The Right Way To Adjust Your Oven Racks For Broiling

If you find yourself intimidated by your oven's broiler, you're not alone. Using a high-temperature heating source and placing your carefully prepared dish close to that source seems like a recipe for a smoke-alarm-inducing disaster. In reality, it's not that serious. In fact, with a few helpful tips, we're hoping to change the narrative on broiling so that the once-neglected feature of your oven becomes your new best friend. 

Because broilers typically have pretty basic temperature settings (on or off, or high or low), moderating their heat might feel like an unsolvable mystery. But the trick to nailing your broiler's heat is simple: It's all about distance. By moving your oven rack closer to or further from the heat source, you can more precisely regulate its heat. 

Particularly helpful recipes will actually tell you how far your food should be from the heating element. A skirt steak recipe, for instance, might tell you to sear your steak 3 inches away from the source. If your steak is about 2 inches thick and your broiling pan is about 1 inch thick, then your oven rack should be 6 inches away from the top of the oven. If you're not great at eyeballing distances and you don't want to bust out your measuring tape, you can follow this basic rule of thumb: The thicker the food, the further from the heat source it should be.

So what is the broiler, and what's its purpose, anyway? Your broiler is the radiant heat source at the top of your oven (or sometimes in a drawer below it). When you bake something, you're really just heating up the air in a very confined space to then heat whatever you're cooking. When you're broiling, you're placing your food intentionally close to the heat source. This is especially helpful for adding color to your vegetables, a lovely char to your cut of meat, or a caramelized coating to your crème brûlée. Your broiler is not your best bet when you're trying to warm something through or perfectly cook a thick cut of steak. The top-down heat means that the top of your dense dish will burn while the bottom stays cold.

Once you've adjusted your oven racks to their perfect position, preheat your broiler for about five minutes. This will ensure that whatever you're cooking gets that immediate blast of heat so you won't have to second guess your recipe's timing. If you have a broiling pan, you might want to preheat it as well so that both sides of what you're broiling get a hit of heat when it goes in the oven. If you're still worried about the smoke detector, ventilate your space by opening your oven door a crack. As long as you keep a careful eye on your oven and position your food at an appropriate distance from the heat source, you can put your broiler fears to rest.