How to Use a Grill Thermometer to Achieve the Best Juicy Meat？

It happens to everyone, especially when you are new to using a grill thermometer. You spend hours preparing for this dinner, only to undercook or over-roast the meat. It’s a dreadful moment nobody wants to experience. Therefore, it is important to learn how to use a grill thermometer to achieve the juiciest meat. With the right use of the grill thermometer, you can save money, reduce your anxiety, and enjoy your meal.

While some people use several methods to check the doneness of their meat, none produce the same results as using a meat thermometer. It’s understandable that people peek at the meat, touch it, check the cooking time, or use a cake tester to guess the meat doneness. Nevertheless, a grill thermometer comes in handy because it shows when your meat is safely and perfectly cooked.

Understanding meat thermometer

For newbies, a meat thermometer is a device that helps measure a meat’s internal temperature. Foods such as eggs, pork, and poultry require a specific temperature to kill harmful bacteria. This can prevent foodborne illnesses caused by inadequately cooked meat.

Kitchen thermometers let you gauge the internal temperature of meat without cutting it, which can negatively affect its texture and flavor. Nowadays, we have analog and digital thermometers. It’s an essential tool for your kitchen utensils, helping you cook your meat perfectly.

How to use grill thermometer to achieve the best juicy meat?

Understanding how to use a remote thermometer or grill thermometer will go a long way toward achieving the best juicy meat. To make it easier, let’s look at the process of using a thermometer to check a chicken’s internal temperature, especially if you are an amateur.

Step One – Choose a suitable thermometer

Everything hinges on picking the best meat thermometer, as it will determine the outcome of your cooking. Therefore, the first step is buying the ideal thermometer to get the job done. Here, you have several options at your disposal, and finding the one that suits you can be daunting.

Meat designed thermometer

One frequent issue most people encounter when using a thermometer is buying the wrong one. Some thermometers are designed for specific tasks. Ensure you understand what you are getting into before choosing a thermometer.

Digital thermometer versus dial

With advancements in technology, many people prefer digital thermometers to dial thermometers when cooking on the grill. We prefer you use a digital thermometer, as it reads faster than a dial thermometer. Therefore, you can swiftly monitor your meat without letting it get too hot on the grill. This will help produce a stable cooking process with optimal results.

Wireless, wired, and wands

Peradventure, you decide to take our recommendation and select the digital thermometer; you are a step from making the right choice. It would depend on your budget, since a digital food thermometer comes with several features. Assuming you have a tight budget, you might want to consider buying a wand-style thermometer as it reads out food temperature quickly.

Nevertheless, if you want to upgrade to a better electronic meat thermometer, you might consider a wired model. This type of thermometer enables you to check your meat’s temperature without opening your grill lid. Interestingly, a wired meat thermometer is essential when cooking large cuts of meat, and you don’t want anything to slow the cooking time.

You can find several affordable thermometers with programmable features. Furthermore, a wireless thermometer is relatively new but can be expensive. It has the same principle as the wired option. However, it doesn’t come with a wire, which is the only difference.

Step Two – Understand where to measure

Once you have chosen the right BBQ thermometer to grill your meat, the next step is to know where to measure to get better results. There are three areas to check to measure the doneness of your meat without using a steak temperature chart.

• Thickest part: When measuring temperature with an instant-read meat thermometer, the thickest part is the easiest to use to achieve the best results. Insert your thermometer probe into the thickest part of the meat. This is the best place since the thickest part takes longer to cook.
• Largest part: Peradventure, you are cooking several items, for instance, chicken thighs or legs, you can measure the largest part. You can also measure the thickest part to ensure your meat cooks properly. You don’t want undercooked or overcooked meat.
• Do a large cut: If you grill a brisket, a large roast, or a rack of ribs, you can read the temperature in several areas. This will help you know whether your meat is cooked before serving.

Note: When measuring the temperature of your grilled meat, ensure the temperature probe doesn’t touch the bone, the grill, or utensils. If this happens, you will get the wrong temperature reading, which will affect your food reading.

Step Three – Understand the right temperature

When learning how to use a meat thermometer, one vital thing to consider is knowing the safe temperature for your meat. There is a temperature danger zone to avoid when cooking food, and a meat thermometer is only a tool. That is why you need to know the ideal temperature for cooking your food.

If you want a safe cooking temperature for your meat, here is a summary of the recommended temperatures.

• Pork – 145°F(63°C)
• Roasts, chops, or steaks – 145°F(63°C)
• Ground beef, veal, or lamb – 160°F(71°C)
• All poultry – 145°F(63°C)
• Ground poultry (Turkey or chicken) – 165°F(74°C)

Conclusion

Learning how to use a grill thermometer to achieve the juiciest meat isn’t complicated. Whether you choose a wireless or wired thermometer, it often comes with an alarm that triggers when your meat reaches the desired temperature. Peradventure, you want to make a great meal and enjoy a cold beer while you wait for your meat to cook; a thermometer with an alarm is necessary.

Now it’s time to practice with that meat to achieve the juiciest results. Investing in a good thermometer isn’t an option if you want to accurately assess your meat’s doneness.