Here's The Grilling Secret You Need To Follow When Using Honey With Your BBQ

Honey tastes great in everything from elevated tomato sandwiches to extra-flavorful fried chicken, but arguably one of the most satisfying applications for the naturally sweet liquid is in barbecue. Whether it's mixed into a marinade or added to BBQ sauce, honey and grilled meat just go together. When done right, honey barbecue is a crispy, juicy, flavor-packed delight. However, Scott Thomas, founder of The Grillin' Fools, warned that grilling with honey can be tricky for one main reason: it's prone to burning. The issue is that honey blackens at a lower temperature than most types of sugar (this is why you have to be careful to avoid burning honey when baking). "Most people smoke no lower than 225 degrees Fahrenheit," Thomas said. "That can be too much for honey after a long period of time."

If you add honey to the meat early in a cookout session, like you might with a sugar-sweetened rub or marinade, it will be insulated by the cooler meat at first, Thomas explained. "But if that pork shoulder is taken to 203 degrees Fahrenheit (which is the target for most pitmasters), honey can blacken and burn," he warned. Luckily, there's a simple solution for this problem. "Wait to put the honey on at the very end," Thomas advised. "A lot of outdoor cooks will brush the sauce or glaze on at the very end and get it off the grill before the honey burns and blackens."

Waiting to add honey until the end of a grilling session is a simple and easy way to avoid burning, but what if you've already added the honey and it starts to char when your meat isn't quite ready? Don't sweat it, because Scott Thomas has another expert solution. "Put a sheet of foil over the meat if it starts to get too dark," he suggested. "The foil will deflect the heat away and stop the honey from burning." This is a trick whole hog cookers use to get the perfect color on a pig, he noted. "Once their hog gets to the color they like, they wrap it in foil."

As for how to use honey in your barbecue, Thomas recommends keeping it simple and saucy. "Maybe the best way to incorporate honey is to make your own BBQ sauce," he suggested. "Give me a homemade BBQ sauce with honey over high fructose corn syrup all day long." (Thomas emphasized that BBQ sauce is quite simple to prepare, but if you're stretched for time, you can always pick up a popular store-bought BBQ sauce — we tried and ranked 13 of them.) With these expert secrets up your sleeve, you're ready to grill up perfectly sweet and juicy honey barbecue like a pro.