Outdoor cooking can be a great way to expand your household meals in both flavor and experience; whether it’s a big, family barbeque or a small meal cooked on a cast iron skillet over a fire, cooking outside and eating outdoors can be fun, easy, and unique.
There are many options for cooking outdoors and it can be hard to choose what you want in terms of setting up an outdoor kitchen for your home. We’ll walk you through the different types of outdoor cooking so you can make an informed decision on what kind of cooking experience you desire.
Outdoor Cooking Grill
Grills are the staple of suburban outdoor cooking. Whether they’re a simple, standalone grill or the centerpiece in a massive outdoor kitchen, grills allow for simple, quick, and abundant outdoor cooking.

When cooking with a grill, you want to ensure that the recipes you’re following and the ingredients you’re using are actually geared towards a grill. If you have a grill, you can crank out burgers and hot dogs like no other, but you may not want to try and grill rice or pasta. This may seem obvious, but it’s important to keep in mind nevertheless!
If you want a full grill/outdoor kitchen setup, then make sure to get some other good outdoor kitchen gear!
Campfire/Fire Pit
On the other hand, you may desire a campfire or fire pit set up. This can be for any number of reasons, but learning how to cook over fire can open up a variety of cooking styles that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to do.

One of the greatest things about setting up a fire pit or campfire is that you can array a nice outdoor seating and garden area around it. Also, getting some specific bakeware like a dutch oven can work exceptionally well with open-fire cooking. Learning how to cook over fire can also teach you camping cooking tips and help you achieve the best outdoor cooking possible!
Solar Oven
The final, lesser-known option is a solar oven. You can buy them or make them yourself, but they require no fuel or power and just use the heat of the sun to cook food. Obviously, these are pretty weather-dependent, but then again, isn’t all outdoor cooking?
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