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Let’s look at some possibilities.

Not your grandpa’s BBQ

The stand-alone grill has grown into the outdoor kitchen with a variety of options for cooking, says Dallas Bradford of Central ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ Supply.

1. Pellet-fired grills are becoming more popular. These grills offer a flavor-filled alternative to electric or gas-fired grilling. Pellets are manufactured from a variety of different wood types, allowing you to choose your favorite wood flavor.

2. Smokers are also trending with new features. BBQ aficionados are choosing larger smokers, allowing for multiple food types to be smoked together.

3. While grandpa’s grill was typically black, Dallas tells us that it is no longer the case. Powder coating (using dry powder that is electrostatically fused to a metal surface and then cured with heat) allows for a wide variety of spectacular colors. Dallas says blue is a popular option. She has supplied purple, yellow and orange to clients from Flagstaff to the Phoenix valley.

4. Griddles are gaining popularity. Griddles like the Evo circular flatiron griddle afford options for cooking different types of food. Dallas likes the circular teppanyaki griddle. The heat source (electric or gas) is located at the center and uses an indirect method to heat the food. The griddle is hotter at the center than at the edges, allowing you to move food to either higher heat in the middle or lower heat off to the sides.

5. We would be remiss if we didn’t include at least a mention of the outdoor pizza oven. This bad boy can bake pizzas, flatbreads and loaves of bread that can be a meal or accompany your meals.

The size, type and color options for outdoor cooking are adding pizazz to outdoor living and cooking.

New technologies

Talking about upping the cooking game, as you may have guessed, technological advances give us a lot of new ways to hone our cooking skills.

1. Your phone can have an app installed that allows you to control timing and temperature from afar. Smoking may take several hours to get it right. This app will enable you to load your smoker and set the timer for 4 hours. You set the smoke level, temperature and time from your phone, and the smoking takes care of itself.

2. With larger grills and smokers, you can cook multiple food items at once. There are cookers with multiple temperature probes that allow you to cook several different foods at differing temperatures simultaneously. The phone app will track the individual temps and let you know when that food item is done. No running back and forth to the grill and checking the meat thermometers (although that is a great way to get your steps in if you are using a fitness app as well).

3. Timing is always a critical part of outdoor cooking. Slow cooking can take 10 hours or more to get the brisket just right. The app allows you to set the duration you want.

New foods and fusions

While all the technology affords you monitoring options, it cannot replace the human creativity factor in cooking. Selecting the right spices for a rub will always fall to you. Folks have upped the variety of different types of food cooked in the outdoor kitchen. It is no longer just burgers, hot dogs, and steaks; make way for some of these combos.

1. Breakfast on the griddle: Eggs, bacon and hash browns are part of the outdoor cooking scene. Dallas mentions that new griddles allow expanding the range of what we cook.

2. Vegetables have become popular in smokers and on grills. Cooks can spice up veggies with oils and dry spices or leave them as they are. They are a flavorful side dish for a smoked main course.

3. Fusion dishes. This type of cooking combines different styles of smoking and BBQing. Think about the flavors when Korean BBQ meets a smoker, or Japanese Teppanyaki meets Mexican street corn. Experimenting with unconventional flavor pairings is becoming quite the rage.

Outdoor cooking has grown to levels we would not have considered 20 years ago. The various cooking, grilling, smoking and griddling options have taken the outdoor kitchen a long way from the charcoal briquettes and lighter fluid days (yes, that is still an option).

We think Dallas said it best when talking about all the appliance options: “Nowadays, the sky is really the limit.�

Check out online for great BBQ recipes.

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