Grilling Tip: Use a Sheet Pan to Carry Your Ingredients & Tools

In my future dream house, there is a grill on the deck right outside the kitchen and it is easy to carry ingredients and grilled food in and out of the house. (According to my husband, there will also be a rollaway dance floor, but that’s a post for another day and another site.) In my real-life apartment, I wheel the grill onto the concrete parking area next to the trash bins, right outside the boarded-up, nonfunctional door to my kitchen. 

Using a sheet pan to carry and hold my to-be-grilled and freshly-grilled food is not just handy; it’s downright essential.

I use my favorite half-sheet pans that I bought at a restaurant supply store years ago. They are sturdy, easy to carry, easy to clean, and big enough to hold raw ingredients, a platter for grilled meat and veggies, as well as tongs, brushes or other tools I need.

Since my sad grill set-up doesn’t even have space for a table, the sheet pan keeps me from having to put the food and tools directly on the cement step I have to use instead. It also catches any drips and spills for later clean-up in the kitchen — and further cements my belief that half-sheet pans are one of the most useful multi-taskers in the kitchen.

Do you have any tips for making grilling easier in less-than-ideal spaces?

(Image: Anjali Prasertong)