Despite its 12,000 Btu output, it ran the coldest of all the propane portables we tested, yielding pallid burgers and flabby, undercooked chicken. The 240-square-inch grilling grate can accommodate weber q up to seven 6-ounce burger patties at a time. Portable grills aren’t just for camping, picnicking, and tailgating; they’re also great for city and apartment dwellers with limited outdoor space.
However, we were able to fit and cook four burgers over direct heat or four chicken drumsticks when the coals were arranged to indirect heat. This portable grill can be used with either wood or charcoal and, as its name suggests, if you remove its grill grates, it can be used as a firepit. However, the feature that really blew us away with the BioLite is its built-in battery-powered fan.
This fold-flat fire pit comes with a grill bridge that fits over the top and is adjustable up or down for optimal distance to the coals. Like using charcoal, cooking on the Takibi requires a little patience—ideal conditions come once the bare flames die down and the wood is reduced to glowing coals. We used oak firewood cut down to eight-inch chunks to get a hot bed of coals, which took about 45 minutes.
For its Portable Charcoal Grill, Masterbuilt employed a simple version of technology it developed for its larger 560 Digital Charcoal Grill. With the use of a fan and a separate charcoal firebox, you can have this grill hot enough to cook in about the same time it takes to heat up a portable propane grill. We loaded the firebox with charcoal from The Good Charcoal Company, which was a consistent medium size and perfect for the small, 1.5-pound-capacity firebox. We lit the charcoal with a torch for about 60 seconds, turned the fan to medium, closed the firebox, and in 15 minutes we were grilling burgers. The fan is electric, of course, but that doesn’t mean you have to be tied to an outlet—it can also be powered by four AA batteries.
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