Flat Top Grilling for Beginners Griddle

The Flat Top King channel is the go-to place for all things related to cooking on a gas grill. For those who are just getting started, this article will teach you how to use your new toy and give some great tips along with it!

The flat top grill is the perfect addition to any cooking arsenal! With tons and tons of research, you now have an understanding of what makes this type unique. This will help your burgers or steaks taste their best with all those amazing gadgets that are only available from a seasoned pro like me who knows how much time goes into preparing food for events such as these – but don’t worry; I’m here every step along the way through our fun process together so there’s no need at all about doing things “wrong.” You’ve done the hard work of researching and understanding this page, now it’s time for you to reap some rewards.

It’s time to get serious about your grill! You need well-working, durable top quality equipment for the best possible results. We’re going over some very basic information that will help you keep things running smoothly and give great-tasting food every single day of summer without fail or error – so don’t miss this chance at cooking up success.

So today, we’re cooking up some crispy fried chicken thighs. Why? Well because you can’t overcook them. The perfect solution for any home. I wouldn’t say they’re cheap but definitely worth the price. They’re really good at taking on flavor. When it comes to cooking, they can take all of that extra stuff we give them- whether it’s a dry rub or just some olive oil and herbs for dressing up their own natural gaminess.

Lastly, if the chicken thighs are cooked correctly on a flat top griddle they will be an excellent opportunity for beginners to understand what happens when food cooks overheat.

So we’re gonna go over all this information, but it starts right here with the most important part: The Marinade!

This is a simple Thai marinade that has soy sauce, garlic, and ginger in it. Then you have Sriracha for spice but also orange juice to give the dish some sweet flavor with honey or brown sugar added into your desired consistency at hand before cooking time determines how much sweeter this will taste.

Here, I have two plain thighs. Nothing on them except for a sugary barbecue sauce! We’ll see how that comes out in the end.
The second option is a regular seasoned chicken thigh combination. It’s one of my favorite seasons, so I’ll leave it up to you what kind of flavor combo works best for your dish.
Lastly, I’ve seasoned two chicken thighs with barbecue season. Typically a BBQ spice mix is naturally going to have sugar in it.

I’m going to explore the many avenues that each piece of meat can take you through your cooking process.

Panicking when your flat top first fires up is the worst thing you can do. You’ll end up with scorched food, an undercooked steak, or worse yet – no meal at all. So take deep breaths and know that there are some easy steps to getting this cooking right from day one so don’t be intimidated by those high temperatures.

The best part about cooking at home is that you can have a whole range of different foods to suit your tastes. You’re not limited by the menu options in restaurants, so it’s really up to what kind of food fits each individual person’s preferences. If you’re just comfortable with burgers or hot dogs, eggs and bacon or pancakes then it doesn’t matter. Once you’re comfortable with all the settings and new griddle tools, find out which ones work best for each of your taste preferences.

The last thing you need to do is try and become part of our community when we’re not even halfway through the session. Bring everybody over and just destroy it in an informal cook-out that isn’t what we’re trying to achieve today.

What are the must-have gadgets for Grilling? Well, we’re talking about it here. It’s my personal must-have but basically, it just gives you an idea of what really needs to be included in your arsenal versus something that can wait for later down the road when things get more serious or expensive.

Tip number one is to turn your flat top on and off at the source. It’s always good practice for you, as well as safety precautions – don’t leave any hot spots where someone could potentially trip or burn themselves. I stress that all the time because if your gas is on and you’re off, you have to turn it off because there could be an accident. That’s why I always turn my flat top on or off, by the source.

The chef recommends that you preheat your griddle on low before cooking. This will help the food be more evenly cooked and avoid any undercooked or overcooked bits. There are so many different things to make and share with others, but at the end of it all, you just want someone who’s willing to listen. It feels good when they actually care about what you’re saying. The reason I mention this problem is because I know a lot of people who have complained about their flat top grill warping.

Many people will say to preheat on low and bring the temperature of your steel up. That’s important for optimal results.

Table of Contents

The first thing you need to do when cooking on a flat top grill is preheating it

Then adjust the temperature and time accordingly so that food will be cooked through but not Let’s talk about temperatures. First, I’m shooting between 350 and 375.

Okay, let me just go ahead and do this. I’m just gonna go skin-side down for a second. Oh, that smells good!

So these thighs are going to be cooked in a dry rub with spices before being topped off by barbeque sauce. But we’re not going ahead with it until later because when you cook on an open flame like this, bbq sauce will burn.

Now, these will be our dry chicken thighs. They’re just seasoned as I said- my favorite thing to do with them is eating all of the seasonings.

And these are the barbecue chicken thighs that we’re going to end up basting later. With their gentle curves and sleek lines, they will be a beautiful sight on our plate when it’s finally time for dinner.

Well, I’ll be honest, there are a few reasons why we have our chicken thighs scattered out like this. We want to cover all of the bases when it comes down to deciding what temperature you should cook at and how long each piece processing time so that everything is cooked through but not dry.

As you can see here, our sauce is already starting to caramelize and that’s going produce one heck of cleaning our flat top problem later on.

Sure enough, there are not a lot of bubbles coming out from this one either. That is because of the hibachi. It is a great choice for any occasion because it has just the right amount of sauce and liquid. You can adjust your knobs a little bit, but not too much. The point is it’ll load up the flat top of temperature on your grill and that will affect how fast or slow you want to turn things down when they’re done cooking.

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Going on high is never a good idea. The key to moving stuff on and off new sections is patience. You can turn items with just a little bit more time and you’ll get a perfect dinner.

Hey, look at this section. It’s really dry. Look at how calm this is. Watch what happens when you move it, and listen closely because I’m going to show just where the temperature drops off.

Well, I’m here with all of my tips and tricks. In this article, we’ll cover what pieces of equipment, tips, and tricks for using this type of cooking equipment, as well as some other handy information about grills in general.

Another great thing about doing this is that you learn the different zones of temperature, right? I can see how the right side might get hotter than the left because it would be surrounded by metal and there are no vents on that side to release heat. Or you may notice that the back side and front are cool zones. Alrighty!

I’m going to start flipping now and we’ll see how it goes. Let us see how to cook the perfect chicken first – see the different stages of cooking. When there’s just no seizing and you can base later chill, nice and crisp or skin’s getting, there’s not a lot of browning.

See that? That’s perfect. The chickens are getting ready. I love the way they’re coating this leg with a nice, deep brown color. It’s so appetizing and looks tasty to me with this season. Now, these are the chicken tights with barbecue season. The natural sugars are not really there, but added ones provide a little extra flavor to make your meal complete. That’s starting to caramelize. The reason why I did this is that sometimes adding barbecue seasoning to too large of a piece of meat can create more work than it’s worth, and that will show you what not all spices should be used for. You might want to wait until a little bit later before adjusting the brown color.

Starting with the most important part, I’m so glad that this happened – cleaning!

Just when you think that it’s about to burn, I pull the sauce back over. You can see those brown flecks on top of red? That is caramelizing sugar converting into brown specs. So you see, the sugars are what make it so hard to clean your flat top. And that’s why I always stress. As you go about moving stuff over, take a good bench scraper and get rid of any dirt or dust before proceeding with your tasks at hand.

Just move them up here so all this area is full of sugar. Scrape off any that’s on top then do it again until you’ve scraped off enough. It’s a tough decision, but if you don’t take care of the problem now then it will only get worse. So you try to get the sugars off as much as possible and why it’s still hot, not cool down. We’ll put that right in your grease straw. The same when you’re cooking hibachis, it’s important to scrape every inch of the grill so that no food gets stuck in between crevices and burned.

The importance of cleaning your grill cannot be overstated. constantly remind yourself that you need to keep it clean, or else food may get stuck in dirty places. It’s a habit of mine, even when it comes to burgers. I’ll turn them right over and start cleaning the surface. The best thing about this strategy is that when it comes time to eat, you’re not stuck at the flat top cleaning up and worrying. While your family enjoys dinner together.

There are some features that we think will make your life easier. Just to give you a quick overview, I didn’t mention this earlier because it’s not 100% necessary.

When you get your new flat top grill, the first thing that will come to mind is: “I need some meat!” But before putting all of those hard-earned dollars down on groceries or grabbing an old standby like burgers and chicken breasts from memory lane for dinner tonight – let’s take stock of how temperature affects our food.

This may sound basic (and it rhymes!), but understanding what really goes into perfecting a dish at home can make any outdoor cooking experience much more enjoyable. You’ll find that it doesn’t matter how many times you flat top grill, as long as your understanding is there. More knowledge about the ups and downs beforehand will make for a much faster success rate when starting out with this technique.

I didn’t mention this when we got started but you’ll notice that there aren’t any oils or butter down before adding chicken thighs because they’re just suffused with fatty tissue anyway. Their natural fat is what makes them so luscious and juicily delicious.

Most of the time, you can just add oils when necessary – potatoes or vegetables for example. But since chicken is already wrapped in the skin it’s not really necessary to worry about fats too much.

So now I’ll add the barbecue sauce. And what’s going to happen is this marinade and smoke juice cook at a faster pace than Teya smoked meat did. Without a doubt, barbecue sauce is one of the most sugar-dense foods you can eat.

The priority of the flat top grill is different for each individual. For beginners, it’s important to find out what your pace will be so that you can plan accordingly and buy equipment with enough time before needing them or else being stuck without anything ready when needed. Here’s the perfect example. If you come out here and put eggs on your flat top grill right away, but have bacon waiting for later in order to cook…what are they going do? Get cold before we even get started. Well of course you’re going to cook your bacon first before the time has even passed by for 30-45 minutes.

When you’re craving breakfast, what better way than with some hotcakes? The natural order of things is that they need to be cooked in order for them not to get spoiled. Same thing with this. In a way, there’s almost an order of things you should and shouldn’t do when grill-side.

Okay, I’m moving around to make sure they’re not sticking. Gonna go ahead and turn them over one more time.

The internal thermometer of your food is a very important thing to have, and this absolutely was on my must-have list. This means that when you’re cooking at home, it’s better to have an accurate reading of how hot things are.

With this internal thermometer, you’ll be able to monitor the temperature of your food as it cooks. When cooking meat, it doesn’t matter if you’re using a temperature of 350 degrees Fahrenheit, 375, or 400. Whether you like it smokes or fires, the temperature is up to your preference.

You know that feeling when you’re having a steak, and hosting an event and all of your friends come over? There’s nothing worse than an overcooked steak, which ruins all of your hard work. So you don’t want that.

You can’t beat the convenience of this tip! It is so easy, you’ll wonder why everyone doesn’t do it already. Simply Lean your meat thermometer through either piece and voila – instant temperature checking. That’s why it is so important to have a well-made, high-quality product when you’re cooking chicken. You don’t want any pieces going bad and getting in your food.

As you explore the griddle, there will be hotspots here and there. Well, if your chicken is always placed on hotspots like down here would be a cold area. The chicken here is going to cook much faster than the one back there. The temperature on your grill is one of the most important factors in determining how well it cooks food. If you don’t check all the pieces, then there could be an error with what’s being cooked.

So what we’re gonna do now is just keep moving forward. I’m gonna go ahead and turn this over and we’re gonna see the process. Chicken is burning intentionally, and the smell fills up our kitchen. I’m not a bad cook, really. It’s just an example of what can happen. When you’re cooking, things may not always go as planned. Here are some of the good and bad outcomes that can happen while making dinner!

The grill masters are at work, and you can’t miss it. The chicken tights have started to turn golden brown with a hint of red in them too. The heat is beginning to become too much – my favorite season burns. Well, I think that I should have flipped it a little more. The barbecue sauce is really sticky and once it starts to dry out a little bit more, the stickiness takes over.I just wanted to show you real quick. So this is a barbecue seasoned tights, and look what happened! I mean, in less than five minutes this happened. The chicken is cooking and all that nastiness. So I’m telling you about the flows, man! Well, if the why are burning so quickly then it makes sense to put them on here. You just need a little creativity and rotation. We’ll show you that with the dry chicken.

One thing that I’ve been forgetting to mention is how important it will be for you all throughout this process. Camp chef griddle is great for cooking food on the go, but be careful when you first use it. It can also be very dangerous if you don’t know what your doing. The sides on most grills get really hot which could lead me some serious burns. When we are talking about smoke signals, it is important to remember that the fire and wind come out of this part. So, don’t put plastic bottles or Tupperware dishes around the edges. Just remember that for your own safety.

So I’m finally finishing up my chicken tights. The Grill Dome cover is perfect for protecting your grill from rain and dirt. I recommend getting one of these or anything similar to speed up the process.

Lastly, I move everything over to the right. This is how you get your job done. The more I clean, the less of a mess there is to deal with.

Whether you do it before or after a cook, seasoning your flat top is essential to the success of any dish that’s going into it. Check out these three ways we’ve found successful at-home cooks keep their grills. You’ll learn all about making sure your grill is seasoned since it’s had so much grime on it and also what oil you should be using for the best results.

I’m just going to add some oil onto my flat top now. The steam coming off of this hot plate is sure to warm you up on a cold day. I said it’s oil, but it’s water. I promise it’s water.

The heat from this steam is going to allow some of those sugars and stuff on your flat top, yeah.

That sugar. Look at all that I’ve been grabbing up from the flat top, it’s a lot, isn’t it? That is why you want to make sure and clean it well. Cuz you don’t want it to still be cooking on your flat top an hour or 30 minutes after starting.

Okay, so regular paper towels are probably the type of thing that you would use for this. Watch out, the steam is hot! It’s not too bad yet but keep an eye on it. My top, this side of the flats off is clean. My flat-top grill also looks clear now!

One last flip and then we’ll add our barbecue sauce. The chicken should be cooked through at this point, before adding the sauce. With just a few degrees left to go, I am more than ready for this next step. The process will be simple and quick once the right ingredients have been added. What we’re going to do now is just add some sauce so that when you flip it over the other side. Let us take a moment to sit in sauce and come back with an even more delicious dish.

The thing I’m really big on is turning off your switches at the source

Turn it right now and don’t ever leave it on.

You’ve got a smoking hot flat top. It’s probably around 450 degrees Fahrenheit, which is really warm. That’s just where we left it 350. The flat top is a great place to have your food because it gets really hot. By keeping the heat at a maximum, even six inches away from your food you can ensure that it won’t over-cook or burn. It’s important cause it helps to cool down your food. It also keeps the flat top of whatever you’re cooking even and calms so it doesn’t overheat.

But you are trying to clean a flat top that’s not too hot, right? When you cook something on the grill, like a vegetable for example. And once it’s taken off heat there is still moisture in your food even though all of its other ingredients have cooked away.

Well, that moisture is the same thing as this. So if you could lower your flat top temperature then eventually all those trapped molecules of water will start releasing and help scrub away at any buildup before it has time to establish itself on top.

With this, we can cut our flats off. There’s plenty of residual heat and it’ll give us over the hump. It’s not about how much you love your flat top, but rather that it should be cleaned regularly to keep from getting dirty and stinky.

Well, there are three ways to season your flat top before, during, and after the cooking process. And the best part about it? You can clean just as easily with these techniques!

The Low Tier: Quesadillas can be a quick and easy meal to make if you have the ingredients on hand. To keep things clean, wipe off your spatula after each use with paper towels. You don’t need to add water, and there’s no reason for anything else. The flat top wasn’t hurt. You can come out here and just throw a couple of eggs on your flat top, or if you have some bacon left over from breakfast then that’s even better. Once everything has cooked through remove it using either grease wipes for greasy surfaces or paper towels to avoid any excess oils.
The Medium Tier: It would be something like a burger, fish, or chicken. Nothing too heavy and definitely no vegetables. You don’t need to cook for a long time, but you still have some bark building up on top. The flat tops have been on for a little while now and it’s time to make sure that you get all of my fond or food particles off the top. I love using my bench scraper, but this would be how we do things if there were no other cleaners available. To get the best flavor, it is important that you scrape any spices or herbs off. The spiciness of your favorite dish can really make or break the taste experience. For example, if you know for certain that there will be French toast coming up the next day you really would probably want to get the spicy meat flavor off.
The Heavy Tier: Heavy duty is the way to go when you need strong, salty flavors in your dish. It’s like your HIBAs with anything sugary, fatty, or Buffalo chicken wings, with lots of sugar sauces, etc. You’ll want to go in and clean your range after each use because if you don’t then all of those food particles will stick around. It’s best that when we add water for cleaning purposes it is not just a quick rinse but rather a thorough scrubbing. You’re not necessarily starting over from zero, but you will have to apply another thin layer of oil.

This is a great sign that my flat top is working properly and cooling down. There’s not much sizzle, which means there isn’t any serious heat coming off them when you touch the surface. Well, I’m just going to show you what happens when there’s barbecue sauce. If there wasn’t any all of the chicken fat that was on top would really help me create this rich patina. So I would just wipe away the stain and leave it at that, so there won’t be any more worries about what might happen next.

You can see how rough – that is from all the sugar and stuff. That’s a great patina. The sugars on this piece have been aggressively applied, creating an interesting finish. If brown spots start creating, it’s not the rest. It’s just your season coming off. And we talk about that during the reseason process, when you reapply oil just be very careful. This is a very hot and flat top, which means you’re going to have oil flying all over the place. The risk of getting hit in your thumb with some spattered grease isn’t worth it for such a sensory experience. You have to be really careful when you’re around the edges because if your hand skirts over them without paying attention, then it could hit these. These get really hot, so you just want to be very careful with them.

The key to the perfect coat of oil is just enough. You want it light but not too heavy.

Why’s still warm? The pourers of the metal were still open. And because we are teaching you guys how to clean as you go. One more, while cleaning this is the perfect amount of time for your meat to rest after cooking. If you’re going by my experience, about five or ten minutes should do it.

Once your meat has rested, I’m ready to have a delicious dinner. You can enjoy it with the whole family tonight because those flat tops are clean.

So, let’s just recap. You’ll never want for anything again once you know how much information is out there.

One of the best things you can do to improve your griddle skills is just to be calm, relax and take it easy. Don’t worry too much or try doing everything at once – that will only lead to frustration.
Learn the grilling temperature. While grilling meat, it’s important to know the temperature of your grill so you can keep food from burning.
Your must-haves. You need to have the right equipment for grilling.
how to re-season the grill, when to do that and why.
Grilling tips and tricks.

We are here to help you find whatever it is that’s missing. We’ve got all the answers for you. If we don’t, just ask and one of us will get back with what you need ASAP!

Editor’s Choice: Top-list grills

About Author

Thomas Francis

Hi there – I’m Thomas. I love cooking barbecue grills.. To me, there’s nothing like the joy of cooking up a delicious dinner on an outdoor grill. From searing steaks to sizzling sausages and succulent chicken wings, I’ve been making mostly everything under the sun at my humble home in Springfield.

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