How To Light A Charcoal Grill

How to Light A Charcoal Grill

In this post I want to discuss how to light a charcoal grill. Lighting your charcoal grill can be a little intimidating for some but with these simple tips you should be a master in no time. No matter if you use a chimney starter or you want to use the good old charcoal lighter fluid you will soon be firing up your grill like a pro.

Before attempting to light a charcoal grill.  Please read all safety precautions on the grill, the charcoal, the charcoal lighter fluid or chimney before lighting. You can checkout these OUTDOOR GRILLING SAFETY TIPS before you get started.

Figuring out how to light a charcoal grill is pretty straight forward. All you need is a bag of charcoal and some lighter fluid, ( if you choose this method ) and of course a charcoal grill. I was raised on this method and at one time I thought this was the only and the best method out there. I have since changed my thoughts about this but I’ll go over this method, because on occasion I still use charcoal lighter fluid to light my grill.

Lighter Fluid Method

Step #1: Gather your tools together

• charcoal
• starter fluid
• matches/lighter

Step 2: Clean Your Grill.

Always make sure to clean your grill by removing old ash and debris from the bottom of the grill and empty the ash catch. Open the vents all the way to ensure proper oxygen flow to get the coals started. If the vents are clogged with ash or if the vents are not open enough the air won’t flow properly and the coals won’t get hot. you may find yourself having to restart your coals many times.

Step 3: Add Charcoals to the Grill.

Add charcoals to the lower grill grate and arrange in a pyramid, add lighter fluid to the top and sides of the pyramid and light. The charcoals are ready for cooking when they are mostly covered in gray ash. This usually takes about 15 minutes or so.

The Chimney Starter Method

Now I want to discuss with you how to light a charcoal grill using the charcoal chimney starter. This is the easiest method when it comes to lighting charcoals on your grill and the method I now prefer most. No need for lighter fluid.

Step 1:

Place a couple of wadded up newspaper pages in the bottom of the chimney starter. I like to place the paper around the inside edge of the starter so that there’s a hole in the middle allowing for oxygen to flow up the middle of the cylinder and getting everything going a little better.

Step 2:

Add charcoals to the top of the chimney starter. If you are using a standard 22 inch kettle grill a full chimney should do the trick. You can add less charcoal for smaller grills. I prefer Kingsford charcoal but you can use the one you like best.

Step 3: Place chimney in the grill and light.

Stand the chimney in the grill where you would normally place your charcoal, make sure the news paper is on the bottom, you don’t want to dump the coals  out yet.  And light the newspapers. the charcoals are ready for cooking when covered in a light coat of gray ash.

Step 4: Arrange Coals.

Using the handles on the chimney starter you can now pour the coals into the grill. Arranging them however you need. I recommend wearing an oven glove when pouring out the coals because the handles on the chimney starter can get kinda hot.

I hope this was somewhat helpful.

As always

Happy Grilling!!!

Until next time

Andre,