Follow these rules whenever you grill steaks, chops, fish, chicken breasts, vegetables, tofu-pretty much any small or slender food. They’re designed to minimize sticking and maximize flavor and grill marks:

The Three Essential Rules for Great Grilling:

1. Keep it hot
Preheat your gas grill to high or build a “2 to 3 Mississippi” fire in a charcoal grill. (For the latter, place your hand about a half beer can high over the grate. Start counting: “1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi,” etc. By the time you reach “2 or 3 Mississippi,” the intense heat of a properly lit charcoal grill will force you to snatch your hand away.

2. Keep it clean
Brush the bars of the hot grate with a stiff wire brush. This dislodges any debris and minimizes sticking. If you don’t have a grill brush (and you should), use a crumpled ball of aluminum foil.

3. Keep it lubricated
Fold a paper towel into a small pad, dip it in oil, and using tongs, rub it over the bars of the grill grate. Or lift the grate off the grill and spray it with spray oil. (Never spray oil directly onto a lit grill - you’ll get Vesuvian flare-ups.) Oiling the grill helps prevent sticking and it gives you killer grill marks.