Grilling Tips for Your Summer Barbecue

Tip: Cut slits for better flavor.

To get the most from a marinade—like the fennel-garlic one used for the chicken here—slash the skin and meat so the flavors can seep in.

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Tip: Grill tomatoes in a foil packet.

The only way to grill tomatoes without losing their delicious juices is in a foil packet. Flavor the tomatoes with any fresh herbs or aromatics, then use them in a briny summer clam chowder or crostini.

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Tip: Add smoky ingredients.

Grilling gives foods a great smoky flavor, but for even more of that flavor, turn to wood-fired ingredients like smoked paprika and chipotle chiles.

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Tip: Add sweet glazes at the end.

As with any sweet glaze, brush the honey-horseradish-mustard sauce on the salmon in the last minutes of grilling, or else the sugars in it might burn.

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Tip: Use mayo in marinades.

Chef Nate Appleman swears by coating vegetables with a mayonnaise-based marinade; it creates a beautifully blistered crust when grilled. Here, he offers a marinade for asparagus that is also fabulous on broccoli and fennel.

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Tip: Tenderize in onion juice.

Chef Michael Solomonov of Zahav in Philadelphia adds onion juice or pureed onions to his Middle Eastern-style marinades to tenderize and caramelize the meat. The marinade is great on chicken breast as well as lamb.

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Read the rest of this article at Food & Wine.

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