Can You Use Aluminum Foil on a Blackstone Griddle?

One of the popular grilling techniques used by many BBQ lovers is wrapping the grilled food in aluminum foil before throwing it on the grates. Tin foil meals are easy, delicious, and require almost no effort in the cooking stage. But how about griddles? Can you use aluminum foil? Does it damage the surface? What is it good for?

The short answer is:

You can safely use aluminum foil on Blackstone griddles. It’s an effective way to keep juices and flavor locked in, and it also helps to keep the griddle surface clean.

When choosing the foil in-store, make sure to get one that is thick and heavy-duty. You don’t want it to tear when you are wrapping it around food or when you are flipping it with a spatula or tongs. Yes, heavy-duty grilling foil is slightly more expensive, but it is worth it.

Table of Contents

• What Can You Use Aluminum Foil For?
  • Wrapping food in foil
  • Covering the cooked food
  • Creating a makeshift lid or basting cover
  • Creating a makeshift drip tray
  • Creating a makeshift smoke box
  • Preventing cross-contamination
• Foil Bags
• Aluminum Foil Pans and Trays
• Basting Dome Is Your Friend
• Can You Use Aluminum Foil on Electric Blackstone Griddles?
• Final Thoughts
• FAQ

What Can You Use Aluminum Foil For?

Aluminum foil can serve many purposes on a Blackstone griddle. Let’s have a look at some of them.

Wrapping food in foil

The most obvious and popular use is to wrap the food so that you create a foil packet and then throw it onto the griddle. Since there is no way to escape, all the juices and flavor will stay locked in. This is a great way for cooking both meats and veggies.

Food that benefits from this technique includes corn on the cob, baked potatoes, asparagus, any many others.

If you like grilled cheese, tin foil is awesome for the types of cheese that likes to melt a bit too much and make a total mess on the griddle. French-style cheese such as Brie or Camembert are the prime examples, wrap them up together with a marinade before grilling and you won’t have to worry about cleaning up afterward.

Covering the cooked food

Aluminum foil can also be used to cover the food after it’s cooked. This technique is especially handy when cooking multiple items, such as the individual ingredients for burgers. You can cover each item with a piece of foil to help keep the heat in and prevent the food from drying out.

Creating a makeshift lid or basting cover

By placing a sheet of foil shaped into the form of a dome or pan over the food on the griddle, it can help to trap heat, which can help to cook the food more evenly. This can be especially effective when grilling items that require a longer cooking time, such as large cuts of meat, as it can help to keep the temperature consistent throughout the cooking process.

Creating a makeshift drip tray

Instead of buying premade grease cups, you can also make one using tin foil. Take a piece of aluminum foil and shape it so that it fits into the grease tray. It’s cheaper than buying the cups and also works just as well.

Creating a makeshift smoke box

If you want to infuse your food with some smoky flavor, you can make a makeshift smoke box using aluminum foil. To do this, wrap your favorite wood chips in a small and tight package. When ready to smoke, simply poke a hole in the package to let the smoke out. Place this package on the griddle and wait for it to start smoking. Cover the griddle with a lid or at least cover the food and tinfoil packet with a basting cover.

Without a cover of sorts, you will just smoke away some mosquitoes and flies instead of smoking your food. I mean, it’s great to get rid of the pesky suckers, but it’s not quite the desired effect.

Preventing cross-contamination

Another great use for aluminum foil is to prevent cross-contamination. This can be especially helpful when you’re cooking multiple types of food at once.

This can be especially important when grilling meats and vegetables together, or when grilling for people with food allergies or dietary restrictions. Using foil to separate different types of food, can help prevent cross-contamination.

This can be done by separating the different types of food on the griddle with a piece of foil, or by wrapping each type of food in its own foil packet before grilling. This can be also useful when cooking different types of meat, to avoid cross-contamination of raw and cooked meats.

Foil Bags

Don’t feel like making your own foil packets? Then you can buy special foil bags for grilling.

They are extremely easy to use. You just have to put all the food inside, preferably in an even layer, together with your favorite seasoning or marinade. Fold the open end and place the bag on the griddle. The temperature varies depending on what you’re cooking, however, 450°F is a good starting point. Once cooked, lay the bag on a plate and carefully slice it open.

The downside is that these bags are more expensive than buying regular foil and creating the packets yourself.

Aluminum Foil Pans and Trays

Aluminum foil pans are also a great addition to your griddling arsenal.

When you’re feeding a large crowd, these pans can help to keep the food warm and are great for serving up sides and other dishes.

The pans can also be used for deep frying on the griddle, which is not something many people think of but can be a great way to get a delicious, crispy finish.

Other uses include warming various sauces or soups, boiling veggies, making popcorn, creating a smokebox, and many others. Hey, you can even bake a cake in a tin foil tray.

Basting Dome Is Your Friend

If you don’t have a basting dome and plan on cooking tin foil meals, it’s a good idea to invest in one. It will help keep the heat trapped inside, allowing your food to cook evenly and more quickly.

If you have a lid on your griddle, that’s fine to use too, however, the basting dome provides more flexibility. You can cover a portion of the griddle with the dome and continue cooking on the other side. Sure, food will cook under the lid as well but you won’t be able to access it with your spatulas when it’s down, right?

You don’t need anything fancy and expensive. A simple cheap basting dome will do. As long as you choose one that’s not bigger than the griddle.

Can You Use Aluminum Foil on Electric Blackstone Griddles?

Even though the electric griddles are equipped with non-stick-coated tops, using aluminum foil is perfectly fine. As long as you don’t intentionally try to scratch the griddle with a scrunched-up blob of foil, there’s not a real risk of damaging the coating.

You can use the foil in pretty much the same way as described in the paragraphs above.

Final Thoughts

All in all, aluminum foil can be used in many different ways when griddling with Blackstone griddles.

It can help you keep your food warm, prevent cross-contamination, and let you create delicious foil packets with marinades.

The bonus is that it is relatively inexpensive as long as you stick with regular foil.

FAQ