How to Smoke Meat on a Charcoal Grill (Kettle BBQ Smoking Guide)

Introduction

I still remember the first time I smoked a rack of ribs on my old kettle charcoal grill. I’d been grilling burgers and steaks for years, but smoking was a whole new adventure. There I was, tending the coals on a warm Saturday afternoon, the smell of hickory wood in the air, nervously checking the temperature like a first-time parent. To my surprise, those ribs came out tender and infused with an incredible smoky flavor that blew everyone away. That day, I learned you don’t need an expensive smoker to achieve mouthwatering BBQ – a simple charcoal grill can do the job, and do it deliciously. Smoking meat on a charcoal grill is great for flavor because charcoal and wood create a depth of smokiness you just can’t get on a gas grill. Plus, using a kettle grill for low-and-slow cooking lets you enjoy the authentic barbecue experience right in your backyard. In this guide, I’ll share tips and techniques to help beginners (and intermediate pitmasters) master smoking on a charcoal kettle grill. Grab a drink, get comfy, and let’s get smoking! (Get ready, this is a long one!)

Essential Equipment and Setup

Before we dive into techniques, make sure you have the essential gear and a proper grill setup. Having the right equipment will set you up for success. Here’s what you’ll need and how to get your grill ready:

Kettle-Style Charcoal Grill: Any decent charcoal grill with a lid (like a classic kettle grill) works for smoking. The lid is crucial for trapping heat and smoke. Make sure your grill is large enough to fit your meat on one side with coals on the other (for indirect cooking).
Charcoal Briquettes or Lump Charcoal: This is your heat source. Choose quality charcoal (more on this in the next section). Have plenty on hand for a long smoking session.
Chimney Starter: A metal chimney makes lighting charcoal easy and chemical-free (no lighter fluid taste on your meat!). Simply stuff newspaper in the bottom, fill it with coals, and light it up. In about 15 minutes, your coals will be ashed over and ready.
Wood Chips or Chunks: These provide the smoke flavor. Pick your favorite hardwood (hickory, apple, etc.) and have a few chunks or a couple handfuls of chips ready (we’ll talk more about wood selection soon).
Water Pan: An aluminum pan filled with water is a secret weapon for smoking on a grill. Place it on the grill beside or under the meat (not over the coals). The water pan catches drippings and helps regulate temperature and moisture in the grill. This makes it easier to maintain a steady low heat, and the added humidity can keep your meat from drying out.
Grill Thermometer: Low-and-slow smoking is all about temperature control. If your grill has a built-in thermometer, that’s a start, but those can be inaccurate. It’s best to use a reliable probe thermometer to monitor the grill’s internal temp where the meat is cooking. Even better, get a second probe for the meat’s internal temperature so you know exactly when it’s done.
Long Tongs and Heat-Resistant Gloves: You’ll be dealing with hot coals and potentially long cook times. Good BBQ tongs help you rearrange coals or add wood safely, and insulated gloves protect your hands when handling hot grill parts or refilling coals.

Setting Up the Grill (Indirect Heat): The key to smoking on a charcoal grill is to set it up for indirect cooking. Unlike grilling burgers directly over flames, smoking uses a low fire off to the side of the food. Arrange your charcoal to one side of the charcoal grate (or in a ring around the edges for a “snake method”) and place your meat on the opposite side of the grill, not directly above the coals. If you’re using a round kettle grill, one easy method is to bank all your lit coals to one side. On the empty side, put your water pan directly on the charcoal grate (under where the meat will sit). This two-zone setup creates a cooler zone for gentle, indirect heat. Light your charcoal using the chimney starter until the coals are glowing orange and coated in gray ash, then carefully pour them into position on your charcoal grate (one side or arranged in your desired pattern). Place a few chunks of your smoking wood on top of the hot coals once they’re ready. Now put the top cooking grate on the grill. Lastly, set your meat on the grate over the area with no coals (above the water pan). With this setup, you’ll be cooking with indirect heat and smoke, perfect for low-and-slow barbecue.

If you need to smoke for many hours (for a big brisket or pork butt), consider using the Minion Method to extend your burn time. This involves adding a quantity of unlit charcoal to the grill and then pouring a smaller number of lit coals on top of those unlit coals to start the fire. The lit briquettes will gradually ignite the unlit ones over several hours, keeping the heat going without constant refueling

(In a kettle grill, you might lay unlit coals in a semicircle or ring — the “snake” — and dump lit coals at one end so they slowly burn around.) However you arrange it, the goal is a controlled, sustained burn. Once your grill is set up and the meat is in place, put the lid on with the top vent open at least partially. Now you’re ready to manage the fire and smoke for the long haul.

Choosing the Right Charcoal and Wood

Charcoal Choices: The type of charcoal you use can affect your smoking experience. The two main options are lump charcoal and briquettes.

Lump charcoal is made from natural hardwood burned down to charcoal. It lights quickly and burns hot and clean. Lump is great because it’s all-natural (no fillers) and produces a nice smoky aroma. However, lump pieces are irregular in size, which can sometimes make the burn a bit less predictable for beginners. It also tends to burn a little faster and hotter than briquettes, so you might go through more in a long cook.
Charcoal briquettes are uniform pillow-shaped pieces made from compressed char and other materials. Good-quality briquettes (look for ones without additives) burn at a steady rate and hold a consistent temperature longer, which is helpful for low-and-slow cooking. They produce more ash than lump, but they’re easy to stack and manage. Many beginners start with briquettes because they give a more stable burn, making it easier to control the temperature. Tip: Avoid briquettes that have easy-light chemicals or added lighter fluid – those can give off-flavors. Go for natural hardwood briquettes if possible for a cleaner smoke.

Wood for Smoking: The wood is what provides that signature BBQ smokiness, so choose wisely! There are lots of wood varieties, each with a unique flavor profile. Here’s a quick rundown of common smoking woods:

Fruit Woods (Apple, Cherry, Peach): These woods impart a mild, sweet smoke. They are fantastic for beginners because they won’t overpower the meat. Apple and cherry are popular for pork, poultry, and even veggies, giving a gentle smoky sweetness.
Hickory and Oak: These are medium-to-strong hardwoods. Hickory has a robust, classic BBQ flavor (a bit like smoky bacon) that pairs wonderfully with pork ribs or shoulders. Oak is also a versatile, balanced smoke wood – not too mild, not too bold. Both are great for pork and beef. If you want that Southern barbecue taste, hickory is a go-to.
Mesquite: A very strong and pungent wood smoke. Mesquite is popular in Texas-style BBQ, especially for beef, but use it sparingly. Its flavor is intense and can turn bitter if too much is used for too long. Mesquite is best for shorter cooks or as part of a mix. For longer smokes, many pitmasters avoid mesquite or mix only a small chunk in with milder wood, because on a long cook it can overpower the meat.
Maple, Pecan, etc.: Maple gives a sweet, light smoke (great for ham or bacon), while pecan is somewhat like a milder hickory with a nutty hint. There are many woods to experiment with, but stick to hardwoods that are seasoned (dried) for safe, flavorful smoke. Never use softwoods (pine, cedar) which contain resins that taste bad and could be unsafe.

For a charcoal grill smoking session, chunks of wood about the size of a golf ball or fist are ideal. They burn longer and steadier than small chips. If you only have wood chips, it’s a good idea to soak them in water for about 30 minutes to an hour before you cook. Soaking saturates the wood so that when you toss the chips on the hot coals, they smolder and release smoke slowly instead of just catching fire and burning up right away (With wood chunks, soaking is less necessary, but some folks still do it for a slower burn. It won’t hurt, but you can also place chunks nestled next to but not directly on the hottest part of the coals, so they heat gradually.)

When using wood, a little goes a long way. It’s tempting to throw a heap of wood on to get more smoke, but too much at once can produce thick, heavy smoke that isn’t good for flavor. Start with a couple of chunks (or a handful of chips) at the beginning of the cook. You can add one or two more pieces of wood every hour or so if needed, especially for longer cooks, to keep the smoke going. This way, you’ll get a steady flow of clean smoke without overdoing it. Remember, you can always add more wood if you want extra smokiness, but you can’t undo an overpoweringly smoky (or bitter) taste once it’s on the meat.

Temperature Control and Maintaining Steady Heat

One of the biggest challenges (and joys) of smoking on a charcoal grill is controlling the temperature for hours on end. Unlike an oven or a fancy electric smoker, a charcoal kettle requires a bit of fire tending. Don’t worry, it’s not as hard as it sounds – and it can even be fun. You’re basically managing a live fire, and with a few simple techniques you’ll keep that grill in the perfect low-and-slow zone (roughly 225°F to 250°F is the sweet spot for most barbecue).

Use Your Vents: Your charcoal grill has at least two air vents: a bottom vent (intake) and a top vent (exhaust). These are your primary tools for heat control. The more you open the vents, the more air flows through the grill, feeding the fire and raising the temperature. Closing the vents restricts oxygen, which tamps the fire down and lowers the heat. A good starting point for smoking is to partially close the vents once your coals are all lit and your grill is hot. For example, you might begin with the bottom vent about half open and the top vent opened just a crack (around 1/4 open). Put the lid on and watch the temperature. If you’re aiming for ~250°F, you can adjust from there: open the top vent slightly more to raise temp, or close it a bit to lower. Using small adjustments, allow a few minutes for the temperature to stabilize after each tweak.

Many kettle grill pros like to set the bottom vent and mostly leave it, using the top vent for fine-tuning. Find what works for your grill – but never close both vents completely or your fire will snuff out. It’s a balancing act: enough air to keep the coals burning, but not so much that the grill runs hot.

Be Patient with Preheating: After setting up your coals and wood, put the lid on and let the empty grill come to temp for several minutes before adding your meat. This preheating period (with the vents set as described) helps the grill environment stabilize. It’s easier to catch the right temperature on the way up than to cool down an overheated grill. So, if it’s climbing past your target, close the vents a bit more early on. Aim to get the grill settled in that 225-250°F range, then add your meat. When you place the meat on the grill (especially a big cold roast), it will absorb some heat, and the temperature might dip slightly – that’s okay. It should rise back up in a few minutes. If it overshoots or dips too much, adjust the vents accordingly. Once it’s steady, you can settle into monitoring mode.

Monitor and Adjust: During the cook, keep an eye on your thermometer. It’s normal for the temperature to fluctuate a bit (outdoor conditions like wind or ambient temperature can have an effect). Try to avoid fiddling constantly; instead, check maybe every 15-20 minutes. If the grill is cooling (e.g., dropping below 225°F) and doesn’t bounce back, it might be time to adjust or add fuel. Before adding more charcoal, first open the vents more to stoke the fire. If they’re already fully open and the temp is still falling, your charcoal may be running low. Add charcoal as needed to maintain the heat. The best practice is to add fully lit coals from a chimney starter so you don’t get a big temperature dip. For example, on a long cook you might find that every 60-90 minutes you need to top up the fire – simply light 10-15 briquettes in your chimney, then carefully add them to the pile of coals in your grill when they’re hot and ashed over.

This will give you a fresh boost of heat. (If you don’t have a chimney handy for relighting, you can add unlit coals, but do it sparingly; a bunch of unlit charcoal thrown in can take a while to ignite and could briefly drop your temp or produce some smoke from the briquette binders while heating up.)

Remember the water pan we mentioned? It will help buffer temperature swings. The water absorbs heat and slowly evaporates, which keeps the grill’s heat more even. As long as there’s some water in the pan, it will also humidify the air inside, which can stabilize the cooking environment. Check the water pan every so often (perhaps when adding fuel) and refill it if it’s getting low. Use hot water to refill, so you don’t cool off the grill by adding cold liquid.

Lid Management: As the saying goes, “If you’re lookin’, you ain’t cookin’.” Every time you open the grill lid, you let out heat and smoke. Try to resist the urge to peek too frequently. Only open the lid when necessary (to check meat temperature, add coals or wood, or perhaps to baste or spritz if your recipe calls for it). Keep those moments brief and get the lid back on as soon as you can. Constantly opening the grill can cause temperature swings and will definitely extend your cooking time

It’s amazing how quickly a hot grill cools down with the lid open, and then you have to wait for it to climb back to target temp again. So be patient and trust the process – your smoker setup will do its job if you let it.

Once you get the hang of vent adjustments and timely refueling, you’ll find that you can maintain a steady temperature for hours. It might not hold exactly 250°F on the dot (small fluctuations are fine, say anywhere from 225 up to 275°F). Don’t stress over minor ups and downs. Barbecue is pretty forgiving within that range. In fact, some pitmasters even prefer starting a bit hotter then letting it settle, or they’ll cook in the 275°F range intentionally to speed things up a tad. For beginners, shooting for the classic 225-250°F range is a good rule of thumb. With practice, you’ll learn how your specific grill likes to run – each grill can have its own “personality” when it comes to airflow and heat retention. Take notes if you want, and soon you’ll feel like your kettle is an old trusty friend.

Smoke Management for the Best Flavor

Now let’s talk about the smoke itself – after all, that’s what gives smoked meat its character. Managing your smoke is about getting a clean, flavorful smoke rather than something that overpowers the meat or leaves it tasting like an ashtray. Here are some tips for great smoke:

Aim for Thin Blue Smoke: The ideal smoke coming out of your grill is often described as “thin blue smoke.” This is the thin, wispy smoke that’s almost transparent with a slight bluish hue – it indicates a clean-burning fire and wood. Clean smoke = tasty BBQ. If your fire is right, you might not even see much smoke, but you’ll smell that wonderful wood aroma. Thin blue smoke means the wood is combusting fully and you’re getting pure smoky flavor without bitter pollutants

On the other hand, if you see thick, billowing white or gray smoke, that’s a sign something’s off. White smoke usually means your wood is smoldering too much (often because either you added too many wood chunks at once, or your coals aren’t hot enough to burn the wood cleanly). That heavy smoke can deposit creosote and make the meat taste bitter or acrid.

So, if you notice a lot of thick smoke, you might need to adjust: open the vents a bit to give the fire more oxygen, and hold off on adding more wood until it mellows out. The bottom line is that a little smoke goes a long way. You don’t need to see clouds pouring out of the grill to get good flavor. In fact, those thin, almost invisible streams of smoke are perfect.

Start with a Good Coal Bed: One trick to getting clean smoke is to let your charcoal get fully hot before adding wood. When you first light charcoal, it can produce a somewhat smoky, chemical smell (especially briquettes with binders). You want to avoid that getting into your food. That’s why we let coals ash over and burn clean before cooking. When your coals are ready and arranged for indirect cooking, and your grill is up to temp, then add the wood chunks. By this time the charcoal is burning cleanly, providing a good base heat to ignite the wood. The wood will catch and smoke pretty quickly. If you add wood too early to semi-lit coals, the coals might not be fully hot and you can get that thick white smoke. So, timing your wood addition helps: meat in place, lid on, then wood on coals, lid closed quickly to trap the smoke.

Don’t Overdo the Wood: We touched on this, but it’s worth reiterating. Especially in a smaller grill like a kettle, it’s easy to oversmoke. Start modestly – one or two chunks of wood at a time. You can always add another chunk every hour if needed to maintain a light smoke. Different meats also absorb smoke differently. Poultry, for example, can take on smoke quickly and can end up with a bitter skin if smoked too heavy for too long. A larger brisket or pork shoulder can handle more smoke over time. When in doubt, err on the lighter side for smoke. Also, trust your nose: the smoke coming out of the top vent should smell pleasant, like a campfire or cooking wood. If it smells harsh or like burning chemicals, something’s not right (could be lighter fluid, treated wood, or too much smoke). Adjust your fire or wood amounts if that happens.

Position the Vents for Smoke Flow: Here’s a pro tip for kettle grills: when you put the lid on, position the top vent above the meat, opposite the coals. This way, the heat and smoke from the coals have to travel across the food to exit the grill. It creates a sort of convection path: air is drawn in from the bottom vent, goes through the coals (picking up heat and smoke), passes over the meat, and out the top vent. This maximizes the exposure of your meat to the flavorful smoke. It’s a small detail, but every bit helps when you’re trying to get an even smoke flavor.

No Lighter Fluid, Please: Since we want the best smoke flavor, avoid using lighter fluid or instant-light charcoal that’s been doused in chemicals. That stuff can make your food taste like petroleum – yuck. A chimney starter and maybe a paraffin fire starter cube or some crumpled newspaper is all you need to get the charcoal going the natural way. Your taste buds will thank you.

By managing your smoke – keeping it clean and steady – you’ll get that deep smoky flavor without any bitterness. When you lift the lid for the first time to check your meat and that gentle puff of wood aroma hits you, you’ll know you’re on the right track. It’s a beautiful thing!

Timing and Doneness

Smoking is definitely a patience game. Unlike grilling hot and fast, barbecue is all about giving meat time in the smoke at low heat so it becomes tender and flavorful. For beginners, one big question is: How long will it take? The answer: it depends on what you’re cooking, the size of the meat, and how steady you keep your temperature. There’s no exact timer because “it’s done when it’s done,” but we can give some general guidelines for timing and how to tell when your food is perfectly done.

Low and Slow – Estimated Times: At the typical smoking temperature (225°F-250°F), different meats will have very different cook times. Here are a few examples (assuming consistent heat around 250°F):

Ribs: For pork ribs (spare ribs or baby back ribs), you’re looking at roughly 5 to 6 hours to become tender. Baby back ribs might be on the shorter end (4-5 hours) while larger spare ribs take longer (6-7 hours).
Pork Shoulder (Pork Butt): This is a large, thick cut used for pulled pork. A hefty pork butt (around 8 pounds) can take anywhere from 10 to 12 hours, and sometimes longer – up to 14+ hours for very large ones. It’s an all-day affair (or overnight).
Beef Brisket: The king of BBQ can be one of the longest cooks. A full packer brisket can easily go 12 to 18 hours to reach tenderness. Smaller brisket flats might be done in 8-10 hours, but a big one often pushes well past 12 hours.
Whole Chicken: Smoking a whole chicken (around 4-5 lbs) might take approximately 3 to 4 hours at 250°F, until the internal temp hits at least 165°F in the breast.
Turkey: A whole turkey (12-15 lbs) can take 6 to 8 hours in the smoke (this is usually done around 275°F to get crisper skin, which shortens the time a bit).
Fish or Smaller Cuts: Things like salmon fillets might smoke in 2 hours or less. Sausages, wings, or other small items also cook relatively quickly (1-3 hours).

These are ballpark figures. Actual times will vary. Factors like bone-in vs. boneless, how often you open the lid, outside weather, and even each individual piece of meat (some just stall longer) will affect the cook.

It’s Done When It’s Done – How to Tell: Because times can vary, the best way to know when your meat is done is by checking internal temperature and tenderness. A good meat thermometer is your best friend here. Each type of meat has a target range:

Pulled Pork: Done at about 195-205°F internal. At this point the pork shoulder’s connective tissues have broken down so it pulls apart easily. If you only take it to 170°F, it will be cooked but not tender enough to shred. So aim high for pulled pork (195+°F).
Brisket: Often considered done around 200°F (195-205°F range). Many pitmasters actually go by feel for brisket: when a probe or skewer slides into the meat with little resistance (like butter), it’s ready. This typically happens around that 200°F mark.
Ribs: Ribs are a bit trickier because you can’t really stick a thermometer in thin ribs easily. A common test is the bend test – pick up the rack of ribs with tongs and bounce them gently; if the surface cracks and the rack bends easily in the middle, they’re tender. The meat will also have pulled back from the ends of the bones a bit. For baby backs at 250°F, this is usually ~5 hours in, as mentioned.
Chicken: Poultry is done at a safe internal temp of 165°F in the thickest part (breast for whole chicken, or center of thighs). You can take dark meat a bit higher (175°F) for more tenderness. If you smoke a chicken at low temp, sometimes the skin can get rubbery; some folks finish it with a blast of higher heat to crisp the skin at the end, but that’s another topic.
Steaks or smaller cuts: If you smoke something like a thick steak or prime rib before searing, you might pull it at a lower temp depending on desired doneness (e.g., 130°F for medium-rare beef, then sear). But for traditional BBQ cuts, low and slow generally aims for well-done temps that melt the connective tissue (except things like smoked salmon which is done around 140°F).

For all large smoked meats, once they hit the target internal temp or tenderness, it’s wise to let them rest before digging in. Resting allows the juices to redistribute and the meat fibers to relax, so you don’t lose as much moisture when slicing. For smaller cuts like ribs, a short rest of 10-15 minutes is fine. Big roasts like brisket or pork shoulder benefit from a longer rest, say 30 minutes to an hour (some even hold them wrapped in a cooler for a couple of hours, which also keeps them hot until serving time).

One more thing to note, especially for beginners: during long cooks, you may encounter “the stall.” This is when the internal temperature of something like a pork butt or brisket stops rising for a long time, usually somewhere around 150-170°F, and can even drop a bit. Don’t panic – it’s a normal part of low-and-slow cooking, caused by evaporative cooling as the meat releases moisture. The stall can last an hour or several. Eventually, the temp will start climbing again on its own. Some people combat the stall by wrapping the meat in foil or butcher paper once it hits that stage (the “Texas crutch”), which helps push through it faster. Whether you wrap or just wait it out, just know that it’s normal. Patience is key! If you’ve planned enough time (maybe even an extra hour or two buffer for big cuts), you’ll be fine. And if your meat finishes early, you can always hold it warm as mentioned.

Final Tips for Success

Smoking meat on a charcoal grill is a learning experience, and part of the fun is getting better each time. To wrap up, here are some final tips and encouragement to help you succeed:

Keep Notes (and Adjust): The first few times, jot down what you did – how you arranged the coals, which vents settings you used, how often you added fuel, etc. This might sound nerdy, but it helps! Next time you smoke, you can replicate what worked and tweak what didn’t. Every grill runs a bit differently, and taking notes turns each cook into a lesson for the next.
Plan Ahead and Take Your Time: Start your cook with plenty of time to spare. It’s better to finish early and keep the meat warm than to have hungry guests waiting while your brisket inches toward done. Also, gather everything you’ll need in advance (charcoal, wood, water pan, lighter, thermometer, even your sauces and utensils) so you’re not scrambling mid-cook. Once the grill is going, you want to be able to just chill and monitor, not run to the store for more charcoal.
Patience and Consistency: It’s been said a few times, but it bears repeating: low and slow barbecue requires patience. If your temperature creeps up or drops, don’t over-correct with drastic vent changes or by dumping in a ton of charcoal at once. Make small tweaks, wait, and trust the process. Minor ups and downs in temperature won’t ruin your food as long as you’re in the general range. Consistency over hours is what matters. And if you have a misstep (like a period where the grill got too hot or the fire went out and you had to relight), don’t be too hard on yourself. It happens to everyone! You can often recover – get the temp back on track and continue. The food will likely still turn out delicious, and you’ll have a story to tell.
Temperature > Time: Always cook to temperature and tenderness, not just time. Times are guidelines, but use that meat thermometer to know for sure. This tip alone will save you from undercooking or overcooking. For example, if you expected your ribs to be done in 5 hours but at 5 hours they’re still tough, give them more time. Or if your pork butt hits 200°F internal faster than expected, check it – it might be done early (rare, but it happens). The meat is the boss, not the clock.
Manage Fuel and Air: During long cooks, remember the basics: add fuel if needed and ensure your grill’s vents aren’t accidentally bumped closed or wide open. Ash buildup from charcoal can sometimes block airflow on the bottom vent over a long cook – if you notice your fire dying and you’ve still got unburned charcoal, check that ash isn’t choking the fire. Carefully stir or clear out ash (wearing gloves, using a tool) if needed to keep air flowing.
Enjoy the Experience: Backyard smoking is as much about the experience as it is about the end result. Grab a lawn chair and a cold beverage, smell that amazing smoke, and enjoy the time outdoors. Invite a friend or family member to hang out by the grill with you. Some of my best memories are just kicking back near the smoker, swapping stories (or listening to good music) while babysitting a brisket. It teaches you to slow down and savor the journey. By the time you finally slice into that smoked masterpiece, it’s so rewarding because you know the care that went into it.
Stay Safe: A quick reminder to be safe: Keep your grill on a stable, non-flammable surface. Be cautious with hot coals and dispose of ashes in a metal container once they’re completely cooled. Have a water bucket or extinguisher handy just in case (especially if you’re in a dry area or it’s windy). And use those grill gloves when handling anything hot.

Lastly, don’t be afraid to experiment. Try different wood combinations, play with spice rubs and marinades on your meats, and tweak your methods to see what gives you the flavor and texture you love. Every pitmaster has their own style, and you’ll develop yours too. Whether you’re smoking a simple chicken or tackling a USDA prime brisket, the fact that you’re doing it on a humble charcoal grill makes it all the more impressive. So fire up that kettle, embrace the smoke, and get ready to wow yourself (and your friends and family) with some terrific BBQ. Happy smoking, and remember – you’ve got this! Enjoy the journey and the delicious results.

Grilling can be dangerous. Information provided is for educational purposes only. Always follow proper grilling and food safety guidelines when handling and cooking meat. Use a meat thermometer to ensure safe internal temperatures, wash hands and surfaces thoroughly, and avoid cross-contamination. Information is for educational purposes only

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