Making a Flower Pot Grill

  • 01 of 04

    Picking a Pot - Making a Flower Pot Grill

    Terracotta flower pot
    RapidEye / Getty Images

    A good ceramic (terracotta) flowerpot makes the perfect vessel for grilling. The ceramic material holds in and focuses heat while insulating the outside. The shape and size of a 10-inch pot are ideal for a few kebabs and the charcoal will stay hot for hours of grilling fun.

    Buy a good quality 10 or 12-inch ceramic flower pot with two saucers. You will need sand―enough to fill half of the pot. This will be the main components for the flower pot grill in addition to charcoal, skewers, and something to cook.

    Warning: We mentioned that the terracotta of the flower pot will insulate your grill. This doesn't mean that the vessel won't become hot. It will get horribly hot and should be placed somewhere stable and safe. At all times, someone should be responsible for each pot you put out until that pot's fire is extinguished.

    Continue to 2 of 4 below.
  • 02 of 04

    Preparing the Pot - Making a Flower Pot Grill

    Flowerpot half filled with sand
    Derrick Riches

    Place your flowerpot onto the saucer. Flowerpots have a hole in the bottom, so to avoid having the sand pour out, place a saucer under the pot and keep it there during cooking. Fortunately, the saucer will remain cool no matter how hot the pot becomes; if you need to handle or lift the pot, do so only by the saucer but, please be very careful.

    Fill the pot nearly half full with sand. The sand insulates the bottom of the pot from the heat so you can set your flowerpot grill on surfaces and it won't transfer the heat.

    Continue to 3 of 4 below.
  • 03 of 04

    Building Your Fire - Making a Flower Pot Grill

    Flowerpot with Burning Charcoal
    Derrick Riches

    For a single 10-inch flowerpot grill, you will need 12 to 14 standard charcoal briquettes. They must be already burning when they go into the pot. So you need something to light the charcoal in and also a way to move the hot coals into the pot.

    What works best for this task is a charcoal chimney, since this is a quick and easy way to light charcoal. Light the briquettes and with a pair of tongs transfer the burning hot coals into the flowerpot on top of the sand. The coals do not have to be completely ready (white and ashy), but at least hot and burning.

    Transportation Problem: Moving a flaming hot flowerpot grill, heavy with sand and burning coals, can be difficult and dangerous, and filling a flower pot with burning hot coals sitting on a table can also be dangerous. You can choose to do either.

    You need a single layer of coals in your pot. Do not overfill them because the excess heat can cause your pot to crack or break.

    Continue to 4 of 4 below.
  • 04 of 04

    Cooking on Your Pot - Making a Flower Pot Grill

    Terracotta flower pot grill
    Maarigard / Getty Images

    You can spend days trying to find the perfect cooking grate for your flowerpot and end up placing a single burger patty on it, one at a time, or you can choose to go with kebabs for your flowerpot cookout. A 10-inch flowerpot grill can hold three good sized kebabs and cook them in about 10 minutes. Since you have the pot handy your guests can take turns grilling up a wide range of foods (over the course of two hours) when the flowerpot grill remains hot.

    When you are done cooking on your flower pot grill, place the second saucer on top of the pot to extinguish the fire by removing the oxygen.

    Warning: Do not pour water into your flowerpot grill. The sudden shock of cold can break the pot, making a big mess.