Are you searing or smearing your steak? Grilling is a fun, easy way to create delicious meals but not if you’re using a dirty grill!
Our handy cleaning guide will show you how to easily clean and season your grill before and after every use. Proper cleaning ensures that you get the best performance out of your grill. Grill cleaning accessories were made specifically with better grill performance in mind, so make sure you have the right cleaning gear (and remember to replace your grill brush regularly).
From the burn-off to seasoning, here’s everything you need to know.
Why should I clean my cooking grids and grill brushes?
The neglected duo.
Your cooking grids are dirtier than anything in your kitchen. And it’s the only cooking utensil that we would use and then not clean. Makes you think, doesn’t it?
Now look at your grill brush. Would you use a toothbrush that was as worn down as it? I’m putting my money on ‘no’.
Your grill brush and your toothbrush sell for about the same price and it’s recommended that you replace them every 3 months. Are you following those guidelines?
If you’re shaking your head, thinking that it’s not as important to replace a grill brush as it is to replace a toothbrush, think again. The sticky grime that you see matted in your grill brush bristles is touching your food. And it’s the last thing to touch the cooking grids before you cook your meat on it.
Need more reasons?
- That grime greatly shortens the life of your grill brush and ends up reapplying itself every time you brush your grids.
- Improper care is the leading cause of cooking grid rot
- A clean grill performs better, without fiery or flavorful surprises
How to clean your grill in 12-steps
You can wash your cooking grids in the dishwasher or kitchen sink after each use, or you can follow these simple cleaning instructions:
- Burn-off your grids by turning up the heat on your grill. Get it really hot. Turn it up to max on all burners.
- It should get smokey.
- The smoke is grease and grime burning up from previous cookouts. If you’ve never done this before, you should clean your grill with a de-greaser before burning it off. Wash each part thoroughly so that you don’t end up with a BBQ sauce inferno in your cookbox.
- Turn your grill off when it stops smoking. This could take up to 20 mins.
- The inside of your grill will be dry and ashen. Remember, not all grills have the power to self clean like a Broil King grill.
- Brush the cooking grids on both sides; scrape where necessary.
- Ash won’t get stuck in your grill brush bristles and it’s easy to brush them off the grids. Set the cooking grids aside.
- If you have a Broil King grill, brush the Flav-R-Wave zone or the bars on both sides. Set them aside.
- Thoroughly brush and scrape the rest of the cookbox
- Inspect the lid. Does it look like you have peeling paint? That’s actually carbonized smoke that built up in layers that is now peeling. Brush it off too.
- Inspect the burners. Look for clogged ports of corrosion that’s causing the metal to fail.
- Use a vacuum to clean it all out, brush and scrape again, vacuum again.
- Check the drip pan. Remove it, empty it, and wash or scrape it clean
- Reinstall everything, lightly spraying it with oil.
- Inspect the grids for damage, flaking, and heavy rust. Brush them down to bare firm metal.
- Rinse them with water to remove the fine particles. A spray bottle is a great tool to have for this on an ongoing basis.
- Put the grids in the grill
- Spray both sides with oil to season them. The oil polymerizes and creates a protective coating over time.
Preheat on high and bake the oil on. Do it again and again if necessary.
Once you’ve done a thorough 12-step cleaning you won’t need to do that again for a couple of weeks.
I follow these steps before and after every cookout. Why? Burning off before is essential, since you have to preheat the grill anyway to cook on it.
Burning off after grilling prevents sauce and salt from eating away at your cooking grids between cookouts and it takes those leftover food items off of the menu for critters that would normally eat them. Mice can get into anything and they love to leave droppings behind wherever they go. Don’t give them a reason to visit.
Check out the video here.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSMkcCDzsiw]
Ben from Broil King