One Hour Before you Plan to Start Grilling

Soak wood chips or chunks in cold water to cover. If you are using a charcoal grill, set up your chimney starter. Light it 20 to 40 minutes before you actually plan to start grilling. One chimney starter’s worth of coals (40 to 50 briquettes) is enough to fuel a 22½-inch kettle grill for 1 hour. When working on a large grill, like a table grill, you may need two or three chimney starters in order to light enough charcoals at one time. When the coals blaze orange, dump them out of the chimney starter and rake them over the bottom of the grill. Place the grate on the grill over the fire. Let the coals burn until lightly ashed over, 5 to 10 minutes.