It also has enough space to cook three or four burgers, sausages, dogs, veggies or chicken. At under 10,000 BTUs, it didn’t get quite as screaming hot as my top pick — the Weber Q — but it is decidedly more compact and easier to transport. Setup was a snap — you simply unhinge the sides and the entire thing opens up like a clamshell.
We also had a few more flare-ups with the Grill2Go than with our other picks. We put all nine portable grills, gas and charcoal, through the same tests. We loaded the grates with 6-ounce burger patties and assessed the evenness of the heat, the temperature control, the searing performance, and any flare-ups. 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. But more heat alone doesn’t equate to better grilling performance, as a grill’s performance is based on a combination of output, design, and quality of materials.
If you don’t have space for a freestanding grill, you can still enjoy it with a tabletop version, like the Pit Boss Portable Gas Grill. This offers a cooking area of 275 square inches portable bbq and two independently-controlled burners that give off 20,000 BTUs of heat . That’s enough power to reach temperatures over 550 degrees so you can definitely a good sear.
The better grills also generally ended up reading out a more consistent temperature throughout cooking. To evaluate these grills I assembled each one from scratch and then cooked an array of foods at various temperatures to see how they performed. Foods cooked included steak and burgers, which do best with a hot sear. Charcoal, with its inherent messiness, may not be ideal depending on your portable grill needs but this is a workhorse that will get the job done and last you a good while. Plus, it clocks in at a budget-friendly $48 , making it my pick for the best cheap portable charcoal grill. It’s big enough to roast a chicken, sear a couple of large steaks at a time, or fit about six 12-inch skewers.
If you want to expand the City Grill’s capabilities, you can buy a flat top surface for $135 that you can use to cook up a pancake breakfast. At 20 pounds, the Char-Broil Grill2Go is 10 pounds lighter than the Weber Q 1200, even though it has a larger, 17¼-by-11¾-inch grilling grate. In spring 2017, Tim and Wirecutter writers Lesley Stockton and Michael Sullivan spent over 40 hours testing full-size gas and charcoal grills, as well asgrill accessories.
I did not experience this, and the model came together in less than 30 minutes. It was not the easiest of them all to assemble but not so complicated as to dissuade you from buying it and, once assembled, felt compact and sturdy to the touch. These are the products, prototypes, and ideas that most clearly signaled the future at this year’s consumer tech showcase. Fans have added thermometers, fastened knobs to make it easier to open and close vents, attached hanging ashcans, and come up with creative ways to cook taller items, like beer-can chicken. Since 1995, Epicurious has been the ultimate food resource for the home cook, with daily kitchen tips, fun cooking videos, and, oh yeah, over 33,000 recipes. We stand behind our products and ensure every NOMAD interaction is a great experience.