Adam Richman's three golden rules of barbecuing
The judge of ITV's BBQ Champ has tips for aspiring kings and queens of the grill
Adam Richman knows meat. And he knows grills. The star of hit US series Man vs Food – and now ITV's BBQ Champ – has eaten and cooked his way around America's char-grilling hot spots so when he shares his golden rules of cooking with coals and flames, aspiring barbecue kings and queens should take note...
Know your fire
"Building a good fire is essential, in terms of keeping it both a good temperature but also in knowing where the hotspots are and where it gets cold. So you know how to cook something with a direct heat or with diffused heat or when you’re just adding smoke."
Practice restraint
"The second thing I would recommend is just restraint, in terms of both seasoning the meat – both before cooking and afterward – and in terms of poking it, prodding it, pressing on it, flipping it, moving it, turning it. Let it do what it’s meant to do. You don’t want to overseason it, overrub it, overtouch it, not at all."
Cook to add flavour
"Don’t forget that you can use your means of cooking as a means of flavouring too, so if you want to steam something on the [barbecue] grill with a double boiler or a bamboo steamer you can steam with sake, you can steam with white wine, you can steam with water, you can put ginger and carrots and all kinds of stuff into that thing. So if you want to steam something you can also be flavouring. If you want to cook, you can cook right in the coals and they’ll add both flavour and flame."
BBQ Champ starts at 9pm on Friday 31st July on ITV
