This is a traditional way of cleaning the grill where i come from(Juarez, Mexico). But it does have to be super hot.

Interesting idea, I would have never thought.

We do that here. We have a friend that hates onions though so we have to hide this process from him!

I shall have to give it a try...

If it works, great!

That's funny because when I was a boy my father used to clean the grill using this same method.

My boyfriends from texas (ie: he thinks he's a grill god) and he swears by the onion method. The only downside is that the grill has to be SUPER hot for this to work.

I'm Mexican and agree with sofia this is the way my whole family cleans the grill when we have bbq's!

My mom used to use this technique all the time for a slightly different purpose. When you are cooking something like an omelette using a non-stick frying pan, there's no good way to prevent the little oil used, from beading up. The trick is to dip the onion in a little cooking oil and then painting the non-stick surface with a fork stuck into the cut side of the onion - it spreads the oil beautifully and doesn't damage the non-stick surface like a sharp implement or even a wooden spoon wood.

Basically ANYTHING will work on a very hot grill that's burned away the stuck bits. An onion, an oiled paper towel, a wad of alumnium foil, a raw potato half, balled up green corn husks... go nuts and use whatever you've got on hand.

Same here! I'm Mexican and that's how we do it -- although, I have to admit I've never asked exactly why.

Thanks for everyone who posted tips and ideas. I enjoyed reading them....and will try a few.

There is a product that uses an onion to clean your grill. check out thegrillion.com I just got one and the grill doesn't have to be hot. it works great, and wanted to pass the info along. i also didn't tear up with their knife. this works so much better than a fork

Hubby also does this with our grill, definitely agree with that it needs to be very hot though.

We use the crumpled aluminum foil technique (I save already used bits for that purpose) and it seems to work well. I'd worry that the onion would leave a trace of flavor? Which is fine for most things we grill, but icky if you wanted to, for example, grill peaches.

another Mexican here who has seen and done this all her life :)

I've seen some Israeli restaurants dipping an onion in oil and rubbing the grill. ....Never knew whether it was to clean the grill or add flavor to the meats, but I've been using that method on my grill ever since. Mind you, to really clean my grill, I place a sheet of heavy duty foil shiny side down on the grill on high for a few minutes. The upside down foil rapidly makes the grill screechingly hot and I ball the foil up with tongs and rub the grill down.

@DRMCNINJA, I was just about to say that. I didn't even know that "icky grill cleaning chemicals existed" -- just get it super hot, scrub it, and you're good to go.

In Turkey, this is very common cleaning the grill with half of an onion. At our home we use only onion for cleaning the grill.

@ccharles> We use a similar process in India. We dip a thick cut piece of brinjal to oil frying pans (non stick or otherwise) before making sweet rice pancakes.

Ball of foil works just as well.

am i the only person who uses a grill brush?

IMONFIRE-- you're not. I use the wire brush as well, and it does work better when you just finished and the grill it's still hot. BTW, I am Mexican and NEVER heard of the onion method. It's too funny! But interesting that people around the world came to the same conclusion without the advent of FB or the internet!! LOL.