This post shares essential gas BBQ tips for beginners, covering everything from cooking techniques and key tools to avoiding common mistakes. Whether you’re grilling burgers or veggies, these tips will help you grill with confidence and enjoy the process.
If you’re new to grilling, gas grilling is a great place to start your BBQ journey. Gas grilling is one of the easiest and most enjoyable ways to dive into outdoor cooking, especially for beginners.
Gas grills offer convenience, control, and simplicity, making it easier for BBQ beginners to focus on cooking delicious food without the stress of managing a fire. But when you’re new to the world of BBQ, firing up the grill, figuring out what to cook first on a BBQ, and then actually cooking on it can seem like a scary prospect. An open flame? A new style of cooking? We don’t blame you for being a little nervous about getting started.
To help you master gas grilling, this post will guide you through our essential gas BBQ tips for beginners, including key techniques, avoiding mistakes, and tools to keep on hand. Whether you’re firing up burgers for a weekend BBQ or experimenting with your first batch of grilled veggies, we’ve got you covered.
Keep reading to learn more about:
- Why choose a gas grill for your first BBQ
- Essential gas BBQ tips for beginners
- Common gas grilling mistakes and how to avoid them
- Essential tools for gas grilling success
- What to cook first on a BBQ
Let’s get cooking.
Why Choose a Gas Grill for Your First BBQ?
For BBQ beginners, gas grills offer many advantages over other types of barbecues: they are simpler to use, offer easier temperature control, and heat up faster than other types of grills, making it easier to focus on cooking rather than managing the fire.
Not sure a gas grill is right for you? Check out our guide to different types of grills to compare other grill types.
Essential Techniques & Gas BBQ Tips for Beginners
Gas grilling is pretty straightforward, but as gas grill experts, we can offer you several additional techniques and tricks that will make your grilling experience even easier. Here are our top techniques and BBQ tips for beginners:
1. Preheat your grill
Preheat your grill with the lid closed with all the gas burners on high for roughly 10-15 minutes before you put your food on the grill. This will help prevent your food from sticking to the grates and allow them to get hot enough to create that desirable sear. You can reduce the heat to whatever temperature you need once your grill is preheated.
2. Use direct and indirect zones
Using heat zones will help you serve up perfectly cooked food that isn’t dried out or undercooked.
Direct heat (when the fire is directly below the food) is best for relatively small, tender pieces of food that cook in 20 minutes or less. Indirect heat (when the fire is on one or either side of the food) is best for larger, tougher cuts of meat that require more than 20 minutes of cooking. Learn more about direct vs. indirect grilling methods.
3. Use a timer and a thermometer
A timer and thermometer are key tools to avoid under- or overcooking food. The timing provided in your recipe can be helpful as a rough guide, but an instant-read thermometer is key for actually knowing when your food is properly cooked.
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4. Avoid flare-ups
You can minimize flare-ups by not over-marinating your food, keeping the lid closed as much as possible, and keeping your grill clean. In the event of a flare-up, move your food to the indirect heat side of your grill until the flames die down. Make sure you have the right tools (such as tongs and grill gloves) so you don’t burn yourself in the event of a flare-up.
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5. Identify hotspots on your grill
Even new grills have hotspots, and understanding where yours are can help you avoid over- and undercooking your food.
To find your hotspots, grab a bag of cheap white bread, heat your grill to medium, and lay the bread slices out on the grill grate so that they are covering the grates, touching each other but not overlapping. Give them a few minutes to toast, then flip each slice and take a picture. The slices will likely be toasted to different degrees, indicating where your grill is hotter and where it is cooler. This knowledge is especially useful for creating direct and indirect zones.
6. Manage heat levels
Managing heat levels is the key to keeping your food from losing moisture or overcooking. You can do this by keeping the lid closed, using a thermometer, paying attention to your grill’s hotspots, and using the control knobs to regulate heat and create different heat zones.
7. Arrange your food correctly to ensure even cooking
Lining your food up neatly in rows on the grill benefits you in two ways: the food has enough space around it to cook properly, and you’ll have a better idea of the order the food went onto the grill if you get distracted.
8. Always clean your grill after cooking
Listen, we know sometimes after you finish grilling all you want to do is eat and socialize or have a beer and watch the game, but you have to do it. You have to clean your grill.
If you scrape your grates while they’re still hot, it should only take a minute or two depending on what you cooked. Trust us—you will thank yourself the next time you go to grill and you don’t have to spend an extra twenty minutes cleaning and scraping off baked-on food.
Common Gas Grilling Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
- Not preheating the grill and letting it get up to cooking temperature before you put food on.
- Cooking at the wrong temperature—too high or too low heat can cause you all sorts of problems. Stick to the recipe, and know your hot spots.
- Overcooking because you didn’t create heat zones or move the food around when it was ready to be moved.
- Flipping food too much. You should only flip your food when necessary—too early in the process and it won’t come off the grate easily, but if you wait too long it could over-char. You should also avoid pressing down on meats because all you’ll do is push out all those delicious juices, leading to unnecessary flare-ups and dried-out meat.
- Not having an extra tank of propane on hand in the event you run out. A propane gauge can help you avoid this situation.
- Abandoning your grill mid-cook. This can quickly lead to flare-ups and overcooked food or worse, especially if you are new to grilling and don’t have a smart thermometer to give you temperature alerts.
- Not cleaning your grill after cooking. We are mentioning this again because it is just that important. Clean your grill!
Essential Tools for Beginner Gas Grillers
When you’re just starting with gas grilling, having the right tools can make all the difference. Must-have tools for beginner gas grillers include:
Grill gloves
Protect your hands from heat and flare-ups with a good-quality grill glove. You can use your regular oven mitts, but a glove with grip makes it easier to quickly grab items without worrying about your glove slipping, making this an essential tool for beginners.
Wood scraper
A scraper is great for clearing away the really stuck-on bits of food, like that perfectly marinated piece of meat that caramelized itself right to your grill grates.
Tongs
Tongs are useful for handling anything, but they are especially helpful for items that are too unwieldy to turn with a spatula, such as sausages or kebabs.
Spatula
Essential for flipping burgers, tossing vegetables, and removing delicate items from the grill.
Grill brush
A good quality grill brush will help you keep your grates clean and ready to go.
Thermometer
A thermometer might not seem that important, but it takes all the guesswork out of grilling and ensures your food is perfectly and safely cooked every time. There are several different types of grill thermometers, but an instant-read thermometer is the most essential for new grillers.
What to Cook First on a Gas BBQ
When you are first getting started, we recommend sticking to easy, beginner-friendly dishes, such as:
- Burgers (either frozen, fresh, or home-made)
- Sausages
- Chicken thighs or legs
- Steak
- Vegetables
By starting with these easy BBQ classics, you can learn the ins and outs of your grill, get the hang of managing your heat, and learn key grilling techniques. Once you perfect these essential BBQ dishes, you can expand your recipe repertoire to include more challenging dishes like ribs, rotisserie chicken, or fish.
Get Grilling With Our Gas BBQ Tips for Beginners
If you’re a novice griller looking to improve, start with the basics and stick to these rules:
- Start with easy-to-grill food like burgers, chicken breast, sausages, and vegetables
- Identify hotspots on your grill
- Preheat your grill
- Use direct and indirect zones to cook your food
- Use a timer and a thermometer
- Manage heat levels
- Arrange food in neat rows evenly spaced out
- Clean your grill after cooking
