Two-zone fire

A two-zone fire splits a grill into two areas: one side loaded with coals or with burners turned up high for direct heat, and the other side left empty or on low for indirect cooking. It gives a single grill the flexibility of both a hot skillet and a slow oven at the same time, which is why it is one of the first setups most people learn once they move past cooking everything directly over the coals.

In practice, a two-zone fire lets you sear a steak hard on the hot side, then slide it to the cool side to finish gently without burning the crust, or start a chicken thigh on the indirect side to render fat and cook through, then finish it over direct heat for crisp skin at the end. It also gives a safe place to move food if a flare-up happens on the hot side.

Building one is mostly about arrangement: pile charcoal against one wall of the grill rather than spreading it evenly, or leave one or two burners off on a gas grill. A common mistake is making the indirect zone too small, which leaves nowhere to rescue food that is browning faster than it is cooking through.