Top 10 Barbeque Hacks

Top 10 Barbeque hacks that will make outdoor grilling easier and your party more fun! How to best clean your charcoal grill, tips on presenting side dishes and how to cook dessert on your bbq too! We love cooking with our barbecue and smoker. Here are our bbq hack tricks to make the best food ever!

It is that time of year again…we are so excited!! The weather is warmer, the kids are spending the afternoons outside, and it is time to light the bbq! Tonight we lit our Char-Broil grill, grabbed some burgers, chicken, and some other goodies I will show you later and grilled our first meal for the season. As we prepared our meal I jotted down the top 10 barbeque hacks we use on a regular basis….let me know if you have any I should add!! Here we go. (originally published 5/15, affiliate links present) This post sponsored by Char-Broil. 

• We LOVE to BBQ!!
• As soon as it gets a bit warmer outside we are ready with our burgers, tongs, and friends to cook up some great food.

BBQ Hacks

I got to thinking the other day and realized there are a lot of tricks or hacks we use that others may not know of. So I’m here to share our top 10 barbeque hacks with you! It will take you less than 30 minutes to get everything set but will save you TONS of time at the end of the day. 😉

• If you have an electric smoker and love using that, many of these tips will be great for that too.

What is a grilling hack anyway?

Well essentially bbq hacks are tricks to making things easier when you’re cooking outside.

BBQ Hack

• Like making egg carton fire starters
• Slicing your hot dog in a spiral cut to cook faster
• How to serve condiments so they’re less messy
• How to naturally create a non stick surface on the rack of your gas grills
  • Great when cooking meat and veggies together
• And using funky looking devices like this to cook the best turkey on your grill are game changers!

You never know what you’ll learn, or maybe you have another one you can share with us!

This is the Kettleman grill we have. If you love Charbroil you’ve gotta’ check out their smoker too!

Barbeque Hacks

OKAY there are actually a lot more than 10 but we couldn’t stop adding throughout the years!!

• Soak your skewers in water for about 10 minutes before putting meat on them so they won’t burn.
  • Also use two skewers so the meat doesn’t slide off or rotate around when they’re cooking.
• Simmer your ribs on the stovetop for an hour in a mixture of 1 can orange soda and water (enough so they are submerged). Then put them on the grill.
  • You can also put them in the crockpot for 5-6 hours on low submerged in apple juice. Both techniques provide the most tender and juiciest ribs cooked on the grill.
• Use half an onion to make your warming rack and grate non stick! Just slice an onion in half, rub along the top and the meat will not stick nearly as much. Then use the other half to scrub the food remnants off when you are done grilling.

Or put the other half it in a baggie and use it for cooking later, don’t let it go to waste.

If you have a bunch of onions I’d try making our delicious mozzarella stuffed bacon wrapped onions on the grill. Oh my are they ever heavenly.

Use smaller squeeze bottles (like you see in restaurants) for your ketchup, mustard, and even BBQ sauce. It makes it easier for kids to use, creates less of a mess, and you can later buy in bulk and refill these containers.

• Use two heavy duty paper plates to keep burgers and other meats warm after you take them off the grill. Use one on the top and one on the bottom to keep the heat in.
  • You can also buy the aluminum trays and fold in half to create a warm environment for the meat until everything else is done.
  • Better yet, have 1 on the bottom filled with hot water. Rest the one with the meat inside on top to keep really warm.

And of course use paper products to serve food too so you literally eliminate the need for a lot of cleanup at the end of your get together. Use larger paper bowls to hold Hawaii coleslaw and other side dishes so once it’s empty you just toss it and forget it.

• Use a muffin tin to hold condiments.
  • I use press and seal wrap to line the bottom of a large muffin tin pan. Then I add all the items like homemade pickles, onions, lettuce etc we will want and it is easier to carry out.

It looks better than throwing it all on one plate. You can grab those aluminum disposable muffin tins too so clean up is super simple!

I feel like when you present burger toppings like this my kids are more likely to load it up and try new things on top because it looks fun!!

This is a great way to present and serve a relish tray too!

Fill the holes with mini pickles, olives and other fun finger foods and refill along the way.

Here is a tip when smoking fish!

• Leave the skin on your fish. Then set the skin side down on the barbecue or smoker and do NOT move or flip it over.
  • Allow it to cook on a cooler portion of the grill and cook all the way thru the skin up. 
  • When smoking meats keep the lid closed also to create the best and deepest smoky flavor possible.

• Use your ketchup or BBQ squeeze bottle to write on the bottom of the buns.
  • If someone wants a well done burger, write well on the bottom and so on and so forth so the griller knows how many of each they need to cook.
  • Then match it with the correct bun (here is a pic of the squeeze bottle too).
• Use small styrofoam cups or containers for runny things like baked beans so they don’t run into your bun and make everything else mushy.
• Always have an extra propane tank ready so you don’t run out!
• Here are more BBQ Dessert recipes to enjoy like grilled strawberry shortcake

Ok so that was WAY more than the top 10 barbeque hacks but we kept adding over the years!

We love it and have come up with a bunch of smoker recipes that taste amazing and create the most delicious flavor….. either on the barbecue or the smoker really…..we love cooking outside!

• Use bananas to make “Banana S’mores” on the barbeque for dessert!!
  • The skins provide a great container, so just stuff them full of goodness (chocolate and marshmallows) and put them on after the meat is done. They will slowly warm up and it will become an ooey gooey bbq dessert for everyone to LOVE!
• Do you have another one to add to our top 10 barbecue hacks list??

What to serve at a BBQ

Of course all of these great barbeque hacks work best when you have a KILLER grill to cook on, like the  Char-Broil Kettleman Grill or Blackstone 22 griddle. You can use other kitchen appliances too though to fill in the gaps, here are our top favorite choices;

1. Grilled pork chops or the best grilled steak
2. This is how to grill frozen burgers
3. Smoked pork loin is amazing sliced and served as sliders
4. Then make a batch of homemade Ninja Foodi baked beans inside because they’re way better than canned