Those new to BBQ-ing (or those who simply can’t quite get it right) often struggle with keeping their meats moist when cooking. To help amateur BBQers, Tom Hixson’s BBQ and meat experts have shared their top six tips to keep meat moist when grilling. These include:
1. Choosing the right cut
Not all meats are equal when it comes to moisture and juiciness. Look for meat with a good amount of fat. The fat will melt when cooking, helping to keep the meat moist.
Stuart Mathwig, creator at @Artustbbq, BBQ caterer and collaborator with Tom Hixson (former BBQ World Championship competitor and 3x World Steak Challenge judge) explains: “Keeping food moist on the BBQ all depends on the cut. Some just need a hot and fast cook to seal the moisture in. Some need a nice long rest to help the meat relax and reabsorb some moisture.”
As a general rule of thumb, smaller or thinner cuts respond well to a high and fast method, while larger cuts like Thor’s Hammer (beef shin on the bone) want a low and slow method. It’s also best to use high heat for naturally tender cuts while low heat can be used for naturally tough or chewy cuts.
Beef cuts such as fillet, ribeye, and sirloin are perfect for those new to cooking steak because they come from less heavily worked muscle groups. This means the meat is naturally more tender and requires less effort to achieve a succulent result. Additionally, these cuts have a good level of marbling – the intramuscular fat that melts during cooking, keeping the meat moist and adding rich flavour. The combination of tenderness and marbling makes these cuts more forgiving, ensuring a deliciously juicy steak with minimal risk of overcooking or drying out.
Great high-heat options include: Wagyu T-bone, Wagyu Tomahawk steak, steak burgers, Wagyu burgers and chicken thighs
Best low-heat options include: pork baby back ribs, Waygu brisket, pork collar and nordic nature roasting joint
2. Add moisture
You can add moisture to your meat using a range of strategies, including, marinating in advance, adding moisture during cooking or creating a moist cooking environment.
Marinating: Marinating your meat before cooking can help to seal in moisture and flavour. It can also help to tenderise your meat. For reference, some of the best cuts of beef (e.g. Ribeye, Sirloin and Fillet steaks) only need to marinate for 20–60 minutes. Lesser cuts may need a little longer to tenderise them. Chicken needs at least 20 minutes to marinate, but no more than an hour.
Always marinate in the fridge, never at room temperature. Here are some of our favourite marinades to try: Perfect for chicken – Gochujang and buffalo sauce, perfect for ribs – cider sauce and hot and spicy Nashville chicken
Add during cooking: You can add moisture directly to the meat during the cooking process. One popular technique is using a spray bottle with a 50/50 mix of apple cider vinegar and water to spray the meat while it cooks. You can also use this to add flavour by using a spray bottle infused with coriander, garlic, or aromatic herbs. If you don’t have a spray bottle, you can achieve the same effect by mopping the liquid onto the meat with a brush.
Create a moist environment: With the lid of the BBQ closed, you can create a moist environment by placing a water tray inside. This technique works best when smoking or while cooking on low and slow heat, but you should also ensure that you don’t place this on direct heat so that it doesn’t evaporate instantly.
Rich Pearse, chef at Uncle Hon’s BBQ and collaborator with Tom Hixson adds: “When smoking I like to use a water pan and I’ll spritz meat with a 50:50 blend of apple cider vinegar & Worcestershire sauce”.
Similarly, many BBQ fanatics swear by adding a can of beer instead of a water tray. This is said to achieve the same moist environment while also adding the flavour of the beer to the meat.
3. Let your meat come up to room temperature before cooking
Don’t rush the process, meat does need to come up to room temperature before it goes on the BBQ. Ideally, leave it for around 15 minutes before putting it onto the grill. This will help to produce a tender result and will reduce the cooking time slightly, meaning that there is less chance of your meat drying out.
4. Get your BBQ to the right temperature and know your cook time
Depending on the type of BBQ you have, this can be tricky. Some modern BBQs let you set a specific temperature, like an oven. In this case, you can follow regular temperature recommendations in the recipe.
However, older-style BBQs are manual, and it’s difficult to reach a specific temperature, here you can use a meat thermometer to measure the internal temperature of the meat. Regardless of the type of BBQ you have, the grill must be hot before you add your meat to it. Here’s a list of Tom Hixson’s recommended BBQ cook times for different meats.
Recommended internal temperatures for steaks: (the temperature in the middle of the meat), and the time it should take to reach this on high heat.
Rare – 50°C in 5 minutes
Medium – 60°C in 6 minutes
Well Done – 70°C in 12 minutes
5. Keep the lid closed
Keeping the lid closed traps in hot air, helping to cook the inside of the meat – like in an oven. It should also trap moisture, helping to stop your meat from drying out.
Another tip (for longer cooks) is to add a pan of water to the grill (set a heat-proof pan on the grill away from the meat), which will help to create steam and therefore moisture.
6. Let it rest
After cooking, the first step is to let your meat rest. This allows the meat to finish cooking and reabsorb some of its juices. This is the same process as if you were to cook on the stove or in the oven. The length of time you should rest meat depends on the size of the cut.
For smaller cuts such as burgers or ribeye steaks, you’ll only need to rest the meat for 5 to 10 minutes after taking them off the heat.
For large cuts such as a roasting joint or brisket, you’ll want to rest them for 15 to 20 minutes.
