Spring is in the air and grilling season is upon us. Getting your barbecue ready for its busiest time of year and adding great tools to your grilling arsenal are the easiest ways to set yourself up for an exceptional season of grilling.
Investing in high-quality BBQ tools and accessories is a simple way to take your grill game up a notch, but in order to get the most out of any new grilling toys, it helps to give your barbecue a thorough cleaning before you fire up the grill. Before you bust out those shiny new tools, prepare yourself for your best grilling season yet by:
- Cleaning your grill and grill grates
- Seasoning cast iron grill grates (if you have them)
- Performing routine seasonal maintenance
- Checking your grill for damage and non-functioning parts
- Checking for gas leaks
- Picking up the best BBQ tools and accessories to improve your grilling
When you’re working with a clean, well-maintained barbecue, a good set of grilling tools can really enhance your grilling experience. It might not seem like they would make that much of a difference, but they can make the grilling process easier in a lot of small ways that really add up.
So, which tools and accessories should you definitely add to your collection? Keep reading for our expert advice on the best grilling tools for 2022.
The Best Grilling Tools
The best grilling tools are ones that are well-made and which help make maintaining and operating your grill or preparing your food a simple and enjoyable process. Ensure these five must-have items make it into your grilling tool belt:
1. FoodAid Safe Grilling Brushes
FoodAid safe grilling brushes are built to last a long time without losing bristles, meaning they aren’t made with potentially dangerous wire bristles, and their bristles don’t end up in your food.
Instead, FoodAid brushes use FDA-approved, food-safe materials such as high-heat resistant PurePolymer™. These brushes are perfect for safely cleaning your grill and grill grates so you can keep your barbecue performing at its best without worrying about bristles ending up where they don’t belong, like in your best friend’s burger.
Shop for FoodAid safe grilling brushes:
2. Smart Grilling Thermometers
An accurate temperature reading can improve the quality of your grilled food and shorten your cooking time. Opening your grill lid to check temperature lowers the internal temperature inside your barbecue, which slows down the grilling process and can result in dryer meat—something that is especially important if you grill in the winter when it takes the grill even longer to get back up to temperature.
A smart thermometer works in conjunction with an app on your smartphone and helps keep tabs on the temperature of your food and the internal temperature of your grill, and will alert you when it has reached the level of doneness you have selected, helping to avoid repeatedly opening the lid to check manually.
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3. Basting brush or mop
A basting brush or mop—also known as a sauce mop—is integral to the easy application of sauces and marinades while grilling. A good basting utensil can make all the difference when it comes to flavor, allowing the sauce or marinade to get into all the nooks and crevices of the food.
Not sure whether you need a brush or a mop? The type of sauce or marinade and the size of the cut of meat you are using dictates the correct utensil for you:
Basting brushes are ideal for smaller cuts of meat, such as chicken cutlets, or thicker sauces, like marinades.
Sauce mops are ideal for large cuts of meat, such as pork butts, or thin sauces, like glazes.
Shop for basting brushes and mops:
4. Turner and tong
A pair of tongs sometimes referred to as “those little metal grabber thingies”, can revolutionize the grilling experience. They make it easier to turn over your grilling creations without the risk of dropping them, and tongs with a built-in turner make this action even easier.
A 2-in-1 turner-and-tong is built with one tong and one turner—a flat, spatula-like metal paddle—so that lifting and flipping heavily-sauced, larger, or oddly-shaped items become easier to control.
Shop for 2-in-1 turner and tongs:
5. Grilling tool set
A durable set of grilling tools can hold up against hours of grilling, and includes all of the things that you really need to simplify the cooking process:
- Locking tongs
- Off-set spatula
- Silicone basting brush
BBQ Grill Accessories
While they aren’t always strictly necessary, grill accessories can make barbecuing a whole lot more fun, flavorful, and convenient. Consider incorporating these items into your collection for a better BBQ experience:
6. Heat safe barbecue gloves
Avoid making unintentional sacrifices to the grill gods (i.e. burning your hands on hot, searing metal) by protecting yourself with some good quality, heat-safe barbecue gloves. Not only will these protect you from burns, but they also protect your hands from the ambient temperature, making it easier to work with your food. Bonus: they do double duty and will easily replace the traditional oven mitt you have been using for years for indoor cooking.
Shop for grilling gloves:
7. Beer can chicken roasters
Looking to expand your assortment of accessories? Look no further than the classic beer can chicken roaster. Popularized in the 90s, upright roasters are a great way to slow-cook whole chickens.
Shop for upright chicken roasters:
8. Smoker boxes
Infuse your food with that delicious smoky flavor without investing in a dedicated smoker. Smoker boxes are easily inserted inside of your grill—gas or charcoal—and are extremely simple to operate. All you have to do is add your preferred flavor of wood chips to the smoker box to impart the delicate smoky taste you want.
9. Grill toppers and baskets
Ideal for cooking delicate food items, such as fish, or small food items like asparagus or shrimp, grill toppers and baskets prevent food from falling apart and will keep pieces from falling through the cooking grates to the nether regions of the grill.
Shop grill toppers and baskets:
Conclusion
The best grilling tools and accessories are ones that will better your barbeque experience by streamlining your process, saving you from injury, and speeding up cooking to ensure you are getting the best BBQ your grill can produce.
Learn more about grill maintenance and care.
