The Best Way To Prevent BBQ Sauce From Sticking To Your Grill

Developing a crust on your meat is the secret to excellent barbecue, and this serves two purposes. First, who doesn't want to bite into a crispy meat chip encasing a succulent rib? Second, the crust helps keep all that moisture and flavor inside your meat, ensuring that every bite is tender. However, you may sometimes notice that your barbecue sticks to the grill, not only making it dirtier than it needs to be but, worse, also breaking up the integrity of the crust you worked so hard to create.

We spoke to Christie Vanover, owner and pitmaster of Girls Can Grill, to get her advice on the best way to prevent barbecue from sticking to the grill. "[Barbecue] sauce should only be used at the end of the cook when the meat is almost done otherwise the sugars in the sauce can burn," she said. "Apply it when there are only 10-15 minutes left and make sure your food is over indirect heat, not directly above the flames." When Vanover talks about "indirect heat," she's referring to the two-zone cooking process which involves having a hot zone (or direct heat over the flame), and a cool zone, which refers to the aforementioned indirect heat.

There are a wealth of grilling tips and tricks to ensure your food perfectly comes off the grill every time. Some are easy like letting your meat rest for around five minutes before throwing it on the grill. All you need to do is literally sit there, along with your meat (the goal is to get it to a uniform, room temperature for even cooking). Other tips take a little more skill, like trimming excess fat and not over-oiling your meat. Of course, a healthy dose of marbling is what gives your meat that mouth-watering flavor, but too much fat risks burning the whole enterprise down. You do not want a fat cap melting into your grill and causing a skyscraper of flames to get a hold of your perfectly grilled meat. So trim that fat, people. 

At the end of the day, you want to make sure your grill is piping hot before you put any meat on it. Not only will this help prevent your barbecue from sticking; along with Christie Vanover's tip, it will also help sterilize the grill. So fire up that baby, close the lid, and wait about 10-15 minutes to get it to the desired temperature. Once you get on a grilling roll we recommend investing in an instant-read thermometer, like the one from Alpha Grillers. If you want to be really fancy, there are pricier WiFi-enabled thermometers that send the data straight to your phone.