The flat-top grill brings new choices for you to improve your grilling experience. It is a cooking appliance that resembles a griddle but functions quite differently than a griddle. The flat-top grills are more common and popular these days for its versatility.
You can cook up a plate of pancakes, eggs, burgers, steaks, and more on the same surface. The flexibility of multiple heat zones allows you to grill up an entire backyard feast with so much ease and convenience. In this article, we will discuss flat top grill cooking tips and techniques, which will help you improve your experience on the flat top grill.
Is a Flat Top Grill Healthy?
A flat-top grill is an easy and convenient way to eat out healthy food with all the fresh vegetables and lean proteins. The benefit of cooking with a flat top grill is that it provides a broad and smooth surface. The food cooks evenly and thoroughly in a flat top grill, which does not let it break down and gives you a real taste of the food.
It helps to burn out the bad fat and excess oil of the food. You get a healthy and properly cooked breakfast, lunch, or dinner with the real taste of goodness.
What Can I Cook on a Flat Top Grill?
You can cook different types of food fresh off a flat-top grill. The heating element of a flat top grill is circular rather than straight, which creates an immensely hot and even cooking surface. You can get rich caramel and buttery flavors out of any food by using a flat top grill. As there are no sides to a flat top grill, it makes it easy to flip food. It also doesn’t trap any moisture, so the food becomes nice and crispy.
The flat-top grill is ideal for making burgers or fish and meat like steaks, ribs, and chicken breasts and produces a beautiful caramelization on them. You can prepare pancakes with the perfect golden-brown finish, fried eggs, and also liquid foods like scrambled eggs on this grill. It is also a great cooking surface for potatoes and sturdy vegetables like asparagus and eggplant. You can also use your flat top to prepare a side dish like sauces or a steak topper like mushrooms and onions.
Flat Top Grill Cooking Tips and Techniques
Like most forms of cooking, grilling is more of an art than a science and requires your skill and style to master the grill. There are some simple, quick tips and techniques that will help you to master your flat top grill and make you a good griller. Here we have discussed some tips and techniques that will help you add some sizzle to your flat top grill cooking:
Keep Your Flat Top Grill Clean
If you keep your grill clean, then the chances of flare-ups and constant smoke will be less. Constant smoke causes burn off the food and sour flavor, which you can’t let happen. Cleaning will also boost your grill performance.
Food that falls into the grill during cooking or ash deposits, and other parts and remains inside until you do the cleaning. After the cleaning, you will notice a significant difference in your grill performance than before.
Control the Flare-ups
Whenever you use a flat top grill, try to keep the flare-ups in your control. Always keep a part of the grill empty. It will help you to move the food in case of a sudden flare-up.
If a sudden flare-up does occur, immediately move the food away from it and turn off the gas grill.
Watch Your Grill
If you want to make your grilling successful, make sure you pay enough attention to the grill. It only takes a short moment for your grill to get out of control and burn the food like burgers, chops, and steaks, which are usually cooked very quickly and at a hot temperature.
It’s essential to do all your preparations before you hit the grill so that you can keep an eye on the grill and the food. It will help you to avoid burning food or other accidents.
Keep Plenty of Fuel
How will you feel if you run out of gas while grilling food? The feeling is not good. The atmosphere gets even worse if you throw a party at your house and a group of hungry people is waiting for dinner.
So keep a tank of extra fuel at home, and you will have nothing to worry about while you are grilling food.
Food Safety
Food safeties come first in every cooking. Practice food safety with everything you cook, whether it is normal cooking or grilling. Always keep your flat top grill and other kitchen appliances clean and sterilized to avoid the spread of cross-contamination.
To bring raw meat to the grill and to serve the cooked meat, use different plates. Cook proteins at a safe temperature, and to test temperatures of meats, use a meat thermometer.
Cook at the Right Temperature
When you use a flat top grill, make sure everything you cook at the correct temperature. Steaks or ribs of lamb or beef should be cooked in high temperatures, whereas delicate items like fish, vegetables, and chicken are best to cook at a medium temperature.
On the other hand, thick and large cuts of meat like roasts, whole chickens are needed to cook at a lower temperature.
Secrets of Searing
If you want a great, grilled flavor, then the searing is one of the secrets to get there. It is a technique used in grilling in which the surface of the food like meat, chicken, or fish is cooked at a high temperature until a brown crust forms.
It helps to caramelize the edges of meats more and makes a flavorful and crispy surface and almost works with any cut of beef, lamb, or other meats.
Indirect Grilling
Indirect grilling is a technique used when someone wants to cook something that requires low temperatures and slow time. You need to keep the food above the heat source or to the side instead of giving it a direct hit of the flame. It is the secret of multipurpose of a top flat grill.
Indirect grilling lets you grill chickens and other meats in low heat, or you can also bake bread. Just keep a burner on and turn off the other or you can turn off the direct burners and keep the surrounding burners on.
Ensure the Maintenance’s of Your Grill
If you want your flat top grill to work better and last longer, than perform regular maintenance on your grill.
Clean the grill and inspect all the internal parts. For example, check the burners and ensure that the ports are not blocked. If the ports are blocked, then use a thin wire or pipe cleaner to clear the blockage, or you can check the lighter to make sure that there are a good spark and the grill lights well.
How to Clean a Flat Top Grill?
To keep your flat top grill in good shape and expand its working life, you need to clean the flat top grill after every use. Here some simple steps are given below which can be followed for easy cleaning of your grill:
Step 1: After finishing your cooking, let your flat top grill cool and then scrape off all the food leftovers and cooked bits from it.
Step 2: Pour water into the grill and scrub it by using a palmetto cleaning brush.
Step 3: Wash it out with clean water.
Step 4: Then, let your grill surface dry out.
Step 5: Finally, add some vegetable cooking oil and wipe it down with a clean cloth. Then store it safely, and it is ready for the next time whenever you will use it.
Final Thought
A flat-top grill is an excellent piece of cooking equipment that people will love to have. This grill is perfect when you are cooking for a mass of people as they have a large surface area. Use the above-discussed tips and techniques and fire up your party with this grilling cooking experience. Hopefully, this article about flat top grill cooking tips and techniques will be helpful to you and improve your experience on the flat top grill.
David Bower
Hello, This is David Bower. Let me, introduce my website Gas grill hub that will inform you about all the latest gas grill BBQ machines, it’s accessories, using and maintenance information. As a chef, I know about a good gas grill and its every particular thing but then again I have been researching this sector for the last ten years. On this website, I’ll provide you every single information that you should know about a gas grill.