So you’ve got yourself an infrared grill and now you’re wondering what’s the best way to cook a great steak. Cooking on an infrared grill a slightly different than cooking on the traditional charcoal grill. You are probably aware of the many benefits that IR grills bring, such as:
1. Faster Cook Time
2. Shorter Prep Time
3. Better Tasting Food
With all of these qualities in place, here are a few things you can avoid on your first experience in cooking on infrared grills.
The first thing you want to do right is to turn the grill on properly. Turn on the gas and press the ignition push-button a flame is lit. This is probably nothing new if you already have a portable outdoor gas grill. Some infrared grills will have a “pre-heat” setting, which is suppose to be much hotter than the “grill” setting to get the IR grill a good start to heat up. If your infrared grill doesn’t have these settings, then just turn it up to high for around 5-10 minutes to heat up the ceramic tiles.
There are a few ways to cook a steak on an outdoor or portable infrared gas grill. I don’t want to get into how you prepare the steak because that’s another section of this site. Here are 2 infrared grilling tips that will help you make the perfect steak.
tip#1 – First off, make sure you pat dry your steak on both sides with a paper towel before throwing them on the grill grates. This will give you those wonderful grill marks. Do not move the steak! Let the heat do its thing for about 2 minutes, then you want to lift the steak up, turn it clockwise 45 degrees, and drop it back on the grill. This will form those lovely diamond-shaped grill marks. After another 2 minutes, return your steak back to your normal gas grill side. Place the steak on one side with the burners off (called indirect heat), while the other burners are still on. Close the lid on the grill and let it cook for a few minutes inside. Yum!
tip#2 – Another way to cook your steak after you’ve grilled them on the infrared burner is to have a cast-iron skillet on the other side getting hot from the regular gas burners. Once you’re done searing the steak, you can throw the steak onto the cast iron, with a pat of garlic butter. The cast iron is perfect for adding butter onto your steak because it won’t fall off the steak and through the grill grates. Cheers!
Advantages Of Using An Infrared Grill
Is it really worth getting an infrared grill or should you just stick to the old traditional charcoal grill you know and love. There are many reasons why the demand for this wonderful piece of grillware is rising year after year. To understand why they are so popular, here are a few advantages an infrared grill has over the C:
1. Even Cooking: When cooking on an infrared gas grill the heat evenly cooks your food, because the flame doesn’t actually cook your food. Your food is cooked from the radiant heat coming off the ceramic tiles, which spreads the heat evenly. Even heat distribution will prevent you from having to keep flipping your food over and over to cook.
2. Great For Searing Meats: Are you sick and tired of having drab-looking steaks without the grill marks? The key to great grill marks is to make sure you pat dry the raw meat with a paper towel to remove any excess moisture, and you need to cook it at a very high temperature. This is where the infrared grill comes into play. Be able to get as hot as 500 °C (900 °F), these grills can really heat things up!
3. Less Cooking, More Eating: Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of charcoal grilling, but sometimes it just takes too long to get things going and the heat doesn’t last too long. With infrared grills, the amount of time it takes you to preheat vs. a charcoal grill is much shorter, allowing you to enjoy eating and hanging out with your friends and family.
4. Delicious Taste: Going back to searing your meats and having those wonderful grill marks. Those grill marks do more than you think! When you sear your steak on both sides you’re really trapping the juices inside the meat! Go ahead and try it on your outdoor grill or even a portable infrared grill. You definitely taste the difference!
5. Clean Up: Let’s face it, cooking the food is definitely a lot more fun than cleaning the dishes, and that’s why the infrared grill is a winner in this category as well. If you sear your meat at a high temperature, you’re locking the juices in like I mentioned above. You’re also preventing little or no juices and fat from dripping down which may cause flare-ups. The great thing about infrared grills is that even if juices manage to fall through the grill, it would evaporate from the high heat of the infrared gas burner.