How to Cook Steak, Vegetables, and Seafood on the Grill at the Same Time

Posted on: 24 March 2017

Cooking juicy steaks, crisp vegetables, and seared-to-perfection seafood on the grill doesn't take a magician or even much practice. Cooking it all at once does. Everyone likes their food cooked differently. If you like your steak kissed-by-the-flame rare, you know not to put it on the grill the same amount of time as a medium or well-done steak. The same goes with vegetables like corn on the cob. Some people like their corn cooked for a five minutes in the husk for that crisp, sweet taste of late summer. Others like the kernels to be soft enough to eat with ill-fitting dentures. Some like skewered pre-cooked shrimp, others want to grill firm mahi-mahi steaks or a nice fat bluegill whole. So how do you make sure that all that food gets cooked the way you like it and ready all at the same time?

Differentiate the temperatures on your grill.

Grilling means to slap your food on the grill for just a few minutes at a high temperature ranging from about 400 to 550 degrees. You don't want to barbecue low-and-slow at lower temperatures for a few hours while you're grilling your dinner. So can you grill and barbecue at the same time? You might be able to depending on the complexity of your grill, but just because you can doesn't mean you should.

If you need a sear on your food, throw it on the part of your grill where the heat is the highest, typically on the lower grate. Food that you want to keep warm goes on the top tier of your grill if you have one. The temperatures are lower there and you tend to get a smoky taste to your food. Since steaks, vegetables and seafood all cook at different temperatures, food placement is crucial to getting food cooked to a safe temperature and at the same time.

Cooking the perfect steak is as easy as the finger test.

Give steaks a good sear by placing them directly on the rack over high heat. DO NOT turn your steak more than once. It will stick to the grate and your steak's tenderness will be in jeopardy. Rare steaks should be cooked to a cool to warm, red center, depending on how rare you like them. Medium steaks should be cooked to a warm pink to a slightly pink center. Well-done steaks have no red or pink center. If you don't want to cut into your steak to check the center color, use the finger test method to determine how your steak is cooked.

Vegetables and seafood don't have to fall off the skewer.

It's fun eating vegetables and seafood off a skewer. The trick is to start on the low rack and transfer them to the high rack if you want a nice sear and a firm texture. Kabobs are great if you want several types of vegetables, meat or a combination of both. How long you cook them is dependent on how crisp you want them. Keep your heat on the lower end of high and watch them closely. It's better to use metal skewers. Wooden skewers tend to burn. If you are grilling corn on the cob, soak them first in a bucket, don't shuck them, and place directly on the grill for about five minutes for a crispier kernel and longer for a softer kernel. For seafood, cook on wood planks or on foil if you don't want a sear. Mahi-mahi is a firm fish that takes nicely to grill cooking.

General rules are made to be broken.

Great grilling technique that gets all the food done at the same time takes practice and some trial-and-error. But the general rule is high heat, steaks on first, the vegetables and seafood just behind the steaks. Change it up for rare steaks. You'll want the vegetables and seafood nearly done before the slap-dash of the flame's kiss on your steak. Use common sense, know what you like, and how you like it. Soon you and your grill will be BFFs. 

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