How do I barbecue food without burning it?

Two-zone cooking, timing by ingredient, and the food safety that matters more outdoors than in a kitchen.

Difficulty: intermediate
Time: 1 hr 30 min
Read: 2 min
Safety: warning

Short answer

Set up two zones — coals on one side, nothing on the other — so you can brown over the heat and finish gently off it. Almost every burnt-outside-raw-inside barbecue is the result of one uniformly hot fire.

A barbecue is an oven and a grill at once, and treating it as only a grill is why food burns. A hot zone for colour and a cool zone for cooking through gives you the same control you have indoors.

Safety

Never use petrol or spirits to light a barbecue, and never bring one indoors or into a tent — cooling charcoal produces carbon monoxide and has killed people. Cook chicken and pork to a safe internal temperature; charred outside does not mean cooked inside.

What you'll need

Barbecue
Tongs
Meat thermometer
Chimney starter (optional)
Lid (optional)

Setting up two heat zones on a barbecue

Step by step

Light it well ahead and wait for the flames to die down.Charcoal is ready when it is covered in grey ash, usually 25-30 minutes. Cooking over flames chars the outside and cooks nothing.
Bank the coals to one side to create two zones.This is the single most useful technique. A hot side for searing, a cool side for cooking through with the lid on.
Sear over the hot side, then move to the cool side to finish.Colour first, then cook through gently. Reverse this for thick cuts: cook through first, sear at the end.
Use the lid.It turns the barbecue into an oven, cooks food through evenly, and reduces flare-ups by limiting oxygen.
Cook by internal temperature, not by appearance.Chicken 74°C, burgers and sausages 75°C. Char marks tell you nothing about the inside.
Stagger what goes on.Chicken pieces and sausages first, since they take longest. Steaks, prawns and vegetables later. Everything on at once means half of it is wrong.
Add sugary sauces only in the last few minutes.Barbecue sauce, honey and marinades with sugar burn quickly. Brush them on at the end.
Keep raw and cooked separate.Different plates, different tongs. This is the most common food safety failure at barbecues by a wide margin.

Tips

A chimney starter lights charcoal faster and without lighter fluid, which taints the food.
Parboiling or oven-cooking chicken and sausages first, then finishing on the barbecue, is a legitimate technique and removes the main safety risk.
Oil the food rather than the grill. Oil on hot bars burns off immediately and causes flare-ups.

Common mistakes

Cooking over flames rather than embers — Flames char the surface and deposit soot while cooking nothing. Wait for grey ash.
Using the same plate for raw and cooked meat — It is the classic barbecue food poisoning route and it is entirely avoidable.
Judging doneness by the outside — Barbecue chars the exterior long before the centre is safe. A thermometer is the only reliable check.

Questions people ask

How do I stop barbecue food burning outside and being raw inside?

Set up two zones — coals on one side only. Sear over the heat, then move the food to the cool side with the lid on to cook through gently.

When is barbecue chicken safe to eat?

At 74°C in the thickest part, measured with a thermometer. Colour and char are not indicators, and chicken is the most common cause of barbecue food poisoning.