Barbecue Cooking Times - Timings for Grilling, Spit-Roasting, On Coals: Fish, Poultry, Meat, Vegetables, Seafood and Fruit

Barbecue Cooking Times

Although this site has lots of BBQ recipes which give full preparation details and cooking times, below are some charts showing general cooking times and methods for a variety of items in the unlikely event that you haven't found a recipe on this site which grabs you.

Please note timings are approximate as it depends on the heat of your coals and portion sizes, but if you stick to these guidelines, you should get perfectly cooked, succulent food from your barbecue. See don't forget to take a look our general tips on barbecuing , recipes and bbq equipment pages - use the red links at the top of this page. We have all the information you'll ever need to cook the perfect bbq.

NB Where two types of heat are shown e.g. hot/med, the food should be started over hot coals then if necessary, moved towards the outside of the bbq grill which is generally cooler and less fierce, to finish cooking thus preventing too much charring. See Cooking, Planning & Safety Tips for detailed information about lighting and positioning bbq coals. Under normal circumstances, this applies to cooking times of more than 10 minutes.

BBQ Cooking Times Chart - On the Grill

Food	Cut	Size/thickness	Heat	Approx Total Cooking time (mins)
				Rare	Medium	Well-done
Beef	Burgers	2cm/ ¾-inch	hot/med	6-8	9-10	12-15
	Joints			See Spit Roasting chart below
	Skewers	2.5cm/1-inch	hot	6-8	10-15	15-20
	Steak	2.5cm/1-inch	hot/med	6-8	10-15	15-20
Chicken	Breast (boneless)		med			18-22
	Breast (bone-in)		med			25-30
	Burgers	2cm/ ¾-inch	med			15-18
	Drumsticks		med			25-30
	Poussin	Spatchcocked	med			25-30
	Quarters		med			30-35
	Skewers	2.5cm/1-inch	med			13-15
	Whole			See Spit Roasting chart below
Duck	Breast (boneless)		med			15-20
	Half		med			35-45
Fish	Fillets	2cm/ ¾-inch	med			6-10
	Skewers	2.5cm/1-inch	med			6-10
	Steaks	2.5cm/1-inch	med			8-12
	Whole - large	over 2kg/5lb	med/low	10mins per 2.5cm/1-inch thickness
	Whole - medium	under 900g/2lb	hot/med			12-20
	Whole - small	e.g. Sardines	hot/med			6-10
Fruit	Chunks (Foil Parcels)	5cm/2-inch	med/low			7- 10
	Large e.g. peaches	Halved	med/low			5-10
	Skewers	2.5cm/1-inch	med/low			5-8
Lamb	Burgers	2.5cm/1-inch	hot/med	6-8	9-11	12-15
	Chops	2.5cm/1-inch	hot/med	8-10	12-15	18-20
	Joints			See Spit Roasting chart below
	Leg Steaks	2cm/ ¾-inch	hot/med	5-7	8-10	14-18
	Skewers	2.5cm/1-inch	hot	6-8	9-11	12-15
Pork	Burgers	2cm/ ¾-inch	med			15-18
	Chops	2.5cm/1-inch	hot/med			18-20
	Joints			See Spit Roasting chart below
	Sausages	Thick	hot/med			8-12
	Skewers	2.5cm/1-inch	hot/med			13-15
	Spare Ribs		med			30-40
Seafood	Calamari (squid)	Baby cut open	hot			3-4
	Calamari (squid)	Baby stuffed	hot/med			10-12
	Lobster	Half	med/low			15-20
	Prawns - In shell	Large	med			6-8
	Prawns - shelled	Large	med			4-5
	Scallops/Mussels	whole shelled	med			5-8
Vegetables	Chunks (Foil Parcels)	5cm/2-inch	med/low			7- 10
	Corn on the Cob	Whole	med			8-10
	Halves e.g. tomato, courgette		med/low			5-10
	Skewers	2.5cm/1-inch	med/low			5-8
	Slices e.g. Aubergine, Peppers		med/low			3-5
				See also direct on coals chart below

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BBQ Cooking Times Chart - Spit Roasting

Food	Cut	Size	Heat	Approx Total Cooking time (Hours)
				Rare	Medium	Well-done
Beef	Rolled Rib	2.2kg/5lb	hot/med	2 - 2½	2½ - 3	3¼ - 4
	Rolled Rump	2.2kg/5lb	hot/med	1½ - 2	2¼ - 3	3 - 4
	Sirloin	2.2kg/5lb	hot/med	1¼ - 1¾	2¼ - 3	3 - 4
Chicken	Whole	1.5kg/3½lb	med			1¼ - 1¾
Game birds	Whole	450g/1lb	med			30-40 mins
Lamb	Leg	1.8kg/4lb	med	1 - 1¼	1½ - 2	2½ - 3
	Rolled Shoulder	1.8kg/4lb	med	1 - 1¼	1½ - 2	2½ - 3
Pork	Boneless joints	1.8kg/4lb	med			2 - 3
	Rib Joint	1.8kg/4lb	med/hot			1½ - 1¾
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BBQ Cooking Times Chart - Directly on the Coals

Food	Cut	Size	Heat	Approx Total Cooking time (Mins)

Fruit in foil parcels	Chunks	5cm/2-inch	low		8-12
	Large	Halves/whole	low		10-15
Vegetables in loose foil parcels	Chunks/slices	5cm/2-inch	low		8-12
Vegetables tightly wrapped in foil	corn on the cob Potatoes	Whole Medium Whole	low med/low		10-15 35-40
Misc
Garlic Bread	wrapped in foil	whole	med/low		12 - 15
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Always check to see that the food is cooked through

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