Killer Barbecue

Much like your house, your outdoor kitchen can be pretty much whatever you want it to be. How big and fancy it is, of course, depends on just how much you’re willing to spend. You might not consider the Weber on your deck a kitchen, but if you add storage, lighting, water, etc., then it might become one.

Just like your regular kitchen, the one in your yard needs some planning. How often will it be used? How many people will you be cooking for? Are you going to barbecue (you’d better) or just grill meals? Will it need to function for full course meals? Or just quick and small dinners?

In our case, since our kids won’t eat anything cooked in a BBQ or on a grill (with the possible exception of a hot dog,) we don’t require a big outdoor kitchen. Our neighbors, who have people over regularly, do have use for one that is much larger than ours.

Some other questions that have to be decided first: Will it be on the deck or the patio? Next to the house or out in the yard? Should it be covered by a roof extension or a canopy or a gazebo in case of rain?

If it is going to have electrical appliances, then what kind of power will you need? Running a 110 volt power cord is easier and cheaper than burying a cable, but running that underground cable gives you more options (and the cable is better protected and arguably safer.)

Plan and lay out your design on a piece of graph paper. Measure your own kitchen so you can get a feel for what kind of space you’ll need. For inspiration, plans, and guidelines you’ll want to get a solid book before you start.

Do a physical layout of your outdoor kitchen with chalk or string, and get a feel for size and what goes where. This is the time to really think about the details. Jot down all your thoughts in a notebook.

Make sure you factor in exactly what kind of cooking you’ll be doing and leave some room for expansion. For example: if you’re only Barbecuing then you don’t need a stove top, but maybe you should consider a stove top for creating sauces, etc.

Do you need a refrigerator out there to hold your meats and veggies and such? Or just to hold a few sodas? If all the food is stored in the house (a good idea in many areas) then you can easily make do with a small fridge.

What kind of storage do you want? Will you have a dedicated outdoor set of dishes or just carry them from the house?

Will you be doing the food prep outdoors? If so you’ll want a sink and will need the appropriate plumbing hookups.

Now about those bugs… I mean the flying ones, not the technical ones. In our area it’s wasps, yellow jackets, and flies. The insect traps that you can get from the hardware store handle the yellow jackets and flies just fine. As for the wasps, we find the nests while they’re small, and we use one of those wasp sprays with the 20′ stream on the nest. Fewer bugs make for a much nicer meal!

Speaking of which… are you going to have an indoor or outdoor eating area? Will it be covered?

If you’re going to be adding any power or plumbing or permanent structures, then you might want to hop on down to your local building department and see if any kind of permit is required. Keeping everything legal can help to avoid certain headaches later on (such as when you sell the house) and the inspections just might catch something that needs to be caught, such as a bad power hookup.

With a little planning you should be able to put up an outdoor kitchen which will not only make for better barbecue, but will have your neighbors becoming a lot more friendly. Good luck!

Here’s a cool video on how to build a barbecue surround for your outdoor kitchen.

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