My 5 Tips for Pulling Off a Stress-Free Grill-Out Every Time

With warm air moving in and green grass growing, it’s time to cross the starting line for summer grill-out season. While hosting a cookout can seem daunting, here are some tips to make your next backyard get-together not only successful but stress-free.

Whether I’m grilling dinner for the family, photographing recipes for clients, or styling thick-cut steaks for broadcast television commercials, I’ve picked up a few habits to make my life (and hopefully yours!) around the grill easier.

1. Timing Is Everything

Especially when entertaining, I can get distracted easily. To keep the meal on track, I do two things. First, I create a timed schedule starting with the anticipated serving time and work backwards from there. Steaks might take just a few minutes to grill, but you also need to add in time for grill prep and preheating. So, if I’m serving steaks at 7:00, I need to light the grill at 6:15. A master schedule with cook times, grill temperatures, and a prep checklist ensures a smooth operation.

Second, I use a timer. Always! When cooking, our senses of sight and smell help determine when food is cooked to some degree (pun intended). However, if you are preparing a large feast and grilling multiple items, there is limited time to spend assessing and tending to each dish. 

You are in motion, and if friends are over, you are probably sipping on your favorite libation, too. There are distractions galore. A timer, whether on your phone or mechanical, ensures no matter how many conversations you enter or beers you sip, you will never miss a flip.

2. Give It a Rest

Plan on holding your grilled food, especially BBQ, in an insulated cooler until you’re ready to eat. Pulled pork and smoked brisket are best when rested before serving, allowing them to reach their full potential. During this resting time, the rendered fat and moisture have time to redistribute evenly throughout the meat, creating a more tender slice or shred. 

Barbecued meats also take hours to prepare, so having a built-in time buffer adds flexibility to get the rest of the menu ready, like whipping up the Alabama white sauce for those chicken halves you smoked.

Not only do I use an insulated cooler for this resting period, I have a designated “meat towel” to wrap the pork or beef in, too. Meat cooked to 200ºF can easily handle a few hours in the cooler and safely stay out of the 140ºF danger zone.

3. Have Your Trays Do Double Duty

Today’s serving dish is tomorrow’s drip tray. Disposable foil pans are a common accessory for backyard grilling. Whether they are catching grease under the grill grates or soaking wood chips for the next low-and-slow smoke, they are typically one-and-done. 

I like to extend their use by first using them to serve food. I’ll use a new 9×13 foil pan for smoked mac and cheese, and once the leftovers (ha, yeah right!) are stored elsewhere, I put the used pan in my future drip tray stack. This way, you eliminate dishes and extend the tray’s usefulness. It’s a literal win-win.

A day before the grill-out (rather than the day of) is a perfect time to empty and replace those drip pans, remove extra ash, and give your grill grates a good scrape so you’re set up and ready to go. 

4. Fuel Up

Sure, you’ve got enough “insert fuel of choice” until you don’t. Whether it’s propane, charcoal, or pellets, make sure to have extra on hand. Running out to the store during party prep isn’t an option. Growing up, I distinctly remember several times my Dad either ran out of propane mid-cook or didn’t have any to light the grill. Today, he is still grilling at 86 and learned his lesson years ago—keep an extra one on the shelf!

I am lucky to have a fairly good supply of fuel around, and keep a backup bag of pellets, charcoal briquettes, and a cylinder of liquid propane at the ready. To maintain this, I replace an empty bag or refill a cylinder every time I open a new one, so I never deplete what I have on the shelf.

5. Stick To What You Know

I love to experiment on the grill. However, when it comes to special days when I’m entertaining, I like to grill what I know and, more importantly, what I know I can pull off. Save that live fire exploration for a quiet Sunday afternoon when you can truly become one with the grill. 

If you really want to attempt something completely different, I salute your inventiveness and desire to mix things up. However, I recommend you try it out on a smaller scale a week in advance. The extra practice with those grilled racks of lamb will practically ensure your enshrinement in the neighborhood grill master hall of fame.