The majority of recipes demand medium heat to get the recipe’s correct flavor. However, the question is, what is medium heat on a gas grill? We know you are baffled about finding the answer to this question, and we are here to help you out. There are some heat slabs that you need to learn and how to measure the correct temperature on the grill surface as well. If you are completely new to temperature on grills, reaching the right medium temp can be really challenging, but not after you read this guide. Let’s get going.
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Why Medium Heat Is Important?
Well, the first and most important thing about medium heat is that it is the margin that keeps food from getting burned. Also, as mentioned right at the very beginning of the article, most recipes need medium heat rather than low and high. So, if you don’t know what temp is medium heat on a gas grill, it could come back and haunt you in a couple of minutes with a spoiled recipe.
In addition, medium heat allows you to play with different types of cooking techniques, such as frying, searing, and many more. This obviously suggests that if you exactly know medium heat on grills, you have the luxury of trying a wide range of recipes.
Moreover, medium heat ensures you are not facing any issues with food sticking to the grates, and you always get the texture that you anticipate. Simply put, if you want to prevent your food from overcooking, knowing the temperature of medium heat grill is essential, especially if you are just beginning your BBQ journey.
What Is Medium Heat On A Gas Grill And It’s Levels?
There is no exact figure for the medium heat gas grill temperature. It can span from 300 to 400°F on a regular grill. Other than “medium”, there are two more heat ranges on a grill; low and high. All these three temperature slabs on a gas grill have sub-ranges.
However, as you would think, 100°F is kind of too much tolerance, and cooking at 400°F when the recipe requires 300°F can easily play the spoil game. That is why the knowledge of sub-heat ranges becomes valuable and since we talk about medium heat in this report, let’s find out the three slabs it has.
Grill Temperature Chart
| Heat Range | Temperature |
|---|---|
| Medium-Low | 300°F-330°F |
| Medium | 330°F-365°F |
| Medium-High | 365°F-400°F |
Medium-Low Heat
If your recipe calls for medium-low heat, then it suggests you should go with a temperature range of 300°F-330°F. Medium low grill temperature is ideal for slow cooking and goes fantastically well for baking and roasting as well.
Medium-low is the lowest range of medium heat. Although medium heat is considered relatively high, medium-low is not substantially high, which allows you to slow-cook food and inject some flavors during the process as you have more time on your hand. That said, you can still cook inside of meat without a problem with medium-low, but charring is not something you can do conveniently with this heat range.
In addition, the medium-low temperature won’t help you get a brownish outlook on the meat. If your ambition is to slow cook your meat while having a beautiful brownish look, then you will have to sear the meat using high temperatures and cook it at medium-low heat.
The benefit of searing and cooking meat at low temp is that it saves moisture and juice inside the meat, but the searing process you do in advance has to be precise. Also, if you are using a smoker box in order to generate smoke and flavor, using medium-low heat would be a good option.
All in all, the lowest heat range of “medium” is pretty helpful in more ways than one, and it provides the opportunity for you to horn your BBQ skills as a newbie.
Medium Heat
what temperature is medium high on a gas grill? The medium heat on grill temp is between 330°F – 365°F. However, most people use 350°F as the medium heat when a recipe demands, and you find it a tad difficult to get a brown look to the meat even though you are using a high level of temperature.
Medium heat might not go well with hard meat, but there should not be any problem with chicken, baked items, and fish. Again, similar to medium-low heat, if you want to preserve the juices of meat, medium heat can help you out if you can slightly adjust and play with temperature spanning from 330°F to 365°F.
Most people think medium heat is too high and burn the food, but it is not the truth, to be honest. With its heat range, you have the cushion cooking meat relatively fast than medium-low and not burn the food. Having said that, we highly recommend you keep a close eye on the heat, flame, and food to keep everything safe.
The 350°F margin is considered the perfect temperature for most food types, and if you ask us what is the best food to cook medium on grill, we would say it’s chicken. We strongly suggest you try a whole chicken on your grill at medium heat. The results you get after 45-50 minutes would be absolutely amazing! You got to believe us on that claim.
Medium-high Heat
The medium high temp on grills is between 365°F to 400°F, and it is the highest you can go when cooking using medium heat. It’s a pretty versatile heat range. The range of food you can cook is also considerable. Most people, especially newbies, love to cook at medium-heat temperatures rather than going straightaway with “high” temperatures.
The fascinating thing about medium-high is that it helps you get gorgeous-looking grill marks without much effort. However, you don’t have to worry about the center of the food as medium-high heat also doesn’t burn the food easily as one would think. Yes, it does cook food fast, but you still have a considerable chunk of time to play the game safe.
Using medium high heat on grill means you are unlocking a variety of food choices that are cooked at relatively high-temperature levels. One of the biggest drawbacks of medium-high is that you have to be precise with your decisions and have some previous experience as you hardly have time on your side to rectify if something goes wrong.
What Temperature Is Indirect Medium Heat On A Gas Grill?
The indirect heat on a gas grill is totally a different kettle of fish and a slightly off-topic we discuss in this article. Indirect heat temperatures are always low than the usual heat on gas grills. To answer the question, the indirect medium heat on a gas grill is between 190°F to 230°F. This range of temperature is ideal for slow cooking and complements magnificently with chicken, veggies, and fish.
Checking Your Grill’s Temperature
So, if you are still reading this article, you might most probably be wondering how to check the temperature of your grill. Actually, there are a few methods you can put into work to check the grill temperature, and two of the popular methods are explained below.
Thermometer
Most good quality gas grills come with built-in thermometers to let the users know about the surface temperature of the grills. You literally have nothing to do but inspect the display to see the temperature of your gas grill.
Hand Method
However, if your machine doesn’t have one or you find it is not functional, you can use old school method of hand testing to figure out the exact grill temperature you are dealing with.
How to Use Your Hand to Test Grill Temperature?
It’s basically the time you keep your hands above the grill. All you have to do is keep your hand three inches above the grill and count the seconds you can keep the hand steady until you take it away. Here is a graph for you to understand the heat range and temperature level.
| Time Duration | Heat Range | Temperature |
|---|---|---|
| 7 – 9 Seconds | Low | 250°- 300°F |
| 6-7 Seconds | Medium-low | 300°-350°F |
| 4-5 Seconds | Medium | 350°-400°F |
| 2-3 Seconds | Medium-high | 400°-450°F |
| 1.8 Seconds or less | High | 450°-500°F |
Conclusion
To summarize, there are three main ranges in grill heat temperatures: low, medium, and high. We discussed three sub-slabs of medium heat, which are medium-low, medium, and medium-high, and how you can use these temperature levels for cooking food. The most important part is how you test the precise temperature on a grill, as all of your efforts can go in vain if you work with false temp readings.
The recommended method to check grill temperature is to use the built-in thermometer on the gas grill. If it doesn’t work, you can use the hand method to guess the grill temperature. With that, we conclude our report on “what is medium heat on a gas grill” and hope the information furnished is comprehensive. Have a great day!
