Tips For the Best & Easiest Grilled Dinner

We’re one of those families who uses the grill all year long.  We grill while on vacation.  We grill in the winter.  It’s just hard to beat dinner cooked outside!  Add a couple perfect sides and you have a dinner you’re glad you stayed home for!  Let me give you a few of my favorite tips for a fast and delicious grilled meal.

Tip #1 – Shorten the time on the grill

Grilled Chicken is so good with that charred flavor! But it takes so long to cook over the coals that it’s hard to:

1. Be patient enough to stand out in the sun for an hour.
2. Cook the meat to done-ness without burning charring it to a crisp.

My favorite way to speed up the process is to use the crock pot or oven and pretty much cook the chicken.  That way I have dinner prepped and on its way, and it’ll only take about 15 minutes to finish the main dish.

At that time, I (which means my husband!) will just heat up the grill and put the meat on long enough to add the  barbecue sauce and get it thick and caramelized. By then it also has gotten that nice grilled flavor!

I don’t do this for most other meats, but it’s a time-saver with chicken! I also like to do my ribs in the crock pot first so they’ll be tender. See pic below!  Mmmm!

Tip #2 Make the perfect baked potato

If you ever had a potato from Red Lobster, you’ll understand when I talk about the potato skin being crispy and salty.  I never do mine in the microwave, but the method I use is so simple and easy to prep.

1. Wash and dry potatoes.
2. Place on a foil-line baking sheet.
3. Spray the potatoes with cooking spray on all sides. Pierce each with a knife.
4. Sprinkle course salt over all sides.
5. Bake at 400 degrees for one hour.

The potatoes will be crispy, salty and delicious!  I prep them and get them into the oven early in the day, then set the oven to auto bake.  It comes on when it’s time and is ready for the table when the meat is being taken off the grill! When I do a sweet potato, I slip it into foil and bake it for an hour at 400.  It doesn’t need the process done for the regular potato.

Tip #3 Microwave the corn.

I know there are some good tips to cook corn on the grill, but for ease, I started using this microwave method a couple years ago.

1. Shuck the corn and wash ears.
2. Remove silks.
3. Wrap a paper towel around each ear. Run it quickly under water to wet the paper towel.
4. Place corn in the microwave and cook about 1-2 minutes per ear – depending on your microwave.

 

Tip #4 – Put foil on your grill racks.

This tip is only if you like keeping a clean grill, but hate scrubbing the racks.  You’ll still get good grill marks on your food, and you’ll have far less clean-up!

Tip #5 – Spray the foil with cooking spray

This obviously helps the food not stick.  Meat does tend to stick to the foil, so this just keeps it from making it difficult to flip the food over to grill the other side.

These tips make grilling out so much easier, and you just can’t get any better than a menu of

Barbecued chicken or ribs 
Baked potato  
Corn on the cob!!

What is your best tip for grilling out?
Have I used the word “grill” enough in this post?!! Ha!  We love it!!  So go and GRILL something!

With love from my country kitchen (and patio),