Tips for the perfect summer BBQ

All it takes is a few tweaks to nail your summer barbecue. Photo: Getty

Top BBQ cooking tips 

Spice rub rather than marinade 

A spice rub is recommended because it adds a good burst of flavour to your meat, while saucy marinades only flavour the surface of the meat. 

Slow-cooking beef with salt, pepper, and woodchips is a great way to boost flavour, but it needs a lot of care. Alternatively, you can use a dry rub by putting 2 tbsp brown sugar, 1 tbsp paprika, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp ground black pepper, ½ teaspoon thyme, ½ tsp oregano into a container and shaking to mix. Rub this into the meat and marinate for at least 20 minutes, or even better still, overnight.

When you’re following a slow-cooked beef recipe, smoke the meat for an hour, then wrap it in butcher’s paper soaked in oil and foil. That keeps in all the moisture. 

Depending on the size of the cut, cook the roast for 6-8 hours at 135°C, or pork shoulder or loin at 140°C for about 2-3 hours. 

Fish only needs olive oil, pepper and lemon juice. Keep it simple, maybe add some bay leaves and peppercorns as well. If you want a glaze, use honey or oyster sauce.

Smoking with wood chips

Just like spices, different types of wood chips add flavour and enhance your grilled fare.

It’s easy to do. After soaking the wood chips for about two hours, they are placed in a smoker box attachment on gas grills or directly on the coals for charcoal barbecues. But there’s also another way. 

You can use an aluminium barbecue tray instead. Put your wood chips in that, and heat them up on the grill. Then cover the tray with foil and make holes in it. The wood chips will smoke and perfume the meat.

If the wood chips are small and burn too fast, a trick is to add a bit of sugar and that connects the wood chips together.

RACV chefs recommend fruit-tree woodchips for cooking fish or pork to get a sweet flavour, and olive wood or hickory for steak or a hearty red meat.

Resting the meat is vital to keep it tender and moist. Photo: Getty

Let it rest

The quality of the dish does not necessarily come from the cooking, it’s the resting. 

“The resting is really important,” RACV chefs say. “If you cut into a steak straight away, all the juices and moisture will leak out and it will dry out in a couple of minutes. Resting lets the texture relax and the juices absorb back in.”

The larger the cut of meat, the more resting time it needs. Chicken breasts only need about 5-10 minutes, while a whole chicken should rest for at least 15-20 minutes.

If cooking a beef brisket for 12 hours, rest it for one hour before carving it.

The finishing touches

Fine dining restaurants often serve steak with a jus, but it can take days to make a good one.  For something quick and easy:  fry beef offcuts, add 300ml red wine and 50g sugar, and reduce it to a glaze. Add 300ml beef or chicken stock and thicken with cornflour (1 tsp cornflour to 1 tbsp of water). It’s not the same as jus, but it’s pretty good.