How do I set up a gas grill for indirect heat?

Set up a gas grill for indirect heat by lighting only the burners on one side and placing the food over the unlit side, then closing the lid so the lit burners heat the air around the food rather than the food itself. Adjust the lit burners to hold your target temperature, and keep the lid down for most of the cook. Our Best Cookware Sets for Different Cooking Needs compares the published figures of five of them. Our Best Flatware Sets for Everyday Dinners and Bigger Tables compares the published figures of five of them.

This is a two-zone setup: a hot zone over the lit burners and a cooler zone over the unlit ones. The food sits in the cooler zone. Nothing about the method depends on a particular grill, and this site has not compared gas grills, so the figures below come from the cookware and bakeware guides, where makers publish oven-safe temperatures that tell you what a pan can take when it sits in that closed, heated chamber.

Build two zones before the food goes on

Light the burners on one side only. On a three-burner grill that usually means the left burner; on a four-burner grill, the two left burners. Leave the other side off. Put a drip pan or a sheet of aluminum foil on the unlit side, under where the food will sit, to catch fat. Close the lid and let the chamber come up to temperature before you put anything on the grates.

If your pan is going to sit in that closed chamber, check what the maker says it can take. The Best Bakeware Sets for Five Different Kitchens lists the Amazon Basics 6 Piece Nonstick Carbon Steel Bakeware Set as oven-safe to 428 degrees F, and the NutriChef 10-Piece Nonstick Kitchen Oven Baking Pans as oven-safe up to 450 F. The All-Clad Stainless Steel Baking Pans 5-Piece Set is listed as oven and broiler safe up to 600 degrees F. Those are the makers’ published ceilings, not targets for a grill.

For cookware, the Cuisinart Chef’s Classic 11-Piece Stainless Steel Pots and Pans Set is published as oven safe up to 500 degrees F, and the T-Fal Ultimate Hard Anodized Nonstick Pots and Pans Set 17 Piece as withstanding oven heat up to 400 degrees F, with its lids up to 350 degrees F. A lid left on in a closed grill traps steam, so if you use one, keep it under the lid’s own published limit.

Where the food goes, and which way the fat runs

Put the food on the grate over the unlit burners, not directly over the flame. For a roast or a whole bird, set it in a pan and put the pan on the unlit side so the drippings land in the pan rather than on the burner tubes. For a rack of ribs or a thick cut, the same position works: the lit burners on the far side do the work, and the lid holds the heat in.

Keep the food away from the hot zone’s edge. A roast set half over the lit burner will brown unevenly, and the side facing the flame will cook faster than the side facing away. If your grill is small and the two zones sit close together, rotate the pan partway through rather than moving it over the flame.

For a large roast, the rectangular baker in the All-Clad set gives you a walled pan that holds the joint and the juices. The Gymdin 12PCS Nonstick Bakeware Set lists a roasting pan at 15.3 by 11.6 by 3.5 inches, which is a size that fits most mid-size grill grates. Check the pan against your grate dimensions before you commit; the maker publishes the pan size, not a grill fit.

Hold the temperature with the lit burners, not the lid

Once the lid is down, the lit burners are your only heat control. Open the lid as little as possible; every opening drops the chamber temperature and lengthens the cook. Use the grill’s own hood thermometer if it has one, and if it does not, this site has not compared standalone grill thermometers, so we cannot point you to a published figure for one.

For a low, slow cook, run the lit side low and let the chamber settle. For a hotter indirect cook, run the lit side higher and shorten the time. The method is the same either way: heat on one side, food on the other, lid closed.

If you finish a piece over the lit burners to brown it, move it there only at the end, and watch it. The direct zone is much hotter than the chamber you have been cooking in, and a piece that took an hour indirect can color in a few minutes direct.

Pans, racks and what to serve it on

A wire rack inside a sheet pan keeps a roast off the fat that renders out. The All-Clad set includes a cooling and baking rack, and the Gymdin set lists a cooling rack at 14.6 by 10.9 inches. Set the rack in the pan, set the pan on the unlit side, and the air under the meat circulates.

When the food comes off, it needs somewhere to rest. The Amazon Basics 16-Piece Porcelain Dinnerware Set is published as microwave and dishwasher safe, with plates that can withstand heat up to 572 degrees F, and its dinner plate measures 10.5 inches wide. The vancasso PLAYA set lists dinner plates at 10.25 inches and bowls at 26oz. A resting board or a warm platter works; a cold plate will pull heat out of the meat.

For serving, the Lenox Portola 65-Piece 18/10 Silverware Set includes a 5-piece serving set with a serving spoon, pierced serving spoon, sugar spoon, butter knife and serving fork, and the EWFEN 49-Piece Silverware Set includes 8 steak knives. Set the table while the meat rests, not after.

The mistakes that undo an indirect setup

The first is leaving the lid up. With the lid open, the unlit side is just a cool patch of grate and the food cooks by the little radiant heat that reaches it. The second is putting the food over a lit burner and calling it indirect because the burner is turned low. Low is still direct, and the underside will scorch before the center is done.

The third is a pan that cannot take the chamber heat. Check the maker’s published ceiling before the pan goes in, and remember that a lid has its own lower limit on some sets. The fourth is crowding the unlit side so the air cannot move around the food; leave space between pieces and between the food and the lid.

Finally, do not trust the hood thermometer alone on a first cook. This site has not tested any grill or thermometer, so we cannot tell you how far yours reads from the true chamber temperature. Give the setup a trial run with an empty chamber and see where the needle settles at your chosen burner setting.