Want to get the most out of your charcoal grill? Learn how to get the most out of 2-zone grilling with our complete guide to indirect grilling.
One of the most basic skills of a barbecue lover is indirect cooking. Look, just cooking your food right over the fire WON’T cut it. Instead, you need to create a 2-zone setup so you can get the most out of your grill.
Whether YOU are preparing a premium brisket or a 12-pack of hot dogs, indirect grilling has a place and is the key to a successful grilling experience.
Indirect grilling is a grilling technique in which food is placed to one side of the grill rather than directly over the flames. This allows us to cook larger dishes at a lower temperature without burning or drying them out.
It’s a skill, but I’ll walk through it today to help you understand the concepts of direct and indirect heat and the importance of temperature control on a grill.
To be clear, I’ll explain how to set up indirect grilling on an outdoor charcoal grill. A guide to using the technique on a gas grill is in the works!
Let’s get into that.
What is indirect heat on a grill?
Indirect cooking is a popular grilling technique where we place the food to be grilled to the side of the grill rather than directly onto our heat source.
You see, when we cook meat right over the fire for too long, its proteins shrink and liquids and fats squeeze out. This gives us dry and tasteless results. However, indirect cooking gives us a more measured way of grilling that prevents dying.
The best way to think of your grill is as an oven. When you close the lid of your grill, it traps heat and creates an oven-like environment that allows us to cook food without burning it immediately. Obviously, the closed grill’s internal temperature is not as easy to control as a standard oven, but the effects we can achieve are quite similar.
Although we can use it for any size of meat, it’s especially useful for larger, tougher cuts of meat like whole chicken or breast. This type of food burns or dries out particularly easily when cooked over direct heat, so being able to use a more modest temperature allows for that risk and a much more effective cooking method. The results are delicious too.
We use this technique by placing our charcoal on one side of the grill, leaving an area with no direct heat source underneath.
Why is indirect cooking important?
Indirect grilling is the key to improved grilling because different compounds respond to different foods.
In addition to protein, a piece of meat also contains fat, water and collagen. Each of these compounds reacts differently to heat. We all know that water evaporates at around 100°C. However, the fat in meat tends to melt at a lower temperature of around 130°F/55°C, while collagen breaks down at 160°F/70°F.
Indirect grilling is the best outdoor grilling method for properly and evenly cooking larger cuts of meat. Meat, such as whole chicken, should be cooked this way as it adds elements to prevent the outside of the meat from burning or drying out.
With indirect grilling, it is crucial that we create a grilling environment that we can control so that all of these processes can take place. A 2-zone environment with direct and indirect grilling gives us that control.
The 2 Zones: Radiant vs. Convection
In our new kitchen environment we also want to create two zones: one where we create direct radiant heat; and the other where we have no heat source but expose our food to indirect convection heat. The temperature in this zone is much more moderate than high heat, which allows fats and collagen to be rendered without wrinkling proteins. We can then wear it to a juicy, tender state before finishing it over direct high heat.
How to control the temperature of your grill
The magical indirect cooking temperature we want to achieve is around 110°C. In my grilling experience, this is about the point where many meats are cooked well.
New to grilling? Check out my guide to using a charcoal grill
. It is important that you try to reach this temperature without your grilled food lying on the grill. Use a grill surface thermometer to measure the heat of your indirect grilling area to ensure you hit the sweet spot before grilling. At this point I have to say that you absolutely need to get a good and reliable barbecue thermometer. Cheaper models can be shockingly inaccurate, save yourself a lot of trouble and invest in something good. I recommend the ThermoPro model here , which doubles as a meat thermometer.
Alternatively, if you prefer to mount a fixed analogue model to your grill hood, you can easily mount a grill thermometer.
To start indirect grilling on a charcoal grill, cover only half of the bottom of the grill with charcoal. However, be sure to create two layers of charcoal. If you’re unsure of how to effectively light charcoal, check out my guide to lighting charcoal in a charcoal grill.
Once the coals have started to turn white and are an ash-like color, make sure they are all on one side. Here, too, the main thing is to create a space in which our food can be cooked without embers underneath. Feel free to leave about an inch between your food and the coals on the side. Also, keep in mind that the side of the food closest to the coals cooks the fastest, so be prepared to turn and turn it regularly to ensure it cooks evenly.
One way to avoid this is to stack the embers on either side of the grill and leave the food in the middle with no embers directly underneath. This will help even out the heat and create a better cooking environment. A potential problem with this, however, is that YOU could spread the embers too far, causing them to burn quickly. Since YOU are doubling the heat in the specified, this is also not enough for meat that needs to be cooked at a relatively low temperature.
I would recommend experimenting with this to see if it works for you, but only try it with foods that you plan to cook at a temperature of 300F/150C or higher.
Indirect grilling times
Here’s a rough guide to how long different cuts of meat need to cook when using indirect grilling. It’s important to note that, as with any type of grilling, be sure to check your food regularly. This includes turning them over if necessary, as well as using a meat thermometer to check the internal temperature.
- Ribs: 1.5-2 hours
- Chicken Breast: 25 minutes (15 minutes on one side; 10 minutes on the other side)
- Pork Tenderloin (1 lb): 25 minutes
- Whole chicken (4-5 pounds): 1-1.25 hours
- Whole turkey (10-12 pounds): 2-2.5 hours
- Whole fish (1 pound): 15-20 minutes
What are your tips for grilling? Let me know below in the comments!
Writer & content creator. BBQ fanatic!
Excellent. Thanks for the information!