hot and fast like seafood, vegetables, or thin steaks, or as a finish for reverse searing. Indirect is perfect for larger roasts and thicker steaks and is generally our preferred method of cooking. But sometimes direct is the only option.
Set Up and Equipment
Whether you have a kettle grill or grilling on a Big Green Egg, your grill will have (at least) two dampers, or air vents. One on the base and one on the top. Typically air comes in the bottom and out the top.
Be sure both are wide open before starting. This maximizes the airflow.
Your grill will have two grates. One is a charcoal grate, and is where you will dump your lit charcoal. The other is the cooking grate. Make sure when getting started, the cooking grate is off for easy access to your grill.
It’s also important to have a chimney starter, a good ash tool to stir up the lit charcoal, and long tongs for grilling over direct heat.
Fuel: Briquettes versus Lump Charcoal
Before starting the grill be sure to select your preferred fuel source. We prefer lump charcoal for the flavor profile and hotter temperatures.
- Briquettes – These are pressed together biomass, often with chemical bonding, and are uniform in size. Some may also come soaked in a starter-like lighter fluid. We avoid briquettes because they leave behind more ash and do not impart a flavor that we like.
- Lump Charcoal – Lump is hardwood that has been pre-ignited and then starved of oxygen. This leaves a more natural flavor profile and can be made from a mix of woods like apple, hickory, mesquite, or oak. Lump charcoal burns hot, has less ash after cooking, and can be small or larger chunks.
Pitmaster Tip
If using lump charcoal, be sure smaller chunks are in a layer at the base of the starter. Larger pieces will not ignite as easily, and this allows for faster igniting.
Start The Charcoal
There are two methods we recommend to start your charcoal grill. Using a charcoal chimney starter or using a sawdust or tumbleweed fire starter. Both methods take about the same amount of time. This article focuses on using a chimney.
If you want to achieve your pitmaster merit badge, then avoid lighter fluid (always!).
Place paper in the base of the starter (shallow side). Then add your charcoal to the top. Light the paper. The charcoal will ignite in about 20 minutes at which point it will all be white and hot and ready for the grill.
You want all the charcoal to be ignited and white so it’s hot enough for grilling.
Fire Brick Starters
If you don’t have a chimney starter, you can start your charcoal with wood fire starters or tumble weed starters. Just place within the charcoal and slightly cover. Stir when it’s lit so all the charcoal ignites evenly.
Explore other ways to start a grill without lighter fluid if you don’t have either option.
Place Lit Charcoal In Grill
Place lit coals into your grill. Using your ash tool or long tongs, make sure the charcoal is all stacked and concentrated. This will focus the heat for direct grilling. Then place your grill grate in the grill so it can get hot. Then put the lid of the grill on.
As the grill reaches your target temperature start adjusting the vents slightly to maintain your desired temp. The more open the vents, the hotter the grill will run. It’s always easier to heat up a grill than it is to cool one down. So be sure you are monitoring the internal temperature.
Grill Direct
Allow the grill grate to pre-warm for 10 minutes to help get a good sear, or char, on your meat. Then place your seasoned meat over the direct heat on the grill grates. Follow the recipe instructions for timing.
When grilling direct, it’s important to flip often and to keep the lid on. This minimizes flare-ups and allows for even searing on both sides of your meat. Use a good instant-read thermometer to know when to pull the meat off when it’s done.
Unless you are competing in a steak event, do not worry about perfectly aligned grill marks. Those are not important! Getting a broader sear on your meat adds more flavor than the small thin char that comes from grill marks. The more sear, the more flavor you will have from the grill.
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Rest Your Meat
When the meat reaches your desired internal temperature be sure to rest the food rest to allow carry-over cooking to happen. As the meat rests, the internal temp will still rise in temperature a few more degrees. So let it rest for 10 minutes to allow for this to occur and so it’s not too hot when eating.
Troubleshooting
Flare-Ups – Flare-ups happen when fat drips down onto the lit charcoal creating flames. To minimize this, move the meat around to different parts of the grill, keep the lid on as much as possible to minimize oxygen which feeds the flare-ups, or have a spray bottle on hand to spray the flame down. The down side with the spray bottle is that it can impact the char or crust on the meat.
No Sear? – If you don’t hear the meat sizzle as it goes on the grill grates, then the grill and grate is not hot enough. Remove the meat and open the vents more to allow it to get hotter, then re-apply the meat to the grill when you hear a distinct sizzle.
Frequently Asked Questions
It should take 20 minutes for the charcoal to be white hot and ready for grilling. Then place in the grill and get the grates hot.
Waiting until the charcoal is white ensures the fire will burn evenly across a larger surface area. Dark charcoal is cool and will create cool zones. So you want it all white so it’s even cooking.
After the coals are hot, allow the grill grates to warm up 10 minutes before cooking to allow the sear.
If your grill gets too hot, then the fastest way to cool it down quickly is adding fresh un-lit charcoal. This will cool down the grill. Then adjust your vents and allow it to heat up again.
Direct Grilling Recipes
Here are some of our favorite recipes using the direct grilling method.
- Grilled Skirt Steak – A thin steak is perfect for hot and fast direct charcoal grilling.
- Satay Chicken – Marinated chicken grilled to perfection with a peanut sauce.
- BBQ Oysters – An amazing butter and BBQ sauce with hot and fast oysters.
- Grilled Prawns – Anytime we want to wow a crowd we grill up these seasoned prawns.
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