I had never understood the fascination with the Blackstone grill, but I’m glad I took the plunge and purchased one. As a long-time restaurant employee in my younger days, it brings back memories. One of the first things I’m glad for is that I went with the large grill. It seems like a lot of space, but with that space, you can cook a lot of things at the same time. My griddle came with 4 burners, which is a nice feature as well — it allows for different heating zones.

Smash burgers

After seasoning the grill, which was a pretty easy process, my first several cooks were smash burgers. Basically, that means lightly balling up ground beef, then placing the balls on a hot grill.

I start with a little butter underneath, to get a good crust on the bottom, and then smash it flat. I use a spatula and a sheet of waxed paper to do this.

I then season them and wait a minute or two before giving them a flip.

To top the burgers, I used some of my smoked cheese.

Again, the beauty of the grill is cooking multiple things at the same time, so I use the cover to melt the cheese on the burgers while toasting the buns.

I continued to cook smash burgers a couple more times, with the same consistent results.

Branching out

I did branch out and cooked some rice and beef on the grill, and it turned out good as well. I cooked the rice in the Instant Pot, then finished it on the grill.

Still trying to get the hang of cooking fresh flour tortillas — they taste great, but they’re too thick.

Branched out and cooked some chicken with rice, peppers, and onions next.

Tried some shrimp and stir-fry veggies next — turned out good.

Breakfast

Finally found time to attempt breakfast. This is where I should shine, since I cook tons of breakfast on a flat top. On previous cooks, the temp didn’t seem to matter so much, but I found out fast that the grill gets smoking hot. There was a bit of a learning curve with the grill, and an immediate need to monitor and adjust the temps. To do this, I use an inexpensive temp gun, purchased from Amazon, that I’d typically use when searing items in my cast iron pan.

I quickly burned the bacon the first time out, and when I checked the temp of the grill, it was approaching 600 degrees.

Pancakes and hash browns (smothered and covered) were also cooked at too high a temp the first time.

The next attempt went better once I was controlling the temps,

and as I continued to cook breakfast, which has become a Saturday morning tradition, I got better at it.