How To Clean A Flat Top Grill or Griddle (Step by Step)

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Want to know how to clean a flat top grill?

Grab a seat by the griddle and let’s talk cleanup in this guide on how to clean your flat top grill.

Ahh yes, cooking on the griddle. What’s not to love? It’s quick, effective, and fun!

But, like all good things, we must clean up the mess we made.

Know Your Specific Griddle Surface Type

This guide will be for Stainless Steel or Cast Iron flat top grill surfaces like you find in a Blackstone or Camp Chef.

If you are unsure, check your owner’s manual. If you’re not sure if you need a good cleaning, just look at your griddle.

Is it looking clean, smooth, and non-stick? Or is it full of old food burn spots?

If it’s the latter, you need a deep clean. Again, This is NOT for a CHROME griddle surface.

Items you will need To Remove Sticky Griddle Surface:

Flat Top Grill or Griddle
Scraper or Metal Spatula
Kitchen Cloths or a Large Number of Paper Towels
Water Bottle or Cup
Seasoning Oil (Grape-seed, Olive, or Avocado)
Tongs (optional)

Clean Your Flat Top Grill Without Using Chemicals

We are all very programmed to bust out the soap or cleaning chemicals at all times.

To be fair, that’s a good practice overall (especially for our bodies) but when it comes to your griddle? Let’s NOT use soap or chemicals to clean the griddle.

The first time I ever heard anyone tell me to not use soap when someone was referring to their well-seasoned cast-iron pan.

Years later, it still applies to most Flat Top Grills or Griddle.

With that said, we DO want to clean the griddle, just not with soap or harmful chemicals.

Chemicals have properties that will strip away the seasoning and essentially make your griddle not cook well.

You may be wondering how this is possible but as you can see below, simply using heat and boiling water, we can disinfect the griddle surface, yet keep the non-stick seasoning of the flat top grill.

Daily Griddle Cleaning Without Chemicals or Soap

Daily cleanings are the most common type of cleaning you will need to do with your flat top grill.

These daily cleanings are reserved for right after you cook a good meal and you’re about to put your flat top grill away until the next use.

PSSST!!: Want to step up your griddling game? Check out Grill Masters Club.

Cleaning your flat top grill daily after use will help in a variety of ways, specifically, it will leave the griddle stored with a clean, oiled surface that adds to the seasoning and keeps rust from forming in a humid environment.

Follow these steps for a good old fashioned cleaning of your griddle:

While griddle is cooling, use griddle scraper or metal spatula to scrape off all excess food particles and grease.
Take a Water Bottle and pour some water on the griddle surface. It should be hot enough to steam and boil off.
Quickly scraper off the excess water off. You will notice this water get dirty very quickly as this happen as the water is boiling off deep in the pours that are open on the griddle surface, releasing the food build-up.
Fold Kitchen Cloth into small thick square 5″x5″ recommended but this can be estimated, no need to measure.
Pour water back on griddle again and as it it steaming, use the tongs or scraper to push the folded cloth around the griddle surface in all directions and along the griddle walls.
Refold the Cloth for a clean side and repeat step 5 until flat top grill surface is clean, smooth and ready for a re-seasoning.

Griddle Re-Seasoning

So, you’ve cleaned your flat top grill, you can put it away, right? Nope. The MOST important step remaining is to re-season your griddle surface.

Re-Seasoning gives your griddle the needed oil coating to keep a smooth, non-stick surface for future cleaning.

Turn the heat back on to a Medium to High level.
Allow the surface to get HOT but not so hot that your smoking the neighbors out. A little smoke is fine but once it starts to smoke, you can turn the heat back off.
Using your seasoning oil of choice, drizzle a small amount onto the grill surface, think the size of a nickel. Yes, that small.
Use Clean Cloth to evenly spread the oil layer throughout the griddle surface.
Ensure no oil residue is left in excess anywhere on the surface, this should be a VERY LIGHT coating like you almost can’t even tell.

Griddle Cool Off Period

Allow your freshly cleaned and seasoned flat top grill or griddle to come back to room temperature on its own.

Once it is cool to the touch, then you can cover and store it again. If you have done all this and you have a sticky surface after, check out this guide to removing “sticky” surface gunk on a griddle or flat-top grill.

Conclusion

Done! While this may have seemed like a lot of steps, it is actually a very fast process and it’s done in less than 5 minutes.

Once you get a rhythm and routine, it’s pretty fast and you won’t even mind. In-Fact, it’s satisfying!