How To Use an Outdoor Electric Grill

Follow these tips on how to use your outdoor electric grill and easily set-up and prepare your grill to cook amazing wood-fired flavored food.

Grill Setup
Weber Q1400 Outdoor Electric Grill Stand

Pick a location close to an outlet and protected from rain and wind. If you don’t have a table to put it on, purchase the matching grill stand. You will also need a place to set a tray or plate close by.  I strongly recommend putting a mat or rug under the grill.  It doesn’t have to be one made for grills but needs to be one for the outdoors and needs to be bigger than the grill to catch any drips and splatter from the grill.  You also need to purchase the grill cover.  Protecting it from the elements will make the grill last longer and keeping it covered between uses will help keep it clean.  Make sure there is a drip pan under the opening in the bottom of the lower grill bowl.  Use a disposable aluminum pan liner that can be replaced when it gets old. Clean the liner between uses and try to reuse it as many times as possible.

Grill Seasoning

The first thing you will want to do is initially season your grill.  To initially season it, heat the grill on High Heat without any food. This allows any part of the grill that’s going to emit an odor the first time it gets hot to do so. Before you turn it on, wipe the cooking grates with a paper towel dampened with water to remove any dust. You can also start to give the grill a good grill/smoky essence by using 2 Tablespoons of wood pellets in your smoker tube as described in Outdoor Electric Grill Smoker Tube.  Follow the steps in Grill Prep below, but without cooking any food.

Grill Prep

To prepare the grill for cooking, uncover the grill and plug the grill into an outlet. Cycle the breaker on the cord to make sure the safety device is operating by pressing Reset, Test, and then Reset again.

I highly recommend adding smoke when you cook on your outdoor electric grill. After your grill has had a lot of use and is well seasoned, you won’t have to use smoke every time you grill, but it will add amazing flavor. If you are going to use smoke, place the appropriate amount of wood pellets in the smoker tube and evenly distribute them. Place the tube along the rear of the cooking grates and close the lid.

Close the lid and preheat the grill on High for 20-30 minutes without opening the lid.  Do not skip the preheating step.

If you are going to cedar plank grill your food, place the cedar plank smooth side down on the cooking grates. No soaking is required since the heat is less intense than on a charcoal grill. Preheat the grill for 30 minutes, flipping the plank over (to smooth side up) after 20 minutes through the preheat time.

Next, see How To Cook on an Outdoor Electric Grill.