Having a portable barbecue doesn’t mean you have to limit your cooks to the basic burnt sausages and overcooked burgers. There’s plenty of ways that a portable barbecue can be used to produce delicious and interesting food.

Dirty steak

If you have a charcoal barbecue, do away with the grates and cook your steak directly on the hot coals. To cook a dirty steak light your charcoal and wait for the barbecue to come up to temperature and the coals to turn ashy. The charcoal will not stick to the steak so long as it is hot enough for the steak to form a crust.

Use 100% Lumpwood charcoal, without any added chemicals or accelerants. If you do use briquettes, ensure that they are made with natural ingredients such as Weber’s briquettes, which are bound using potato starch.

Season the steak with salt before cooking – avoid using pepper before cooking as it burns easily – and place it directly onto the hot coals. Cook the steak with the lid on for 2-4 minutes on each side, depending on the cut and desired cooking level.

Rest the steak before cutting into it, finish with butter and a flaky finishing salt.

Pre-smashed smash burgers

Most smash burger recipes have you smashing the burgers onto a griddle, since most portable barbecues do not have a compatible griddle in this instance you can smash the burgers before cooking them on the grates of your portable grill.

For burgers, use meat with a fat content of at least 20%. For an average sized bun use around 110g or 4 ounces of meat per patty. Form the meat into a ball and smash it between two pieces of greaseproof paper using any flat object that is wider than the desired patty size. Remember when forming your patties that they will shrink a little as they cook.

Season the patties with salt and preheat the barbecue to around 200 degrees so that the grates are nice and hot before cooking them. Cook with the lid on until caramelised on either side, melting some cheese on top, serve two patties per bun with your choice of toppings and sauces.

Hot smoked salmon fillets

Adding smoke to your food isn’t limited to just larger barbecues or smokers, it can also be done with a portable grill.

Soak a handful of Weber’s seafood wood chips in water for at least half an hour. If you are cooking on a portable charcoal barbecue, these can be dropped directly on the coals and you will see smoke within seconds. Simply drop the chips onto the coals, place the fish on the cooking grates and cook it with the lid on to 63 degrees internally.

If you have a portable gas barbecue, create a small pouch out of tin foil with the soaked wood chips inside and poke a hole around the diameter of a ballpoint pen. Place the pouch on the cooking grates directly above the burner and allow five to ten minutes for smoke to be produced. Once you see white smoke emitting from the barbecue, put the fish on the cooking grate and cook with the lid on until it reaches an internal temperature of 63 degrees.