Grilling with charcoal takes a little more time and attention than grilling with gas, but the payoff is that delicious smokey flavor you just can’t get from a propane flame. After spending two days cooking 40 pounds of burgers, BBQ, and whole chickens, we recommend the Weber Original Kettle Premium Charcoal Grill 22″. Thanks to more weber q than six decades of continuous refinement, it’s the most versatile, most user-friendly, and best-performing charcoal grill we’ve tested. Cleaning this grill is easy thanks to Weber’s One-Touch cleaning system—a lever-controlled tool that forces ashes down into the ash pan or catcher for easy cleanup—and the enclosed ash catcher.
It’s a fun rewarding experience, though to be perfectly honest I now never smoke on this grill because I tend to always smoke on my Kamado Joes. The bowl and lid are protected against burn-through and rust-through for 10 years. The one-touch cleaning system comes with a 5-year warranty, also covering burn-through and rust-through, plus you get 5 years on the plastic bits, not including fading or discoloring. It’s a relatively large grill, which means it’s a versatile grill.
While this grill does come with an included cart, which added to setup time, we also found the instructions hard to follow, and the amount of hardware included felt a bit overwhelming. If you’re going to purchase this grill, then we’d advise looking into having your local hardware store build and deliver it to you. We measured the temperature of the grill surface, as well as the internal temperature of the chicken, with an external thermometer to ensure that any built-in temperate gauges were accurate. For the most part, the built-in thermometers were accurate, with the exception of the Cuisinart gauge, which barely registered any temperature throughout our testing process. With grilling, the ability to cook on direct heat means that your food will be ready quickly. However, unless you’re closely watching the grill at all times, your food can easily burn or overcook.
The cooking area is 147 square inches — Weber says the grill fits six burgers at a time — and the porcelain-enameled lid and bowl comes in six different colors. And for those with little ones, there’s a matching Smokey Joe toy version for the tiniest of grill masters to enjoy. How to shop for the best charcoal grillsBarrel- and kettle-shaped charcoal grills are fairly basic in design, but there are also more specialized charcoal grills like gravity grills or kamado grills.
When it comes to BBQ-ing around here, I’ve been using a gas grill during the 10 years I’ve lived in my house. Many folks strongly believe charcoal produces better flavor than gas. Let’s just say different fuels have different characteristics—and we won’t even get into all the different types of charcoal available today. The basic kit comes with an aluminum pizza tray, but we recommend using a classic pizza stone for a crispier foundation. Sixty years ago, Weber Brothers Metal Works, later called Weber-Stephen Products, used to make mailboxes, fireplace equipment and a number of various other metal-based products. George Stephen, Sr., a salesman at the company, then decided the grills of the day weren’t up to snuff.