How to prep ribs, chicken & steaks for the barbecue
There’s a moment, somewhere between lighting the coals and the first sizzle of meat hitting the grate, when a barbecue transforms from an outdoor cooking exercise into something closer to a ritual. What separates the forgettable from the genuinely memorable, however, rarely happens at the grill itself. It happens in the kitchen, on the chopping board, in the ten or twenty minutes of careful preparation that most people rush through or skip entirely.
Our barbecue meat prep guide is about doing those minutes properly. Whether you’re working through a rack of spare ribs, spatchcocking a chicken, or trimming a bone-in ribeye, the quality of your prep determines everything that follows - how evenly your meat cooks, how well it takes on flavour, and how cleanly it carves at the table. A sharp, well-chosen barbecue knife is the foundation of all of it.
Why meat prep matters more than people think
Most barbecue advice focuses on temperatures, timings, and rubs. These things matter, of course. But there’s a quieter truth worth stating plainly: imprecise butchery creates uneven cooking. A chicken with uneven thickness will give you dried out breast meat before the thighs are safe to eat. Ribs with the membrane left intact will never absorb a rub properly and will turn chewy rather than tender. A steak with excess sinew will curl and buckle on the grill, cooking unevenly and losing contact with the heat.
Good barbecue meat preparation is not fussy or overly technical. It simply requires the right tools, a bit of knowledge, and a willingness to take an extra few minutes before the coals are even lit.
The knife you use at the prep stage is just as important as the grill you cook on. A blade that’s sharp, balanced, and suited to the cut will do in seconds what the wrong knife struggles to do at all. Take a look at our barbecue knife guide for more tips or at our first ever Japanese BBQ knife, launched 01 June 2026.
Rib barbecue prep: Getting the most from your rack
Pork ribs - whether baby back, spare, or another cut - are among the most forgiving and rewarding things you can put on a barbecue. But they demand a little attention before they go anywhere near the heat.
● Remove the membrane
The silverskin membrane on the bone-side of the rack is tough, impermeable, and unpleasant to eat. Left on, it acts as a barrier against smoke, rub, and heat penetration. Removing it takes about thirty seconds. Slide the tip of a thin, flexible knife under the membrane at one end of the rack - a boning or fillet knife works well here - and then grip the loosened flap with a piece of kitchen paper and pull it away in one steady motion.
● Trim excess fat
A moderate fat cap is desirable. An inch of hard fat in patches is not - it will flare up and burn rather than render slowly. Use a good knife for meat preparation to trim any thick, uneven fat deposits back to around 5-6mm. Keep it precise and don't take off more than necessary; the fat is there for flavour and basting.
● Score and season
If you’re applying a dry rub - and for ribs, you almost certainly should be - lightly scoring the meat side of the rack helps the spices penetrate and adhere. Use the tip of your knife to make shallow diagonal cuts across the surface without going deep into the meat. Apply your rub generously, press it in with your hands, and ideally leave the rack in the fridge uncovered for a few hours or overnight.
Chicken barbecue prep: Spatchcock for even cooking
A whole chicken placed directly on a barbecue, unsplit and unmodified, is one of cooking's more stubborn challenges. The breast and the legs cook at different rates, the bird sits awkwardly on the grate, and the result is almost always a compromise somewhere. Spatchcocking - removing the backbone and flattening the bird - solves all of this at once.
● How to spatchcock
Place the chicken breast-side down on a stable board. Using a pair of sturdy kitchen scissors or, if you prefer, a heavy chef's knife, cut along either side of the backbone from tail to neck and remove it entirely (save it for stock). Then flip the bird, place your palm firmly on the breastbone, and press down with steady, even pressure until you feel and hear the breastbone crack flat.
The result is a chicken of uniform thickness that will cook evenly across the grill, give you crispy skin on every surface, and take around half the time of a conventional roast. For this kind of work, having the right specialist kitchen knife for the task makes a genuine difference - particularly when it comes to working cleanly around joints and bones.
● Trim and dry the skin
Trim any loose flaps of skin around the cavity and neck, which tend to burn rather than crisp. Pat the entire bird dry with kitchen paper - moisture is the enemy of good char and flavour development. If time allows, salt the skin generously and leave it uncovered in the fridge for at least two hours. The skin will dry out further and crisp dramatically on the grill.
● Scoring for marinades
If you are using a wet marinade rather than a dry rub, score the chicken legs and thighs with three or four deep cuts down to the bone. This allows the marinade to reach the densest parts of the meat and also helps the legs cook through at the same rate as the breast.
Steak barbecue prep: Less is often more
A good steak doesn’t need a great deal of intervention. What it needs is precision - removing the things that will interfere with cooking while leaving everything that contributes to flavour and texture entirely intact.
● Trim sinew and silverskin
Silverskin - the tough, iridescent connective tissue found on cuts like sirloin and flank - will not break down during the relatively short cooking time of a barbecued steak. Where it runs across the grain, it will cause the meat to curl and buckle on the grill, producing uneven contact and uneven cooking. Use the tip of a sharp boning knife to slide under the silverskin at one end of the strip, angle slightly upward, and draw the knife along its length to remove it cleanly without taking meat with it.
● Fat: trim, don't remove
The fat cap on a sirloin or ribeye is integral to flavour, basting, and crust formation. Do not remove it entirely. If the fat is very thick - over 2cm - trim it back, but leave a generous layer. Score the fat cap at intervals with cuts down to but not into the meat. This prevents the steak from bowing and curling as the fat contracts under heat, keeping the meat flat and in full contact with the grill.
● Bring to temperature and season well
Remove steaks from the fridge at least thirty to forty-five minutes before cooking. A cold steak hitting a hot grill produces an overcooked grey band beneath the crust rather than the even, wall-to-wall colour you are after. Season generously with flaky sea salt immediately before the steak goes on - salt draws moisture to the surface, which is ideal for crust formation at high heat.
The tools that make the difference
None of this barbecue meat prep guide is technically difficult. But all of it is significantly easier and more precise with the right blade in your hand. A flexible boning knife for membranes and silverskin. A heavy chef's knife or cleaver for backbone removal. A long carving knife for resting and slicing. Or why not try the brand new, limited edition Global BBQ knife, designed for versatile BBQ and outdoor cooking prep. Each task has a tool designed for it, and using the right one is the difference between prep that is pleasurable and prep that is a struggle.
Global's range of knives for meat covers every stage of this process, built in CROMOVA 18 high-chromium steel that takes and holds a precise edge through heavy prep work. The all-stainless construction means no transfer of flavour, no maintenance headaches, and a blade that is as at home in a professional kitchen as it is in the garden on a Sunday afternoon.
A note on knife safety during prep
Raw meat creates slippery surfaces. Before any serious prep session, ensure your chopping board is stable - a damp cloth underneath a wooden board works well. Keep your fingertips curled into the knuckle grip rather than extended when making long cuts. Work deliberately rather than quickly; speed will come naturally with practice, and a careful cut always beats a fast one.
Preparation is the quiet work of the barbecue
The best barbecues aren’t improvised. They are the result of ten minutes of focused, skilled preparation that gives the heat something good to work with. Ribs with the membrane removed and a well-pressed rub. A spatchcocked chicken with dry, scored skin. A sirloin with silverskin taken off cleanly and fat scored ready to render. These are small acts, but they compound. They are the difference between a good result and a great one, between meat that is fine and meat that people talk about on the way home.
Take the time. Use the right knife. The grill will do the rest.