It also has an easy-to-remove ash pan, a professional temperature gauge, and large air dampeners for superior airflow control. The best charcoal weber portable grill grill for steak searing in our lineup was the Weber Classic Kettle. The steak had nice grill marks while keeping a medium doneness on the inside.
This brings about more smoke flavor in barbecue meat like pork ribs, pork butt and beef brisket. Next, we tested each grill’s medium heat cooking capability by roasting whole chickens. The trick here is to keep the grills at a hot enough temperature to cook a chicken for upwards of two hours. We placed two steaks on each grilling grate near the center and seared them for five minutes before flipping them over and searing for another five minutes. With a good, reliable grill, this will give you a steak with a seared outside and a medium rare to medium center.
Cooking ribs low and slow on the Nexgrill required just 4 hours, 30 minutes. Its rack came out well too, though like the Napoleon, its bark was more pronounced than what the Weber produced. I also consider look, feel, functionality, durability, and price.
They’re versatile too since they can use either traditional charcoal briquettes or lump charcoal as fuel. Our last test is grilling barbecued ribs, specifically baby back pork ribs. This style of cooking requires strict temperature control over a period of multiple hours. Ideally, a quality charcoal grill (or any smoker) will keep its fire humming weber gas grill along close to 225 degrees F for as long as possible. Lidless charcoal grills may be good for simple grilling, like cooking burgers and shrimp over direct heat, but you need a lid to successfully roast turkeys and smoke ribs. The average full-size grill is around 400 to 500 square inches—plenty of room to make enough food for a backyard gathering.
While it’s on the small side with just 147 square inches of cooking area, this compact grill is an unbeatable value, especially considering its reliable performance. The kettle-style grill weighs less than 10 pounds, making it a top choice for camping or on-the-go grilling, and its porcelain-enameled lid and bowl provide impeccable heat retention. When shopping for a charcoal grill, there are numerous styles, including kettle, barrel, and kamado grills. Kettle grills have a relatively small circular cooking area, making them ideal for small families, but if you regularly cook for a crowd, barrel-style grills offer more space. Kamado grills have thick ceramic walls that provide excellent insulation and work well for grilling and smoking. Cooking over charcoal takes longer than cooking with a gas grill, and we typically need to add more fuel during cooking to keep our grills above 350 degrees F for the full duration.
The worst was our Tacklife review unit, which didn’t hold much heat and didn’t sear while cooking. The steak on that grill needed an additional five minutes to get to a temperature of 135 F, the minimum for medium rare. We measured charcoal in a chimney by grams, and in a ratio for that grill’s specific surface area. We lit the charcoal inside the chimney, letting it burn until the smoke dissipated and the coals began to turn grayish-white, then put the charcoal into the grill.