Cooking close to the fire

My wife just bought me a new gas grill about a month or go or so. I had an old style that had two grates. One close to the fire and one that was attached to the lid and swung down but was a full size grate. I used to know how to cook on that one. It was a two burner running horizontal and I always cooked on high when cooking chicken or steak. Chicken about 6 minutes per side and they were done. Tender and juicy. Steak they same way. Just a little less time for my med rare.

This grill is a 4 burner that runs up and down if you are looking at the grill. I've cooked chicken on it a couple of times, some turkey burgers, and some steak. I've got all three foods over cooked and the last chicken I did I cut into one of the pieces that was bigger and it was still pink inside. I'm needing some tips or advice on how to cook on my new grill. I know its a learning process but its a little frustrating. I told my wife lets sell the new one and I will cook on the old

 

I assume this is boneless chicken. When I cook a chicken breast bone in it takes about 50 minutes low and slow. Maybe you have your heat to high

 

My guess is that the heat is too high. I also have the double racks on my grill. I put the meat on the bottom grill and the burners on high to get a sear, and then move it either to the top grill to finish of, or I move it to the side, away from the burners, and adjust the burners down as needed, to continue cooking indirectly "low-and-slow", (depending on what type of meat it is)

Keep playing with it OP, in general a 4-burner should be a better grill than a 2-burner, especially if you have the "vertical" burners vs "horizontal" so you can isolate direct and indirect areas. You might have to change your methods to adapt to a longer cooking process, or by adjusting the heat and moving the meat around a little you could get to your old sweet spot.
Good luck.

 

Also, what I sometimes do if I only have a few smaller pieces of meat, I turn the two outside burners on, but keep the meat on the inside, (over the 2 burners that are off) I get plenty of heat from the outsides to cook and get a nice brown color, but no burning. Every now and then during cooking, or when the meat is done but not enough color I can either move it to the outside for a little bit or turn the inside burners under the meat on for a little bit just to get the color right, or if I use sugar based sauce to carmelize it.

 

On my old grill it didn't have a thermometer on it but I did buy one and put on it, but my new grill has one already installed. Do any of you grill at a certain temperature? Also, I know grills vary depending on a lot of things but how long does it take to cook boneless chicken breast? Thats about the only chicken we buy unless its wings. I have done a couple can chickens before. I think I may have my heat up tooo much like was said above

 

Sometimes the thermometers that come with the grills are not very accurate ( unless it's a Weber or similar) I only care about the air temperature when cooking roasts or smoking something. For regular grilling I don't think it is a big deal. I have never really checked on the time. I use a probe thermometer in the thickest part of the meat, and once it reaches 165 I am done. (or whatever temp you need for the type of meat). Sometimes I grill the chicken breasts whole (thick) which takes longer, or I pound it with a meat tenderizing hammer so it is about 3/4" thick, and it grills much quicker that way. Either way I use the probe thermometer rather than time.

 

For me on average around 30 minutes for a boneless chicken breast. This is between medium and low heat. Sometimes if one side is really thick and the other side is thin I will cut the thicker ones in half to even things up. You've never cooked a bone in chicken breast? Yum Yum.

 

If I have cooked a bone in chicken breast I don't remember it. I think we buy the boneless just for convienence I guess :-/ ?

 

Chicken on the grill is easier is you have no sugar in the marinate. Heat the entire grill up high and the taper the heat off to one side. That way you can move the chicken to different temp zones. You can add a sugary glaze at the end off cooking and char it a bit then.

I like grills with burners that run front to back. You can bake easier with that configuration.

 

We use mayo a lot on our chicken. Keeps it moist. I know some use regular yogurt but I didn't like the way it tasted