Hot Weather Cooking Tip: Outdoor Grill Turned Oven

This is the heat dial on the cover of our outdoor gas grill. We haven't had this grill for too long, and it's large and awesome.

Recently, I realized that with this temperature gauge on it, I could probably use the grill as an oven. This particular grill has 4 burners, and with all four going the grill heats up over 400 degrees in no time.

Last night, I decided to make beef enchiladas and use the grill to "bake" them. It worked like a charm! Here is what I did:

1. I made the enchiladas in an 11x14 pan lined with foil, which fits perfectly over two of the burners.
2. I preheated the grill with all four burners on and got it to 400 degrees.
3. I put my pan of enchiladas in the grill with all burners on and left it for 5 minutes.
4. At the end of 5 minutes, I turned off the left two burners and moved the pan so that it was centered over those burners. I left the right two burning about medium-high. The grill's heat stabilized at about 375 degrees.
5. I baked the enchiladas, uncovered, for 20 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through.

At the end of the 20 minutes, the enchiladas were perfectly cooked with no burning on the bottom. The best thing about this is that I did not have to heat up the kitchen to bake a pan of yummy enchiladas!

I plan to try baking either some zucchini bread or this Chocolate Zucchini Cake in the grill. I'll let you know how well it worked!

**This post was shared at Or So She Says, What's Cooking With Ruthie, and Your Home-based Mom.