Rookie Griller? Start With 8 These Recipes | Cook's Illustrated (2024)

When I host, I’m happy to pour drinks and make a salad or pasta. But if I’m being honest, I tend to pass the grill master duties on to someone else.

I’m a novice griller, and I worry that the sizzling flames and high stakes could lead to my burning everyone’s dinner.

So I asked my coworkers how I could overcome my grill intimidation. They suggested starting with tried-and-true recipes and techniques, so I’ve been cooking my way through the following (aka, the perfect list to conquer your [my] grilling fears and leave your taste buds craving more). There’s something for everyone—including dessert.

The key to this gorgeously bronzed, juicy, dead-simple grill-roasted bird is a two-fire technique. Making one side of the grill hot and the other side much cooler by adjusting the burners (gas) or mounding all the coals on one side of the grill (charcoal) allows us to gently and evenly cook the chicken over indirect heat. Then, move it over direct heat for the last few minutes to pick up distinct grill flavor and deeper color. We also added a wood chip packet to the fire, which subtly infused the meat with smoke.

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Mild, lean pork tenderloin tastes best when it develops lots of flavorful browning, so we cut and pound the cylindrical roast into wide steaks to maximize their surface area. We also slash the steaks to promote better penetration of the hard-working marinade—a garlicky, citrusy mix that includes honey for more complexity and browning potential, and fish sauce as a source of both salt (which seasons the meat and boosts tenderness) and umami depth. Leaving excess marinade on the steaks further enhances the meat’s flavor and prevents their exteriors from drying out.

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These steaks build up an exceptionally thick, deeply browned crust thanks to two simple pre-grilling steps. First, we dust them with a mixture of cornstarch and salt, which seasons and absorbs moisture from the meat’s surface so that it can quickly develop color. Second, we briefly freeze the steaks so that they go onto the grill extra-cold, giving their exteriors more time to build up a substantial crust before their interiors cook through.

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Grill flavor is created when fatty juices drip onto the fire and ignite, causing their proteins and sugars to transform into the smoky, savory, deeply browned compounds that we associate with grilling. At the same time, their water turns to steam that carries the flames and these flavors to the meat.Each component of this recipe—the meat, tortillas, and salsa vegetables—hits the fire and gets infused with that delicious smoky char. We cut the steak into long strips so that the narrower, quicker-cooking portions can be pulled off the fire before the thicker parts, and season it with a potent chipotle paste of minced chipotle in adobo sauce and ground cumin.

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Worried about overcooking burgers? Don’t be. These are well done by design, making them more forgiving to cook than medium or medium-rare patties, but they still cook up juicy, tender, and ultrameaty. All you need is 80 percent lean ground beef (fattier meat stays more moist and tender), a panade (a paste of bread and milk that gets worked into the meat before cooking, boosting moisture and tenderness), and a little garlic and steak sauce to punch up the flavor.

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Small, lean shrimp tend to overcook before they develop much flavorful browning. To combat this, we cram them onto skewers, alternating heads and tails so they pack tightly and insulate themselves from the heat. We also sear only one side of the shrimp, lightly sprinkling it with sugar to encourage speedy browning, then briefly grill the other side until it’s barely cooked through, and slip the shrimp off the skewers into a warm sauce on the other side of the grill. The sauce gently finishes cooking them and coats them with bold flavors.

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It’s one thing to butter your grilled corn. It’s another to infuse it with flavored butter, which is easy and takes this iconic pairing to another level. First, we char the corn over a hot fire and transfer it to a roasting pan on the grill full of flavored butter—which can be as simple as mixing soft butter with chopped fresh herbs, citrus zest, and salt and pepper; or a little honey and red pepper flakes. Then, we cover the pan with aluminum foil and continue to cook it over the flame until the butter is sizzling and the corn is deeply flavored.

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Grilled peaches, plums, and nectarines can work equally well as a dessert or as a side for pork or lamb. Start by halving ripe but firm fruit, and be sure tobrush the cut faces with melted butter to prevent sticking and promote browning. Once you’ve got nice grill marks on the cut side, transfer the fruit cut side up to a baking pan, cover it loosely with foil, and move the fruit to the cooler side of the grill where it can finish softening without drying out.

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