Your trusty grill is a powerhouse that can transform everything from thick steaks to sweet corn into smoky perfection. But here's the thing: not every ingredient is cut out for the intense heat and wide grates of traditional grilling.
Grills have their limitations. Those signature wide grates that bestow beautiful char marks can become a trap for smaller, more delicate ingredients. Picture this: your carefully prepared diced vegetables or delicate fish fillets tumbling through the gaps, landing on the coals below into a sad puff of smoke.
Before you start your next backyard cookout, consider these seven foods that often struggle on standard grills. While they're not impossible to grill with the right techniques and equipment, you might find better results using alternative cooking methods.
If you're determined to grill these items anyway, invest in specialized grilling accessories like a wire basket, cedar plank, or perforated pan to keep everything secure and prevent a messy cleanup situation later.Â
Flaky fish
Cod and halibut aren't great candidates for cooking on the grill.
If you've ever slapped a filet of flaky fish like tilapia, cod or halibut over an open flame, you probably know why it's not the best idea. Flaky fish tends to fall through the grates to a firey death once it starts cooking.Â
Instead, try grilling any one of these firm fish that seafood chef Akira Beck recommends. If you simply must grill flaky fish over the grates, get yourself a fish grilling basket to keep those filets in tact.Â
Peeled shrimp
If you're going to grill shrimp, I suggest leaving the shell on until it's cooked.
Grilling shrimp over a hot grill isn't a bad idea, but if you're going to do it, keep the shrimp in its shell until after it's done cooking. Peeled shrimp cooks quickly and can dry out in the blink of an eye. Since you can't cook in oil or sauce on a grill, you're better off not peeling it to protect the meat from intense heat.Â
Scallops
Special skills include searing scallops.Â
Scallops are another seafood that in theory is great when grilled, but the potential for disaster just isn't worth it. Even large scallops are liable to fall through. Instead, cook them in a carbon-steel or stainless-steel skillet over the grates to give them a proper seer and caramelized crust that slatted grates just won't deliver.
Small or thinly sliced vegetables
If you're planning to cook button or baby bella mushrooms on the grill, be prepared to lose many of them through the grates.
Certain vegetables were made for the grill, while others were made to fall right through to the flames below. Small vegetables such as green beans, snow peas, button mushrooms and broccoli florets should never be flung onto a bare grill.Â
To make an outdoor stir-fry or cook smaller, sliced veggies on the grill, use skewers or cook them in a sauté pan on the grill or over a grill mat to keep them safely away from the fire.
Read more:Â Before You Fire Up Your Grill, Here's How to Make It Shine
Bacon
An outdoor griddle can handle strips of bacon, but a traditional grill isn't the place to cook them.
Bacon, even thick slabs of it, is another poor choice for the grill. Thinner bacon will be impossible to manage but even thick-cut bacon is so fatty that grease will drip through to the fire below and cause annoying, possibly dangerous, splatters and explosions.Â
Worse yet, you'll have a seriously disgusting grill to clean up after. Instead, try this cleaner method for making bacon.
Breaded meat
Breaded food just doesn't work on the grill.
You might be tempted to make grilled chicken or pork cutlets, but save that breaded meat for the air fryer, oven or sauté pan. Much of that coating will shake free from the food, and you'll end up with a pile of burnt breading at the bottom of your grill.Â
For more kitchen tips, read our guide to the best cheap steak cuts and check out these eight surprising foods to cook in an air fryer.Â