Tri-tip is the Santa Maria grill's famous dish, but the adjustable grate was made for a whole menu: chicken that cooks through without burning, beef cuts beyond the tri-tip, chops and sausages, and vegetables and bread that make the fire work for every course. The method is the same for all of it — raise the grate for gentle heat, lower it for a sear, and use the fire's different zones to cook several foods at once. This guide shows what each food needs from the grate and how to plan a mixed-fire meal that comes off together.
Reading the grill: height per food
The grate height is the Santa Maria cook's main control, and each food has a natural position. High on the grate — the farthest from the coals — is gentle heat for slow cooking, keeping food warm and rendering fat without charring. Mid-height is the workhorse zone for most proteins: hot enough to brown and cook through with attention. Low is the sear zone, used in short bursts to build a crust. The fire itself changes through the cook — a young, roaring fire radiates differently from a settled bed of glowing coals — so height is a conversation with the fire, not a fixed setting.
Learn to read the coals before worrying about recipes. A good Santa Maria fire is a bed of glowing coals with a lively flame, not a towering blaze; the coals provide steady heat and the flames add sear and flavor. When the fire is too hot, raise the grate and let it settle; when it dies down, add fuel and wait for the coals to catch. The foods below assume a settled fire and a cook who adjusts the grate by feel, checking color and doneness rather than trusting a clock.
Chicken that finishes without burning
Chicken is the food that separates a thoughtful Santa Maria cook from a frustrated one, because the outside wants to burn before the inside cooks. The solution is a flattened bird and a patient height. Spatchcock the chicken — remove the backbone and press it flat — so the whole bird cooks evenly in one layer, then cook it bone side down at mid-to-high grate height, away from the fiercest heat, until the skin renders and browns gradually. The flat shape cuts the cooking time dramatically and gives the fire an even surface to work with, which is why spatchcocking beats a whole bird on an open grate nearly every time.
Move the chicken down only at the end, for a final crisp of the skin, and use the probe to judge doneness rather than the skin color — the USDA minimum for poultry is 165°F, measured in the thickest part of the thigh away from bone. Cook chicken over the calmer section of the fire if the grate has a cooler zone, and keep a spray bottle or basting brush nearby if flare-ups threaten the skin. Done right, the bird picks up real smoke flavor and a crisp, rendered skin instead of the charred-outside, raw-center result that open-fire chicken usually delivers.
Beef cuts beyond tri-tip
Tri-tip earns its fame because its shape suits the grate: thick in the middle, tapering at the ends, cooked high to warm through and low to sear. Other beef cuts work on the same logic with small adjustments. Picanha — the fat-capped sirloin cap — is a natural Santa Maria cut: score the fat cap, cook it fat side up at mid-height so the fat renders and bastes the meat, then sear the cap at the end. A whole ribeye or a thick strip roast cooks like a small roast, started higher and finished lower, and skirt or flank steaks are best as fast, low sears with a hot fire.
Match the cut to the height and the fire, not the other way around. Thick, well-marbled cuts tolerate the slow warm-up of a high grate and reward the final sear; lean, thin cuts need the fire hot and the time short. Probe every thick cut in the center, pull a few degrees before your target and rest it — the carryover that finishes a tri-tip works the same on picanha or a whole ribeye. The grill's signature move, high to render and low to sear, is a method for beef in general, and tri-tip is simply the cut that made it famous.
Pork, lamb and sausages
Pork chops and roasts take well to the Santa Maria's two-stage heat: start high to render the fat and bring the meat toward temperature, then lower the grate for a browned crust. Thick bone-in chops are the best format — the bone protects the meat and the thickness suits the method — and a pork loin or shoulder benefits from the gentlest position on the grate with a longer cook. Lamb follows the same pattern: a butterflied leg or thick chops warm at mid-height and sear low, and the smoke from the fire complements lamb's flavor better than almost any other meat.
Sausages are the easiest win on a Santa Maria grill because they forgive attention lapses. Cook them at mid-height, turning as they brown, and move them to the cooler edge to finish slowly — the goal is a snappy, rendered casing with a fully cooked interior, not a burst, charred link. Keep the heat moderate rather than dropping the grate to the sear zone, because intense heat splits casings before the inside cooks. Sausages also make the perfect fire management tool: they hold the mid zone while the steak or chicken finishes, filling the gaps in a mixed grill with food that is hard to ruin.
Vegetables and grilled bread
Vegetables turn the Santa Maria grill into a full kitchen instead of a meat station. Dense vegetables — peppers, onions, zucchini, eggplant, corn — cook beautifully over the fire: brush them lightly with oil, cook at mid-height until charred and tender, and move them to the cooler edge if they need more time without more char. Whole corn in the husk steams at the grate's edge while the meat sears, and halved peppers and onions become the base for sauces or sides. The key is oil and patience: dry vegetables stick and burn, so oil the surface and let the fire do the caramelizing.
Bread is the sleeper hit of Santa Maria cooking. Thick slices of sourdough or a rustic loaf toast over the fire's edge, picking up smoke and char in a minute per side; brush them with oil or garlic butter before they hit the grate and pull them the moment the edges darken. Grilled bread doubles as the serving platform for the whole meal — slices under sliced tri-tip soak up the juices — and it uses the fire's residual heat while the meat rests. A basket of grilled bread at the table is the sign of a cook who understands that the fire can feed every course, not just the protein.
Planning a mixed-fire meal
| Course / food | Grate position | Timing logic |
|---|---|---|
| Chicken (spatchcock) | Mid-to-high, finish low | Longest cook; start first over calmer coals |
| Tri-tip or picanha | High to warm, low to sear | Warm gently while chicken finishes |
| Pork chops / lamb | Mid, then low | Add after chicken; sear at the end |
| Sausages | Mid, cooler edge | Hold on the edge through the whole cook |
| Vegetables | Mid, move to edge | Cook alongside the proteins; pull as they char |
| Bread | Edge, quick toast | Last, while the meat rests |
Plan the fire meal by cook time, not by course order. The longest-cooking item — usually the chicken — starts first on the calmest part of the grate; the steaks and chops join as the fire settles; sausages hold on the edge; vegetables fill the gaps; and the bread toasts during the rest. The fire's zones are the real calendar: hot center for searing, mid zones for cooking through and cool edges for holding, and a cook who assigns each food to a zone can run a whole dinner on one bed of coals.
Big Horn's portable Santa Maria style charcoal grill and the Argentine Santa Maria style parrilla grill give you the adjustable grate this menu depends on, and the grills and griddles collection shows the full range. Start with a settled fire, read the grate heights as your controls, and let the zones do the scheduling — then the tri-tip becomes one course in a meal the grill was always meant to cook.
Product details and prices in this guide were verified against official Big Horn Outdoors listings during the September 5, 2026 review; re-check prices and availability at checkout.
