For More Even Grilling, Stop Making This Critical Mistake With Your Charcoal

Despite some people calling it the easiest type of cooking, grilling poses its own challenges, especially with charcoal grills. Chief among these is the tendency for food to cook unevenly. Due to the high temperatures associated with cooking meat and other ingredients via direct heat over the hot coals, food often burns on the outside before it's cooked through. To find out how to prevent this from happening, we spoke to Scott Groth, founder of I'd Rather Be a Chef.

"Indirect heat is an important part to grilling either with gas or charcoal," Groth told The Takeout. "The idea is to create 'heat zones' to allow for greater control while cooking. Direct heat is ideal for searing and cooking thinner cuts quickly, while indirect heat is better for thicker cuts that require longer cooking times without burning."

In order to create different heat zones, you have to stop filling your entire grill with charcoal. If the whole thing is full of hot coals, you have no option but to cook your food via direct heat (invariably causing thicker cuts to cook unevenly). Instead of doing this, take Groth's advice and set up the charcoal so your grill has at least two heat zones.

To set up a two-zone grilling station (giving you access to both direct and indirect heat), only partially fill the grill with charcoal –- enough to cover ⅔ of the grill is ample. According to Groth, you should then "start the coals and allow them to get white hot. Then, using a fireplace shovel or charcoal rake, pile most of the coals on one side to create a hot zone, leaving some on the other side for the cooler zone. You still want heat under the meat."

Having access to both direct and indirect heat allows you to easily cook a variety of larger foods on your grill without burning them. For example, you can cook a whole chicken by placing it on the cool zone of your grill and closing the lid. Once cooked through, you can then sear it on the hot side to develop some color, texture, and flavor. (Some chefs even advise searing meat by placing it directly onto the coals.) Groth is more of a fan of heat zones than straight coal grilling. "This setup allows you to sear food over high heat and then move it to the cooler side to finish cooking evenly." This approach works best for thick cuts of meat like pork chops (which you should always brine) and New York strip steaks.