How to: Start a Charcoal Grill

First off, if you have not invested in a charcoal weber grill yet… DO!  They are only around $100 and they make all of your grilled food taste SO much better.  I was intimidated by the thought of lighting charcoal by myself, but I found very quickly that it is very simple.  I have provided a quick step-by-step tutorial for y’all so that you can get that fire burning and start cooking some of our delicious grilling recipes.  So go on and buy one now if you do not already have one, you will not regret it.

WHAT YOU NEED:

A Charcoal silver one-touch weber grill like the one HERE.

A Chimney Starter, like the one HERE. 

Charcoal, I just buy regular lump charcoal from my local grocery store.

HOW TO START YOUR WEBER:

Step 1: Remove the top grilling rack and set aside.  Fill the chimney with charcoal to the top.  Crumble up about 5 sheets of newspaper, stuff them in the bottom of the chimney.

Step 2:  Light the newspaper on fire.  Hold it at a tilt so the fire gets lots of oxygen and gets flaming.

Step 3:  Set the chimney down and leave the fire burning, the coals will slowly heat up.  This takes about 10-15 minutes, so go have a beer while they are catching.  Make sure they are catching on fire, you may need to repeat steps 1 & 2 if your chimney does NOT look like the photo below.

Step 4:  How do you know when the coals are done?  When ALL of the charcoal in the chimney are the grey/silver color.  (See below)

Step 5:  With an oven mitt, carefully pour out the coals into the bottom of the weber grill.  With some tongs, grab the coals that got scattered about and stack them into a nice pile in the middle of the grill. Or spread them out evenly depending on what you are cooking and how slowly you want them to cook.

That’s it!  Just place the grilling rack over the hot coals and get some good chicken, salmon, or steaks grilling!!!!   Once you do this about 2 times, you are a pro.  I promise you can do this! Plus, if you are a pyro like me, you will thoroughly enjoy starting the fire!