What Are The Best Meat For BBQ Grilling? (2024)

To paraphrase the seasonally appropriate Frank Sinatra, “The weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful”—and what better way to enjoy that warmth than around the grill.

Firing up your grill is a great way to tie in the festive cheer and share a hearty, delicious meal with your loved ones.

Imagine the smell of burnt charcoal, the sizzle of succulent meats over the pan, and the eager faces around a festive table ready to serve up seconds and thirds to their heart’s content.

Whether you are looking to host a party or enjoy a casual, quiet weekend with your friends and family, it doesn’t take toiling all day to impress with mouthwatering recipes.

Here are our suggestions for the easiest meats to grill this season!

Beef kebabs

The cooking time for perfectly grilled kebabs is approximately 12–15 minutes; this makes it a low-effort, delicious dish to serve up for a larger crowd. Kebabs are also a great way to get everyone involved during prep time.

Simply cut your meats into uniform cubes with a diameter of 2 inches and skewer them along with the veggies of your choice—onions, capsic*ms, or potatoes are popular choices.

Once skewered, the fun begins!

What Are The Best Meat For BBQ Grilling? (1)

Make sure you preheat the stove and grill your kebabs nice and hot.

Kebabs are champions of flavour and prove their versatility by letting you season them as you see fit. No matter what your preferences are for your seasoning, the real secret in hitting that sweet spot is grilling them to tender perfection.

Chicken

Chicken is the go-to option and holy grail of any grill experience.

If you are looking for the best and easiest meat to grill—chicken thighs are just the meat cuts you need.

Talk to experienced grillers and they will tell you that this part of the chicken, especially with the skin left on, is superior to any other cut.

Chicken thighs have a high fat content, which means they can pack a punch with their intense, rich flavour in comparison to their white meat counterparts, and will not dry out easily.

To get the best out of your grilled chicken; remember to season it well. These cuts of meat take approximately 10 to 13 minutes to grill, look for those beautiful grill marks and wait till your chicken turns golden-brown, so it looks as good as it will taste.

Turkey

Grilled turkey is a definite must-try. With an incredible marinade, your turkey can be the highlight of the party.

Grilled turkey comes out tender and juicy, with the heat from the grill infusing an extra smoky flavour to the meat.

Although this meat takes longer than the rest to cook, it can also retain its moisture well while being cooked. To speed up the grilling process look towards turkey cutlets that are comparatively smaller in size but offer the same taste.

Turkey is just one of those meats that are a perfect complement to the other dishes you have set such as your salads and boiled vegetables.

This dish is best paired with either a sweet, tangy cranberry sauce or a sharper soy-ginger sauce.

Pork chops

Pork chops are a staple grilled meat that leaves everyone craving more!

They are the easiest to eat and taste just as amazing. This grill time requires very little hands-on action. That said, to get the best out of this meat, especially pork ribs, keep it on lower heat for a longer time.

When cooking your pork cuts, make sure your grill is set to medium heat and rotate them from time to time to get that nice, even grill. To enhance the flavour of your pork cuts, throw some flavoured chips on the fire.

Enjoy the season with the easiest meat to grill

Why limit yourself to enjoying the best grilled feast once?

Enjoy experimenting with new flavours and grilling recipes that will win you the title of grill whisperer, while delivering meals that will keep you and your loved ones warm this winter season.

What Are The Best Meat For BBQ Grilling? (2024)

FAQs

Which cut of meat would best be suited for grilling? ›

The 5 Best Cuts of Steak for Grilling
  1. Grilling Filet Mignon. Black Angus filet mignon is the most tender cut of beef used for steaks. ...
  2. Grilling Black Angus Ribeye Steak. ...
  3. Grilling Porterhouse Steak. ...
  4. Grilling T-Bone Steak. ...
  5. Grilling Strip Loin Steak.

What is the most tender cut of beef for BBQ? ›

Tenderloin Steak (Filet Mignon)

This is the most tender steak, lean yet succulent, with a fine buttery texture. Sold boneless. This steak also meets government guidelines for lean.

What is the secret to good BBQ? ›

Cook Low and Slow:

One of the secrets to perfectly grilled meat is cooking it low and slow over indirect heat. This method allows the flavors to develop slowly while keeping the meat tender and juicy throughout the cooking process.

What is the best meat for American BBQ? ›

The most well-known meals include beef brisket, pork ribs, pulled pork shoulder, and whole hog barbeque. Typically, barbeque calls for three ingredients: meat, wood smoke, and sauce. The use of a sauce or seasoning differs significantly between regional customs.

What is the best meat to grill on charcoal? ›

When it comes to grilling, steak is a classic choice that never disappoints. The intense heat of charcoal sears the exterior, creating a flavorful crust while preserving the juiciness within. Opt for well-marbled cuts like ribeye or New York strip for a tender and richly flavored result.

What is the easiest meat to grill? ›

Chicken is a leaner option for grilling and one of the easiest meats to grill. Popular choices include chicken wings, drumsticks, and breasts. Leaner cuts like chicken breasts or tenders are great for hot and fast grilling.

What is the best tasting steak for BBQ? ›

Best barbecue cuts

The best cuts of beef steak to use for barbecuing are fillet, scotch fillet, porterhouse, T-bone, rump, round and blade. Look for cuts with a little fat marbled through the meat, as this helps to keep the steak moist.

What is the most flavorful cut of beef? ›

These cuts—ribeye, New York strip loin, and filet mignon—can certainly be dubbed the best, and few will disagree. “Filet is the most tender cut, but has the least amount of flavor. Ribeye is the most flavorful, but the least tender of the three, and New York is in the middle.” Flannery explains.

What is the hardest meat to BBQ? ›

Brisket is BBQ royalty and one of the hardest and toughest meats to smoke. It takes many hours, dedication and each brisket has a journey and a story to tell.

What is the best roast meat for BBQ? ›

Some ideal cuts for barbecuing include: Beef: Beef fillet, blade steak, beef spare ribs, oyster blade steak, Porterhouse, rib eye, rump, round, scotch fillet, sirloin, tenderloin and T-Bone.

What is the 3 2 1 rule BBQ? ›

Essentially, 3 2 1 ribs go like this:
  • 3 hours of smoking the ribs directly on the pellet grill.
  • 2 hours wrapped in foil, still cooking on the grill.
  • 1 hour of cooking, unwrapped and slathered in barbecue sauce.

How to make barbecue meat juicy? ›

5 BBQ tips for flavourful, juicy meat
  1. You're only as good as your ingredients. ...
  2. Hold out for the right heat. ...
  3. Cook chicken on low, beef and pork on high. ...
  4. Turn food over only once. ...
  5. Glaze meat in a pinch if you don't have time to marinade.
Jun 24, 2021

What meat to grill first? ›

What should you cook first on a BBQ? As a general rule of thumb, the best order to cook food on a BBQ is starting with a thick piece of meat that typically takes a while to cook (for example chicken on the bone, a thick steak and sausages), so we'd recommend cooking them first.

What cut of meat is BBQ made from? ›

Barbecue Beef: Historically, barbecue was a means of cooking tough cuts of beef “low and slow” to bring out all their juicy, tender flavor. In addition to the above-mentioned brisket, traditional cuts of beef include tri-tips, beef back ribs and clods.

What ground beef is best for BBQ? ›

80% lean ground chuck (shoulder) will be the juiciest and most flavorful. It's also the grind I recommend for making burgers for the grill. It has the perfect fat-to-meat ratio.

What cut of meat for pulled BBQ? ›

Shoulder Cut

The pork shoulder is the most popular cut used to make pulled pork. The entire hog's front leg and shoulder make up the pork shoulder. This is often separated into two pieces at your local grocery store: the picnic roast and the Boston butt (also known as the Boston roast).

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