Top 10 Grilling Tips And Free Real-time Grilling Advice From LongHorn Steakhouse

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If you read regularly you may recall that I recently got a new grill. Our last one had been broken for several years. What you might not recall is that I have always been a bit frightened of grills (along with anything else that can burn me to a crisp). I have moved to conquer that fear in the past few weeks and now grill often, all by myself! I’m still learning, so obviously that means there’s a lot of things I don’t know about and many things I don’t know how to make. With the upcoming holiday weekend many people will be grilling. I am quite sure that I won’t be the only person that might find themselves in need of a little help. Well, there’s lots of help available from the folks at LongHorn Steakhouse, whose Loaded Baked Potato Soup and Texas Tonions are awesome!

Here are ten tips to help you master your grill, courtesy of the folks at LongHorn.

• To lessen the chance meat sticks to the grill, grip a hand towel dipped in oil (LongHorn Steakhouse uses canola oil) with a pair of tongs and run it up and down the grates while the grill is warming up. Start at the top of the grill and pull towards you to prevent flame ups from burning your arm.
• If grilling fish, stick to firmer fish like salmon, tuna or larger pieces of tilapia (6-8 oz.). delicate fish like founder don’t fare well on the grill as they cook quickly and fall apart.
• Steak, chicken and fish don’t need different temperatures, but they do need different times:
  • For steak, figure 10-12 minutes total to grill a 1-inch thick steak to medium.
  • For chicken, cook to 165F and check using a meat thermometer.
  • For fish, grill about 5 minutes per side for 1-inch thick fish (or a little less, if thinner).
  • For pork, cook to 150F, which won’t overcook it or dry it out.
• Cut vegetables into thick pieces so they don’t fall through the grates or overcook.
• Mushrooms, onions, peppers, zucchini and asparagus are usually very popular grilled.
• Vegetables can be grilled at the same temperature as meat. If the grill is already warm when you put them on, 5 minutes should do.
• The quickest and easiest way to deal with any kind of flare-up is to move the meat away from the flame and mist the charcoal with a little water using a spray bottle. If you are cooking on a gas grill, simply lower the flame until the flare-up stops.
• For high temperature grilling, you can keep the lid up so you can watch the meat, manage any flare ups and turn the meat to get grill marks. Closing the lid is good for slower cooking with lower heat – items like whole chicken or extra thick steaks.
• To fix dry, over-grilled steak or chicken:
  • For steak, figure 10-12 minutes total to grill a 1-inch thick steak to medium.
  • “smother it” with sautéed mushrooms or onions/peppers and melt some cheese over it
  • Brush with BBQ sauce (for chicken)
• Make a quick chimichurri sauce, a blend of oil, vinegar, green fresh herbs (cilantro and/or parsley), salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder and dry oregano

For the Fourth of July, America’s biggest grilling holiday*, LongHorn Steakhouse will be giving away free grilling advice via the 2nd annual Grill Us Hotline! From 2 to 7 p.m. EST on July 3-6, more than 70 LongHorn Steakhouse certified Grill Masters will be dishing out free advice to people who contact the hotline via phone, text or social media.

Phone: Dial 1-855-LH-GRILL (1-855-544-7455) to be connected to a Grill Master
Text: Text LHGRILL to 40679 for directions on where to find tips and recipes or to be connected with a Grill Master over the phone (standard texting rates apply)
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram: Pose a question to LongHorn at www.Facebook.com/LongHornSteakhouse or on Twitter and Instagram using @LongHornSteaks, and LongHorn experts will answer it in real time. Add the hashtag #GetGrilling to follow the conversation and view others’ questions.

In honor of July being National Grill Month, LongHorn Steakhouse will keep the Hotline open on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram every Saturday in July (July 12, 19 and 26) from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. EST each day. Guests can post and tweet their questions, and Longhorn experts will answer them in real time.

*Survey of meat-eating Americans was conducted online by Impulse Research/Los Angeles in partnership with LongHorn Steakhouse, April 2014

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