Good job I checked a minute later because the extraordinarily high heat seared the skin of the wings so quickly I had to immediately drop the temperature to a more manageable level. Impressively, the temperature reduced as quickly as a gas grill and the wings came off the grate just the right side of edible – my bad for not reducing the heat fast enough. If you love barbecuing but you live in an area where the use of gas or charcoal is restricted, the new Weber weber charcoal grill Lumin Compact might just be the answer to your dilemma. This little titan – along with its larger sibling – uses the power of electricity to bring searing, grilling, steaming and smoking to your balcony, patio, caravan or boat with effortless swagger. The Masterbuilt is also set up to control temperature precisely thanks to a charcoal hopper that sits off to the side, next to a (battery- or outlet-powered) fan to blows hot air into the main cooking area.
They expected a smaller grill or did not like the fact they could not add lava rocks, a rotisserie, or thought the plastic parts felt a little cheap. Some people tried to compare it with a summit grill, but I think that is wrong.The summit is much higher priced and is a totally different grill. Most people give this grill very good ratings and are happy with it.
Inside, the 1560-watt heating element is design to cover the entire cooking space, so you’ll experience even heat, and its temperature is adjusted via the infinite heat control settings. There’s so much to love about this lightweight, versatile portable gas grill. The compact design is easy to bring to a sporting event or out camping, yet the porcelain-enameled cooking grate can still fit up to eight burgers at a time. This Cuisinart grill features a 5,500-BTU burner, a twist-start electric ignition, and a temperature gauge. The grate gives you 145 square inches of cooking space, accommodating four to six people at once. Despite its portability, the Traveler has plenty of cooking space, with 320 square inches (enough for about 15 burgers at a time), plus a small prep table attached to the side.
If you live in a flat with a balcony or often go glamping where electricity is provided, then this little grill – or its larger sibling – is a no brainer. I owned a standard Weber kettle for over ten years and never put a cover on it. Yet, aside from some easily-removable rust settling on the grate, it performed as well on its last day as it did on its first – and you can’t say that about most of the cheaper alternatives out there. The Cuisinart Petit Gourmet Portable Gas Grill stands out from the crowd thanks to its unique design, which converts from a freestanding model into a tabletop model in seconds. If you don’t want to shell out for our best overall option, this is a more affordable choice that also stood up to rigorous testing.
Shopping for a new grill can be challenging, especially if you’re budget-conscious and have a ceiling on your spending. Yet, you can still find an excellent grill for $300 or less if you prioritize function over special features. Higher-priced models come with bells and whistles that you may not need. You’re also paying for their weber bbq thick construction, which retains heat for hours. While the thinner construction of lower-priced grills means less heat retention, the best of them make up for it with enough heat to achieve good sears and defined grill marks. We spent more than a month testing 23 gas grills ranging in price, and three under $300 met our criteria.
Keep in mind that this is a little different than normal grilling, since it cooks from the top and bottom, which means your food cooks faster. This will ensure that your food doesn’t stick to the grill plates. Thanks to its dual-vent system (one at the bottom, one at the top), you get the same fine-grained level of temperature control you’ll find in Weber’s full-size kettles. The RoadTrip is another portable grill that suffers from significant temperature inconsistencies on the grill, which, unfortunately, knock it out of the running. Since the burners are in the middle and not on the side I think indirect grilling is not easy on this grill.
That flexibility allows you to build different heat zones, which broaden the scope of the foods you can cook on the grill. The grills with the highest scores moved on to our next round of testing. To assess the grill’s nonstick properties, we cooked skin-on center-cut fish filets, a delicate protein. We then cooked strip steaks to assess how each model handled indirect heat grilling and searing at high heat. As with our previous tests, we looked for sticking and flare-ups, as well as how well easily we could regulate the temperature of the grills and clean them after cooking. Most portable grills are designed to be used with small 14- or 16-ounce propane tanks, which simply screw onto the side or bottom of the grill.
But if you’re doing meat and veggies for a family of four, you’re going to be cooking in batches. Most meats need to rest when they’re done cooking anyway, giving you time to do your veggies. In my testing, the Mini Big Green Egg has excellent heat control and, like the larger version, is extremely fuel-efficient. No thermometer is included, and Weber does not make a storage cover for the Jumbo Joe. If you want to do any indirect-heat cooking, you’ll want to buy the hinged grill grate for $35 so you can feed in fresh fuel without removing the top grill, and the $23 charcoal basket is also useful. The KettlePizza add-on kit ($250) is fun, but way more expensive than the grill itself; there’s a cheaper basic version, but it’s currently out of stock.