Clean Your Grill Guide And Favorite Recipes

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Yay! It’s finally grilling season. It’s time to uncover your grill, clean it and get your grill on. After we go through the steps on how to clean your grill, I’m sharing a few of my favorite grilling recipes. So keep on reading.

How to Clean Your Grill

If you keep your grill in tip-top shape, getting your grill ready for grilling season shouldn’t be hard. In a perfect world, you should do a simple cleanup of your grill after every use. But let’s be real. We have good intentions but sometimes we forget to clean up the grill after we’re done.

Always check your grill’s manual to check for special cleaning instructions.

Cleaning After Grilling Saves Time & Effort

If you have a gas grill, get in the habit of cleaning your grates after every grilling session. After cooking. turn the grill to high to burn off any food residue. After the food has burned off, use a grill brush to make sure all the ash particles are removed.

Once the grates are cleaned, apply a light coating of high smoke point oil (peanut or grapeseed oil) to the grates with a brush or a cloth. This will keep food from sticking and help keep your grates from corrosion.

Spring Clean Your Grill

You’ll need a bucket of warm, sudsy water, paper towels, soft cleaning cloths, and a good grill brush. Toss your old one out if it’s seen better days.

Grates

If you’ve been cleaning and oiling your grates after every cook, your grates just need a quick spring cleaning with a grill brush.

If you haven’t cleaned it lately, turn on the grill and heat on high for a few minutes to burn off food. While the grill is slightly warm, make sure all the dials are on off and disconnect the propane tank. Remove the grates (I suggest wearing work gloves) and soak them in hot, soapy water (Blue Dawn is my recommendation).

Catch Pan & Other Parts

The pan on the bottom of the grill needs to be kept clean as well. Remove the bottom tray from the grill and use a putty knife to gently scrape the debris into a trash can. Deep clean the tray using warm, sudsy water.

Use a commercial grill cleaner to clean other interior parts of the grill.

Exterior and Under the Lid

Clean the inside edges and under the lid with warm, sudsy water. Make sure to wipe again with just water to remove any soap residue.

Repeat by wiping down the outside of the grill with warm, sudsy water. Wipe down with warm water to remove soap residue. Dry with a clean, soft cloth.

To keep your stainless steel grill shiny, use a good stainless steel cleaner for grills.

Helpful Hint: Invest in a heavy-duty, waterproof grill cover and keep it covered when not grilling.

Give Your Grill a Checkup

Your grill needs a checkup from time to time to make sure everything is working perfectly.

Check for Leaks

Inspect your fuel system by checking for leaks. Make sure the hoses are not brittle or crimped. The propane tank should not be rusty or bulging.

Igniters

Make sure the igniters on your grill are in working order. If you don’t hear a clicking noise, change the battery. You should probably change the battery every spring while you’re cleaning the grill.

Clogged Burners

Remove grill grates and baffles. With the lid raised, light your grill and check the burners to make sure they’re not clogged. If a few holes are clogged, use a thin piece of wire to unclog. If there are lots of clogged holes, you may need to replace the burners.

Propane Tank

Nothing ruins a good BBQ like an empty propane tank. Invest in a tank gauge level indicator. They are inexpensive and lets you know when your tank is almost empty.

Now that the grill is clean, let’s have a BBQ! Check out my favorite grilling recipes below.

Blackberry Glazed Grilled Ribs

Cherry-Apple Glazed Grilled Ribs

Peach-Chipotle Grilled Ribs

Ginger and Sweet Tea Infused Ribs

Best BBQ Chicken

Ginger Lime Grilled Ribs

Grilled Marinated Pork Chops

Chipotle Grilled Ribs