Simple Steps To Cleaning a Charcoal Grill

Charcoal grills can be used for a variety of purposes from cooking up ribs for a neighborhood BBQ in your back yard, or smoking a few fillets of salmon for an easy and delicious weeknight dinner.

Using a charcoal grill is relatively simple, and only requires a few minimal steps to come out with the perfect result. The same concept goes for cleaning this type of equipment, as well.

Cleaning your charcoal grill is just as important as following through with the correct steps to use it properly. The lists down below will walk you through how you can do this step-by-step, with many more details to follow throughout the rest of this section.

Here is what you will need:

• A grill brush or similar cleaning brush (with coarse bristles)
• Aluminum foil
• Paper/plastic bags
• Bristle brush or putty knife

To begin this tutorial, we will be going over everything that you will need to get started. First and most importantly, you will need a grill brush or some kind of similar cleaning brush for the actual task of scrubbing the grates and getting rid of residue.

If you do not have a designated grill cleaning brush, don’t worry. Just try to find something equally as functional that has coarse enough bristles to really give your grill a good clean. Ideally it will have some kind of handle that you will be able to hold onto in order to do the hard scrubbing that will be required.

Next, you will need some aluminum foil. Depending on how dirty your grill is at the time you are cleaning it and the size fo the grates, you might just need to bring the whole roll with you. This will be explained later on in this section.

Additionally, you will need some paper or plastic bags, whichever ones you have immediate access to. This will really be for waste, and can double as a glove for your hand if you don’t have any.

Finally, you will need an extra bristle brush or a putty knife to help you get off all of the tough residue that might not be targeted by the brush alone.

Simple Steps To Cleaning a Charcoal Grill:

1. Get all of your cleaning supplies together
2. Remove the grill grate if possible, and clean both the grill grate and charcoal grate with the cleaning brush.
3. Ball up the aluminum foil and scrub the grate to get any additional residue
4. Clean the bottom of the grill along with the lid for any debris
5. Use the plastic/paper bags for disposal and a cover for your hand to grab out the additional materials
6. Reassemble your grill and you will be done

When you are ready to clean your grill, you will start by getting all of your cleaning supplies together, which were laid out in the previous list. You can remove the grill grate if possible to make it easier to clean everything thoroughly, but this is not required if you can’t.

Whether you remove the grate or not, you will proceed by cleaning both the grill grate and the charcoal grate, using your cleaning brush. This should be done with firm back and forth motions, applying pressure to the grates directly with the bristles.

Next, you will need to use the aluminum foil in order to get into the smaller places with a little bit more of a traction. Do this by balling up the foil into something that can fit into your hand and use it to scrub the grate to get any additional residue off.

This should be used just like you would use a sponge, and will help you to scratch the grates with any burnt food or materials flaking off toward the bottom.

Clean the bottom of the grill along with the lid for any debris. When you are cleaning your grill, you shouldn’t neglect any area of it, even though you don’t necessarily use it to cook.

Use the plastic or paper bags for disposal of the debris that falls from the grates and the inside of the grill. This includes everything that you have scraped off with the brush as well as your extra grill brush or putty knife.

If you don’t have gloves with you and you want to keep your hands clean during this task, take one of the bags and use it as a glove to scoop it into the other bag. When you are done with this, you will assemble your grill back into place.