Welcome to the Ultimate Guide on Charcoal Grilling by Eddie Van Aken
At the Grilling Dutchman, I’m here to help you become a master of charcoal grilling. Whether you’re learning to start charcoal, control the temperature, or dive into smoking your favorite cuts of meat, I’ve got you covered.
We’ll explore different charcoal types and techniques that will elevate your grilling game. Charcoal grilling isn’t just cooking—it’s a way of life. Let’s fire your grill up and make you a BBQ legend in your backyard!
If you already know the basics and need information on a specific part of how to use a charcoal grill feel free to use the table of content to jump around.
I see many questions from beginners and although there are many things you can figure out you can learn here from my mistakes. I will try to answer as many “how to” questions as possible
Why Use A Charcoal Grill
There are many reasons to opt for a charcoal grill but here are my 3 reasons to use a charcoal grill.
- Taste! Charcoal adds a flavor to the meat you cook that no other grill can. You can also turn your grill into a smoker. But more about that later.
- Versatile! With a few accessories added to your grill, you can turn it not just into a smoker but also use it for indirect cooking, rotisserie cooking, low and slow.
- Skills! Many people started using pellet grills and although I also use them there is something about using an open fire and charcoal for cooking. Maybe I still have something of a caveman in me.
As I mentioned above there are many ways to use a charcoal grill. Let’s have a look at the 3 most used ones.
Grill, Smoke and BBQ
Although the answer depends on where you are here is my opinion.
Barbeque
For me, this is the umbrella for many types of outdoor cooking. However, other people mention that it is mainly used to cook large cuts of meat.
Grilling
Grilling is done over high heat directly over the coals. The mear for this should be cut into smaller pieces and examples are steak, chicken, pork chops and I also grill many vegetables.
Smoking
Smoking involves using smoke to infuse your meat with burned wood flavors. Although in grilling and BBQ there is also smoke involved smoking is more than adding some wood chips or chunks to your grill.
Many times you have to set up a cold and hot zone and use low and slow cooking to get the right amount of smoke taste.
Read more on how to set up hot and cold zones on a charcoal grill in this article: https://thegrillingdutchman.com/indirect-grilling/
What Is Charcoal?
I talked about charcoal above but what is charcoal made of?
Charcoal is in its basics almost pure carbon, also called char. When you burn wood with extremely low oxygen it burns several compounds and when you stop just before it turns into ashes you have black lumps we call charcoal.
This process is thousands of years old.
When we ignite this on our grill, it produces the heat we use for our grilling.
There are two main types of charcoal we use for grilling.
Lump Charcoal
In the process, I described above we end up with lump charcoal.
Lump charcoal sizes can differ from small to pretty big chunks. Because of this, they are best used for grilling over hot fires.
It burns very hot and also faster than briquettes. Used for smoking will give strong temperature fluctuations. (believe me, I tried it)
Charcoal Briquettes
Charcoal briquettes are made differently. and if you like you can read my how are charcoal briquettes made article.
Briquettes have a similar size and weight. That makes them extremely useful for grilling. Because of their shape, they burn very much the same and will provide us with a consistent temperature.
For smoking on low and slow, they are the only type of charcoal I use.
Storing Charcoal.
It is important to store your charcoal in a way that it does not get wet. Especially briquettes will fall apart and are not useable anymore.
I store my charcoal in a cheap garbage can from Walmart. There are other ways to do it and I wrote about it in my solutions for storing charcoal article.
Charcoal Brands And What I Use
You might have seen ads for certain types of charcoal brands and their flavor profiles. although I am no expert in that field, it is my opinion that charcoal should be used for heat and wood for flavor.
I use Kingsford charcoal briquettes and Royal Oak lump charcoal most of the time. For smoking I use wood chunks and chips but more about that later.
How To Start A Charcoal Grill
I could write a whole book just about the subject of how to start a charcoal grill but I narrow it down to my favorite way.
Chimney Starter
This is by far my most used way to start my charcoal and here is the way I do it.
- Place your chimney starter on your grill grates.
- Fill it with charcoal
- Add crumbled-up newspaper under it.
- Light it and wait till fully lit.
This whole charcoal starting process takes about 15- 20 minutes. Now pour the charcoal into your grill and you are ready to start grilling.
Here you can read my how to use a charcoal chimney starter tutorial.
Tip! When you get more experienced you can use these roughly 15 – 20 minutes to do more prep work in the kitchen and be ready with that at the time your charcoal is ready.
If you need a more detailed explanation you can read my how to use a charcoal chimney article and come back to read more here.
Propane Torch
One other thing I have been looking at recently is a Propane Torch.
I wrote a whole article named The Best Propane Torch for Lightning Charcoal to help you decide if this is an option for you.
How Much Charcoal Should I Use
This is also a question I see many times. I don’t worry about that and use a full chimney. The reason for that is that you can turn your grill off after cooking and the charcoal will die out and will be ready to use again.
If you need more for a longer cook you can always start a new chimney.
Tip: Read here how to put out a charcoal grill.
How Much Charcoal For Grilling
For grilling, I use what I mentioned above and start a full chimney
How Much Charcoal For Low And Slow
This is a little harder to answer. It depends on your type of charcoal grill. for a Weber kettle one chimney might be enough, but for a larger grill, you might need to use the snake or minion method.
Snake Method
The snake method is perfect for smaller grills and is named this because you make a snake of charcoal at the edge of your charcoal and light it on one end with the hot charcoal from your chimney starter.
Now the lit charcoal will slowly spread over to your “snake” and this will make it possible to have a low and slow cook on your charcoal grill.
Minion Method
The minion method was invented by accident. It works like this:
You place unlit charcoal in a pile on your grill or your charcoal basket. Now you add a full chimney of lit charcoal to it and the lit charcoal will slowly spread to the unlit charcoal and, again, you will end up with a low and slow cook that can go on for a long time.
Nee more in-depth explanation? Read my snake and minion method for charcoal article.
Temperature Control
One of the things we have to learn is how to control the temperature of the grill. This is very important when you do low and slow cooking.
To control the temperature we have a few options.
Raising Temperature In A Charcoal Grill
To raise the temperature in a charcoal grill we have 2 options. The first one is to add more lit charcoal. This will give an instant rise in temperature. But maybe is not always the best way to go.
Opening the vents is in many cases a better option. After all a fire requires oxygen and by adding more of it the fire will start to burn harder.
Lowering Temperature In A Charcoal Grill
When we are doing some low and slow it can happen that the temperature in our grill gets too high. All we do now is restrict the airflow by closing the vents a little or maybe a lot.
Tip: Don’t close them all the way. This will make your fire die out. Read more here: https://thegrillingdutchman.com/how-to-put-out-charcoal-gril/
I know this is a very basic answer and for that reason, I wrote my how to use vents on a charcoal grill article with more in-depth tips.
Tip: Read also my how to keep a charcoal grill at 225 article.
Grill Accessories
Many of the grill accessories you find in stores will fall, in my opinion, under the “that’s nice to have” category. But I still can’t always resist buying them.
However, there are some essential grill gear that you will sooner or later need, and here is my list but yours might look different.
Tip: Buy quality. It will save money in the long run.
Chimney Starter
I can not image me starting charcoal without my chimney starters as I described almost at the top of this article.
Thermometers
I use 2 types of thermometers.
Digital Multi Probe Thermometer
I have used many of them in the past but nowadays I stick to my INKBIRD IBT-26S.
You can read my full INKBIRD IBT-26S review if you are interested in why I like it so much.
Handheld Thermometer
If I had to choose one thermometer it would be a handheld digital thermometer.
I can’t imagine using my grill to cook hamburgers, chicken, or any other type of meat without checking the internal temperature to avoid under- or overcooking.
I will list the one I use here later.
Heat Resistant Gloves
I had some nice ones in the past but lately, all I use are welding gloves to handle my grill parts when they are hot. Including my charcoal chimney.
You can buy those fairly cheap at Lowes or your local Home Depot.
Tip: Buy the longer welding gloves. I have burned the hairs of my arme with shorter ones.
Tongs
I usually have two tongs at hand. The first one I only use for raw meat and the second one for cooked meat. This is food safety and will prevent cross-contamination and foodborne illnesses.
Tip: Buy some sturdy tongs and not the flimsy cheap ones
Knives
There is so much written about knives that I don’t know where to start. But one thing is for sure. You need sharp knives.
I use a chef’s knife most of the time and a boning knife is my number two. But you can take it as far as you like and buy as many as you like.
Grill Brush
Cleaning your grill is very important and for that reason, you need a good grill brush and some scrapers.
I am sure you are able to find the ones you like to use but I will show you here the ones I use.
Pots And Pans
If you like to do more with your charcoal grill than just grilling meat you need a few pots and pans. I prefer to use cast iron since it is so durable and retains heat so well.
If you like to read it you can see The Grilling Dutchman Gear on that page.
Cleaning Your Charcoal Grill
There are tons of articles and videos on how to clean a grill. My method is just that after my cooking is done I heat the grill as hot as I can get it.
This will burn off most of the gunk and make it easier to use your grill brush or scraper to get your grill grates clean.
This is very straightforward and does not need much explanation. However, there is more that needs to be cleaned or kept clean.
I personally like to keep the bottom of my grill clean also and one reason for that is that it prevents flare-ups when you are grilling directly over the hot coals.
I keep my grill bottom covered with Aluminum foil and if you are interested I suggest you read my how to keep the bottom of a BBQ clean post for that.
Grilling – Time To Get Started.
Now we have covered the basics for how to use a charcoal grill it is time to fire up your grill.
Prepare your grill, start your charcoal, and learn to control your temperature.
The main tip I can give you is to enjoy what you are doing and don’t get disappointed when things go wrong.
I have made many mistakes, and I still do. However, I don’t see it as a failure. I consider every mistake a learning process.
For questions you can always contact me.
Eddie van Aken
Eddie van Aken brings years of experience from running a full-service restaurant, where he honed his skills with all types of kitchen equipment. His expertise extends to mastering the art of outdoor cooking, utilizing the right recipes to enhance flavors on grills and smokers. Eddie’s in-depth knowledge allows him to provide comprehensive grill reviews and valuable outdoor cooking tips, helping enthusiasts make the most of their grilling adventures. You can read more on the About page for Eddie van Aken