Ready to take the plunge and begin grilling, Kamado style? Welcome to the exciting world of becoming a world-class pitmaster, or at least the alpha griller in your neck of the woods. Before you take on your charcoal grill, use this quick guide to help you learn how to use a Kamado grill to cook the perfect meal, every time.

Try the Kong Kamado

What Is Kamado Style Cooking?

A Kamado grill allows you to cook food fast and hot, or low and slow, over burning charcoal embers. You can even toss some of our exceptionally flavored wood pellets into your Kamado grill to give ingredients authentic, one-of-a-kind tastes like apple, pecan and hickory.

Although you might have used a more traditional, lower end charcoal grill in the past, a Kamado style grill allows you to more conveniently balance your target temperatures. Plus, you can cook a lot of food at once in a relatively small footprint.

Kamado grill cooking provides a wonderful way to cook almost anything you want. However, you do need to understand a few rules of the road. Consider it your Kamado for beginners insider deets.

Rule #1: Play Around With Airborne Heat

When you begin to cook with your Kamado grill, adjust the damper at the top and bottom. The more air that flows into your Kamado grill, the hotter the temperature is going to get. The less air you circulate, the cooler the temperature.

Why is this important? Basically, you would never want to sear a chicken on the outside only to discover it was pink and raw in the middle! Therefore, to regulate your temperature on the grill, you should always control the air going in and coming out.

Again, this is a lot of art mixed with science. Practice definitely makes perfect. Be sure to use a thermometer to make sure all your meat hits the sweet spot temperature-wise before serving.

Rule #2: Have Multiple Heating Zones

Want another quickie way to control how hot your Kamado grill gets? Just pile the charcoal differently below different “zones” on your grill. For example, visually divide your charcoal grill in half. Place a regular amount of charcoal on one side, and then double that amount on the other side.

The closer your food is to the heat source, the hotter and faster it will cook. Therefore, if you have some Kamado recipes that call for fast cooking at hot temperatures, you can cook them simultaneously with a recipe that calls for slower cooking with less heat. Basically, you can create a dual burner. You can even set it up so your Kamado grill has three zones. Again, experiment to see what works best.

Rule #3: Raise or Lower Your Grill Grate

Love the idea of having a grill grate that can be different heights? Put it to use every time you do a little Kamado grill cooking. That way, you can be sure you keep certain items away from the flames, or bring others closer when you want a little more char or intense heat.

Enjoy a Burning Love for Kamado Cooking

As you become more comfortable with your Kamado grill, you will be amazed at all the uses you have and the foods you can make! Charcoal, with or without wood pellets, transforms dishes for any meal. Sear up some sausage for breakfast, a juicy burger for lunch or a vegan delight for dinner, all Kamado-style. Find your Kamado grill at Grilla Grills!

Looking for Kamado recipes? We’d recommend:

• Easy Pork Steaks
• Herb Butter Lobster Tails
• Simple BBQ Pizza
• Kickin’ Chicken Wings