THROW DOWN THE TONGS AND PUT YOUR HANDS UP!
Let's start with the usual scenario. You burnt the bejeezus out of a piece of chicken on the outside, and it's undercooked on the inside. We've all been there. The reason - you've used the wrong grilling method.
The biggest mistake most guys make is to slap anything and everything, no matter what it is, right on top of the direct heat. Sometimes it works just great. Sometimes it's like eating something the cat dragged in. What will change your life forever is learning indirect cooking skills.
There are two ways to grill food properly - direct and indirect cooking.
DIRECT GRILLING:
The direct method means the food is cooked right over the heat source. This works great for foods that take 25 minutes or less to cook. Direct cooking is also what gives you searing - the wonderful crisp, caramelized texture where the food hits the grate. It also adds nice grill marks and flavor to the entire surface. Steaks, chops, and chicken pieces all liked to be seared. For even cooking, the food should be turned once halfway through grilling.
INDIRECT GRILLING:
The long, slow, low, indirect method is suited to large pieces of meat like whole chickens and turkeys - anything that takes more 25 minutes to cook or is so delicate, like a fish filet, that it would get burnt or dried out by being in direct contact with the heat and flame.
The indirect method is similar to roasting, but with the added benefit of that grilled texture, flavor, and appearance you can't get from an oven. Heat rises, reflects off the lid and inside surfaces of the grill, and circulates to slowly cook the food evenly on all sides, just like a convection oven. There's no need to turn the food.
Whole prime ribs, turkeys, and chickens cook beautifully without being touched. Because of this new generation of barbecues that generate so much heat, you probably don't even need that goofy rotisserie any more.
With gas grills, you light the burners on one side, or both ends etc, depending on the size of your grill, and the food is placed over the non-lit burner. The cool thing about this is, with the lid closed; it turns your barbecue into an oven. You can cook big honkin' pieces of meat like a whole fish or fatty cuts of meat like chicken, duck or ribs without burning them.
One of the good things about indirect grilling is that it gives a lot more forgiveness than direct grilling in terms of timing. And, it's a lot faster than "true" barbecuing that can take 6 to 12 hours.
The hardest thing about indirect grilling is resisting the urge to goof around with your food. No peeking! Some guys can't stand not knowing what's going on in there and spend an entire afternoon opening and closing the thing. Every time you lift the lid heat escapes and you increase the cooking time by about 5 to 10 minutes.
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