BBQ meat will be juicier and tastier every time if you add chef's 1 simple ingredient

Heatwave after heatwave, this summer has not been short of BBQ weather. British summers are often guilty of being wet and damp, but sunny skies and roasting temperatures have been abundant this year.

Weather permitting, a barbecue with friends and family is always a good idea, but if you're not confident behind the grill, there's an easy way to ensure your chicken, burgers or steak don't end up tough and dry. Barbecue chef Melissa Thompson has shared with Express.co.uk a simple but perhaps counterintuitive way of seasoning that results in "super juicy" meat. And to make it easier, you can do it on the same day you cook it.

As Melissa explains, brining is a fail-safe way to make your barbecue taste better every time. Generously salting the meat in advance, even hours before, will result in tender, flavoursome barbecue.

The foundation of flavour is salt, the chef said: "The key to getting it juicier, like if you're doing chicken or a steak, is a dry brine or wet brine."

How do you salt meat and when do you need to do it? The BBQ chef walked through how she preps before barbecues and how brining makes food delicious.

"So, if I'm doing chicken, even four hours beforehand, I'll get loads of salt on there - proper, nice sea salt," she said.

"You might think it's too much, but actually what that does is, by osmosis, it draws out the liquid, but also sucks in flavour. So you can put on salt, then maybe aromatics on top to have seasoning."

And rest assured, Melissa explained how all that seasoning turns your barbecue super juicy - not salty.

"When you cook it, a lot of that salt falls off, so it's not gonna be really salty. The meat is super juicy, which kind of is counterintuitive, because you think that by drawing out liquid, it's gonna make it dry."

Wet or dry brine?

Dry brining simply refers to sprinkling salt over food in advance, while wet brining means soaking it in a salt solution.

When presented with the option to dry or wet brine food, some food experts argue dry brining is superior. As per the food science experts at Serious Eats, "More water means more dilute flavor, while less water translates to more concentrated flavor."

If you're stuck for ideas, chef Melissa illustrated a simple dry rub recipe for grilled steak.

BBQ steak recipe

Ingredients

• Salt
• Black pepper
• Ground coffee
• Thyme
• Garlic

Method

"Leave it on a rack in the fridge uncovered overnight, and then scrape all that stuff off and grill it," she said. "It's going to be juicy and just delicious."