If you love to grill, these are the accessories you will need. Cast Iron Grill Grates with removable quadrants are a must have in my book.

10 Grilling Accessories You Cant Live Without

When you love to grill and do it often, there are tools you come to find you just can’t live without. Here is my top 10 go to items I reach for behind the grill. I find these tools invaluable and use them on a regular basis. Do you have a grilling gadget you can’t live without? I’d love to hear about it!

1) Stopwatch/Clock: Paying attention to your time is REALLY IMPORTANT. Whether you use the timer on your iphone or a device specifically made for keeping time when cooking, you don’t want to grill without paying attention to your time on the grill. If you don’t want to use your phone, Thermoworks makes the Timestick, which is handy for hanging around your neck so you never overcook something!

The Thermapen is my go-to tool behind my grills and smokers.

2) The Thermapen: Temperature is also really important. Knowing when you’ve reached the proper internal temp means you can pull your meat off the grill at just the right time. This means no more “rubber chicken” again! The Thermapen is worth the money at $96- it will give you an interal temp of anything in 3 seconds. I’ve used it for grilling and also testing oil temps for frying, even testing the water temp bathing my son!

3) Charcoal Starter Cubes: There are plenty of ways to start a charcoal grill but charcoal starter cubes are portable and inexpensive. They are much easier, in my opinion, than using a chimney starter and they take up less space too.

4) Tongs: Tongs are a must when you grill. I like to have them in various sizes, and I don’t like those clunky tongs that come in “grilling sets”. I find those to be pretty worthless. I like to use the cooking tongs with scalloped edges that you might find in a restaurant kitchen. The scalloped edges help remove food when they might get stuck on the grates. Make sure they have some silicon or plastic somewhere so they don’t get too hot and burn your hand.

5) Silicone Glove: A heat resistant glove will come in handy when you start getting more adventurous on the grill and start smoking and baking on the grill. If you are trying to remove an aluminum pan or a cast iron skillet those pot holders in your kitchen won’t cut it in these situations.

A grill brush is always going to come in handy, like when I basted these country style ribs with a beer/BBQ sauce mixture.

6) Cooking Brush/Mop: In my opinion, compound butters are underutilized in grilling and smoking. And meat is always better when you can layer the flavors of a marinade or mop sauce on- and you will need a good brush for doing so!

7) Cast Iron Grill Grates: Okay, yes you could live without cast iron grill grates but why would you want to? They heat evenly and provide beautiful charmarks! Plus, the different quadrants make it easy to add or move charcoal around.

8) Headlamp: More often than not, you will be grilling after dark, especially if you grill year round. A headlamp is going to be invaluable to check on things!

9) Grill Plate: The smoke of the grill makes everything taste better, but what about those items that would fall through the grates? Put them on a grill plate. The other alternative to putting small things on a grill plate is to put them on a skewer but it is less time consuming to use a grill plate.

Wood planks add a ton of flavor to food and also function as a cool way to serve your dish!

10) Cedar Planks And/Or wood chips: I love cooking food on planks, such as in this maple smoked orange oregano chicken recipe. Or how about cedar planked salmon? I’ve even cooked beets on planks to infuse them with smoky flavor. They also serve as a really cool vehicle to serve the food on. This is the same idea as also adding wood chips to your grill to infuse your food with a kiss of smoke- the silent ingredient that keeps you wanting more!

Other noteworthy gadgets I love:

Grillgrates: some people swear by grillgrates to help cook food evenly and deliver awesome charmarks.

The Looflighter: So this is definitely something you can live without, but it is one of my favorite ways to start my grill. At about $100 bucks, it’s not cheap but a really quick way to ignite a pile of charcoal, plus its just fun to use.

I’ve collected and created hundredof recipes over the years, and the Grilling Binder helps keep me organized.

Grilling Recipe Binder: I found these Grilling Binders on amazon- they help keep my grilling notes organized and protected! They come stocked with protective sleeves, dividers and pockets for photos, etc.

What grilling gadgets can you not live without? Leave a comment below!

NOTE: This is a sponsored post in partnership with Unibinder. Sponsored posts help keep this blog going. Please note that I only endorse products I actually use and recommend.