Greg Baker is an award-winning chef, restaurateur, and food writer with decades of experience in the food industry. For this piece, he interviewed chef Cory Bahr and pitmasters Jake Wood and Tank Jackson to find out what the pros look for in a portable grill. He then used their insights and his own expertise combined with market research to curate this list.
Despite its sturdy build, the Q-1200 is still light and limber enough for a camping grill to take on a camping trip or for one person to carry with relative ease. This grill, like all on the list, can use any small propane tank sold at most camping or hardware stores. The grill uses a standard 16-ounce propane canister, which attaches to the side of the grill and lights with a piezo ignition.
This smaller Weber kettle comes equipped with only one vent, located in the lid. The lack of airflow meant we couldn’t keep the coal bed lit throughout a single cook, leaving us with pale burgers and undercooked chicken. The tiny Cuisinart CGG-180T Petit Gourmet Portable Tabletop Gas Grill suffered major flare-ups when cooking burgers, and turned into a raging grease fire when cooking chicken pieces. Everything we cooked on this grill had a dark, sooty film and tasted like torched fat.
The compact size also created issues when we attempted to roast our kabobs. Closing the lid seemed to stymie airflow to the charcoal, which struggled to stay lit even with both vents wide open. This issue required us to remove and replace the lid periodically, allowing oxygen into the cooking chamber to keep the grill going while cooking our kabobs. Unlike a standard grill that’s open on at least three sides, the Davy Crockett has a single panel that grants access to the cooking surface, which is hard to access with a spatula or tongs. It was especially awkward to flip a burger patty or adjust our kabobs while crouching down.
Find out which gas grill is the best fit for your space, and discover important details to look for before buying. As a heat source, this grill will accept briquettes, charcoal and wood pieces of all types. weber genesis 2 Ultralight and ultra-compact, this is the portable grill you want for your outdoor overnight excursions. The Petit Gourmet has telescoping legs that fold up neatly, and it’s easy to carry in one hand.
There’s also the potential for it to come apart in transit, dumping leftover charcoal bits and ash into the trunk. Weber does make a premium version of the Smokey Joe that has a lid-locking mechanism, but you’ll pay more for it. The Smokey Joe comes with a loose lid that doesn’t attach to the base, which is a little inconvenient if you’re looking for a place to put it when it’s blazing hot. The three-hole vents located on the top and bottom of the grill provide ample airflow through the kettle, giving us a surprising amount of control over the Smokey Joe’s internal temperature.
David lives in Brooklyn where he’s logged more than a decade writing about all things edible, including meal kits and meal delivery subscriptions, cooking, kitchen tech and commerce. These days, he’s likely somewhere trying the latest this or tasting the latest that – and reporting back, of course. Nicole Papantoniou is the director of the Good Housekeeping Institute’s Kitchen Appliance and Culinary Innovation Lab where she oversees all kitchen appliance content and testing. This is her third season testing grills for Good Housekeeping and has had her hands on at least 35 grills and counting. She’s a professional, trained cook, recipe developer and grill aficionado.
But when the firebox got hot, the side vents that regulated airflow stuck in place, rendering us powerless when it came to heat control—critical for slow-cooking things like chicken and sausages. 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 Weber Q series may be the best of the portable grills we’ve tested, but they also cost the most. But Weber’s warranty covers most of the unit for five years, so we think the price is justified. Cook juicy and delicious food every time with the convenience of our gas grills.
Since the Grill2Go comes almost completely assembled, setup was easy. Its box shape, large handles, and manageable weight make it easy to move into position on a tabletop, and it fit easily into the trunk of our vehicle. We also liked the clips that hold the lid securely closed for transport. While the Davy Crockett is a very capable grill, it really shines as a smoker. Over eight hours, it never deviated from the set temp more than a few degrees, even when smoking at temperatures as low as 225 degrees Fahrenheit.
They’re commonly constructed from thin porcelainized steel with thin wire-rod grilling grates. Charcoal grills’ simple construction is what makes them budget friendly. British thermal units are a measure of maximum heat output over the course of an hour. The output on portable gas grills ranges from 4,000 to over 13,000 Btu.