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Barbecue Grill Assembly Services in Toronto

June 30, 2023 by bbqpros

Getting a new grill is an exciting time. It comes with the promise of many delicious dinners, cookouts with friends, and fun summer nights. However, as soon as you get home, you’ll notice that some barbecue grill assembly may be required. If you’re happier assembling dinner than assembling appliances, Ashton BBQ Pros is here to help.

Charcoal Grill Assembly

Charcoal grills come in many shapes and forms. There’s the classic bowl-shaped charcoal grill with its round base and lid as well as more modern, box-shaped charcoal grills. The latter is modeled after more contemporary, gas and electric grills, but maintains that more smoky manner of cooking.

While an older, bowl-shaped charcoal grill may look simple, the assembly of this barbecue grill can still be a hassle. What may seem simple to some folks can be a nightmare to others. We don’t judge! Whether you manage to mess up every assembly you attempt or you’re an assembly master who simply doesn’t have time to bother, we’re here to help.

Gas Grill Assembly

Gas grills are almost always of a more boxy shape. These grills require much more assembly than the simple bowl-shaped charcoal ones. Even without the complexities of electricity, they come with hinges, tool hooks, side trays, drip pans, and so much more. Then comes the gas connection, which could be very dangerous if done wrong. Our team is very familiar with hooking up gas grill lines and ensuring they’re properly attached for your safety.

Electric Grill Assembly

After gas grills comes electric grills. These grills have many of the same bells and whistles as gas grills. However, they also have electrical work to put together during the barbecue grill assembly. Even once you’ve screwed the frame together, attached storage racks, assembled adjustable cooking racks, and put on wheels, you have to make sure everything will actually turn on so you can cook your food.

Barbecue Grill Assembly services in Toronto

Our team at Ashton BBQ Pros has a whole lot of experience putting together grills. We know how each model is put together, the parts most likely to be misassembled, how to reinforce likely breaking points, and so on. No matter what kind of grill you’re buying – or have already bought – we can help you get it from the box to the patio. Schedule your cookout for the same day. We’ll have your grill ready to go in no time.

Performance Testing

Once your grill has been assembled, the only thing left to do is to test its performance. Before we leave your home, we’ll make sure your grill is working and ready to go. If anything is amiss, we’ll catch it and fix it before heading out. You can rest assured that your grill will be in perfect working order when we’re done assembling and testing it.

Spice Up Your Chicken with Spicy Lemon Garlic Sauce

May 31, 2023 by bbqpros

Grilling is a great way to bring the family together or get your friends to come over. Not to mention, the results are always so tasty! However, if you’re looking for something a little different, maybe it’s time to try experimenting with different sauces. Layering on some store-bought barbecue sauce may be a good plan for beginners but, if you want to get really invested, there’s more to be done. With that said, here is a fantastic, spicy sauce to liven up some grilled chicken.

Winging It

The most important thing about crafting homemade sauces is that we’re really just winging it. And so should you! Enjoying cooking often means just letting your heart make the decisions for you. With the ingredients listed, we can give a rough estimate of how much you need. But, if you want a bit more or less, that’s on you to decide. Do what delivers you the most desirable consistency and flavor. Don’t be afraid to taste-test while you mix up your sauce. Just don’t start your experiments while the meat is already on the grill – you can’t rush perfection!

Spicy Lemon Garlic Sauce

If you love the tang of lemon and the bold flavor of garlic, but enjoy things a bit spicier, you’ll love this spicy lemon garlic sauce.

This sauce, like many others, works best if you have some chicken pan drippings leftover from a previous cook. Cooking this down leaves you with a mixture of fats and oils that help thicken and flavor the sauce.

Next up, you’ll need to finely chop some green onion. Really get it nice and minced. About a quarter cup should do it. If you enjoy a bit of cilantro, you could mince that up to the same quantity. If you aren’t so fond of cilantro, but your sauce needs a bit more bulk to it, add more green onion.

For the amount of sauce we’re making, a couple tablespoons, or about three cloves, of minced garlic is perfect.

Next, juice a fresh lemon. If you prefer easier methods, a few tablespoons of lemon juice should do it. But, with fresh lemon, you also have the option to get some fine zest added to the mix. This enhances the lemon flavor and bulks up the sauce.

Finally, to add that kick, you need some chilis. If you want your sauce really hot, leave the seeds in. Those are the hottest part of the chili. After removing the stem, grind up your chili in a food processor. If you don’t have one, you could achieve a similar result by chopping it up and then grinding it with a mortar and pestle. Just don’t blame us if it makes your eyes water!

Combining Ingredients

Mixing everything together can be overwhelming. If the consistency isn’t right, is can cause insecurity in even the most experienced chef. Simply mix together your ingredients and then adjust if the end product isn’t right. Adding some olive oil is a good way to blend things together. If you want more flavors, simply add things you think would go well. Some blended or finely minced bell peppers might do well in this and add a more mild pepper profile. Need more garlic? Go for it!

And, once your new recipe has been perfected to your individual tastes, you’ll know you have the power to do it again with different ingredients. We hope you have a fantastic grill out with your new spicy lemon garlic sauce!

Using the Sauce

Just slather some of that sauce on the top of your chicken, like you would barbecue sauce, and slap that chicken on the grill. The sauce will caramelize a bit and the flavor will cook into the chicken.

If you find your sauce is a bit too runny to apply like barbecue, you can try altering the recipe with more thickening ingredients. Or, you can use it as a marinade. Just pour it and your chicken thighs into a gallon Ziploc, mix it all up, and put it in a bowl in the fridge overnight.

How to Deep Clean a Grill or BBQ

May 1, 2023 by bbqpros

Preparing for summer fun? Then you might be breaking out the grill again! With the weather warming up, grilling season is approaching fast and, boy, are we ready! If your grill has been in storage all winter, you may be pulling it out to find it’s a bit dirty. You’re not the only one who sometimes puts the grill away with a bit of a mess left on it. Even after a good scrub with a wire grill brush, the grill will still look a bit grimy without a deep clean. So, how would you go about doing a deep clean for a grill?

How to Deep Clean a Grill

There are a lot of steps to deep cleaning a grill, so we’ll simplify.

Cleaning the Grates

The first step to deep clean a grill is cleaning the grates. There’s a fun hack you can use, as recommended by Family Handyman, using coffee! Simply pour a couple pots of coffee into a shallow basin and let your grates soak in it for an hour. The acidity in the coffee breaks down all of the buildup on your grates easily. Then, you just need to rinse and scrub them with some soap and water in the sink. The scrubbing is much easier after the acidity has weakened and loosened the cooked-on gunk.

If you don’t keep coffee on hand, you can also clean and degrease the grates by scrubbing them with a solution made of 4 parts water, 1 part dish soap. However, without that presoak, it will take a bit more elbow grease.

Cleaning the Exterior

The exterior is much easier to clean than the grates… usually. It’s easy to miss the grime on your grill’s exterior when putting it away for the winter. After all, you’ve grown used to looking at it. However, when you pull your grill out for the spring, you might be surprised to find it’s not as shiny and clean as you remember.

Washing the exterior of your grill should generally be done with soap and water, especially if it’s painted. Just remember, don’t use anything abrasive on your grill’s painted exterior. Use a soft sponge without any netting or scrubbing surface on it. Otherwise, you can easily scratch or chip your paint and lead to rusting.

Cleaning the guts

The interior components of a gas grill can be very complicated to clean without damaging them. Certain parts aren’t too pleased with liquid getting in or on them. Plus, there’s the matter of safety and knowing which cleaners are okay to use. If you must clean it yourself, be sure to disconnect the gas first and wear gloves. Then, find a suitable cleaning solution for use with the components more directly associated with gas and fire.

Professional Grill Cleaning Services

Don’t want to deep clean your grill all by yourself? Most people don’t. It’s hard, dirty work, and it doesn’t smell very nice either. Get some assistance from Ashton BBQ Pros and you’ll have a clean grill in no time. Call us if you have questions about our services or scheduling.

Get Grill Maintenance Before Grilling Season

March 28, 2023 by bbqpros

Grilling season is approaching! If you love to grill up a storm when the weather is nice, it’s time to make preparations. What preparations do we mean? Grill maintenance! Grill maintenance can mean a lot of things; it depends on the grill and its needs. If you’ve had your grill in storage all winter, you may want to give it a once over to be sure it’s still in working order. If it was in good condition going in, it’s probably fine. However, if you’ve had your grill for a while, this may be the season when it gives out. Here are some of the ways we can help you maintain your grill to ensure you have a flawless grill season.

Gas and Lighter

With gas grills, one of the ways your grill can break down is the gas and lighter can stop working. Well, as long as you have a full gas tank, the gas itself shouldn’t be a problem. However, if the lighter breaks, turning on the gas won’t start the grill. Furthermore and even worse, it will simply pour gas into the air, which can be dangerous if you don’t realize it’s happening.

Get gas grill maintenance in the form of gas lighter repair from Toronto’s leading BBQ pros at Ashton BBQ.

Rust Removal and Repainting

Even with proper storage and maintenance, a grill can eventually fall victim to rust. Rust happens with any metal object that’s sometimes outdoors. It may take months or it may take years, depending on how well you take care of it. Regardless of your own grill’s story, we can help you with rust removal and repainting.

First, we remove the rust. That’s always the first step. Leaving rust on the grill can encourage further rusting. Once the rust is gone, we can repaint it with a hardy lacquer that will have it looking store-bought new. Plus, it will reset its rust timeline to 0, giving you many more years without having to worry about it.

Broken Handle Replacement

One of the most common breaks in grills are the handles. If you want grill maintenance before grilling season, this is one of those easy fixes we can be in and out for. Some grills have front handles, in order to lift a hinged lid. Little charcoal grills often have a handle on top of the round, dome lid. In most cases, regardless of design, grills have side handles for maneuvering and lifting them. These can all break easily after a lot of use. Fortunately, they can be easily repaired by professionals.

Electric Grill Knob Repair

If your grill is electric, it probably has a line of knobs on the front, much like your stove or oven. These are used to start the grill and keep it at the correct temperature. If one of your electric grill knobs breaks off, cracks, or otherwise gets broken, Ashton BBQ Pros can help. Just give us a call if you have any questions about our services or schedule.

Protect Your Grill with a Proper Grill Care Routine

February 28, 2023 by bbqpros

Do you love a good barbecue? Is grilling one of your favorite ways to enjoy a hot meal? If so, you want to keep your grill in good shape. Nothing is worse than preparing an entire meal for the grill only to find your grill won’t start. Fortunately, it’s easy to prevent a dinner disaster by maintaining a proper grill care routine. What exactly is a grill care routine? Let’s see what’s involved.

Clean After Cooking

The #1 thing you should do to protect your grill is to clean it after cooking on it. So many people leave their grill dirty after using it, it’s shocking. However, leaving your grill dirty is the first step in a cycle of neglect. If you want to keep a proper grill care routine and keep your grill in good shape, show it some love by cleaning it.

Cleaning your grill is easy once you get used to it. Simply buy a metal brush, let any food on the rack cook off, then get to scrubbing at it. After removing the charred food from the rack, empty all of the ashes and burnt droppings from the base. Cleaning your grill keeps small critters from trying to get inside to get to the foods they smell. Plus, it keeps your food tasting great because each meal is cooked on fresh bars.

Oil Your Rack

Speaking of fresh bars, when you’re done cleaning your grill rack, you need to oil it. Simply get out a brush like you would use to paint on some barbecue sauce, and brush on some cooking oil. This oil keeps the pours in the rack metal moistened and sealed. This prevents rust and also ensures food cooked on your grill doesn’t taste like metal.

Cover Your Grill

Next up, protecting your grill from the elements. If you don’t have a grill cover, or something that can work as one, you should buy one. Covering your grill keeps out moisture, preventing rust. It keeps out wind, preventing erosion. Furthermore, it discourages bugs and small animals from getting inside your grill to hide.

While storing your grill in your garage or shed may do a fair job at protecting it from weather and animals, a cover still helps. If you’re keeping your grill on a deck or patio, a cover is 100% necessary. Otherwise, your grill will break down much faster than you want it to. It’s a very expensive kind of neglect.

Always Store Properly in Winter

Likewise, when winter comes, you should always move your grill inside somewhere and disconnect any gas. The cold weather of winter is really bad for the more technical components of the grill. Leaving your grill outside years after year can have it wearing down way faster than it should. Instead, store your grill in your garage or shed. Better yet, bring it inside and put it in the basement if possible. The more temperate the conditions, the better for it. Additionally, you should always disconnect any gas from your grill when storing it, for safety.

Professional Grill Repair

If your grill is looking a bit worse for wear, professional grill cleaning or repair may be the answer. Fixing the wear and tear yourself may be an undesirable pain. However, having someone else get the job done can give you a fresh start, allowing you to begin a grill care routine to prevent future damage. Give us a call at Ashton BBQ Pros if you have any questions about our services.