Her expertise builds on a lifelong career in the culinary world—from a restaurant cook and caterer to a food editor at Martha Stewart. She is perfectly happy weber charcoal grill to leave all that behind to be a full-time kitchen-gear nerd. Keeping coals lit in the Weber Smokey Joe Charcoal Grill 14″ was a challenge for us.
In our tests, the Weber Q 1200 topped the competition in grilling performance. Its heavy-duty cast-aluminum firebox was the best at evenly absorbing and reflecting heat, providing the most consistent grilling of all the portables we tested. The Q 1200’s design caused the fewest flare-ups of any model we tried, thanks to porcelain-coated cast-iron grates with built-in channels that helped keep grease and drippings away from the flames.
The base comes off and features a flip-out propane bottle holder (we discourage you from using those; see why below) as well as serving as a place to cut. The integrated bamboo cutting board fits on top of the base, which gives you somewhere to prep your meal even if there’s no picnic table around. If price is your number one consideration, you may want to think about it. It’s also a very small grill and very light, which kept it from being as effective as the heavier charcoal grills I tried.
While the Weber Original Kettle may have taken the top spot in CNET’s list ofbest charcoal grills, this newcomer is my pick for the best portable charcoal grill. A smart and solid build allows you to take this small grill anywhere, including on a long hike. Soaring in popularity, they come in a vast assortment of fuel types such as gas, pellet, electric, or charcoal.
Be the envy of your next pregame party with these CNET-tested small and portable grills. For the charcoal options, I also smoked ribs, pork, and brisket, If you’re planning to smoke, I highly recommend investing in some kind of thermometer system. It has adapters based on your grill and offers one temp probe and three food probes. There’s Bluetooth and Wi-Fi support, so you can keep tabs on your cook from anywhere. If flavor is your only criterion, I would argue that charcoal is superior to propane gas. Often, we grill after hours on a Friday while we’re also trying to set up a tent, inflate a mattress, and wrangle hungry children.
Despite these issues, the end result of our smoking effort was nothing short of divine. The Davy Crockett produced juicy pulled pork with a healthy smoke ring and plenty of hickory flavor. Protect your grill from the elements and keep it looking like new — shop our full selection of durable grill covers from top brands.
It had the same solid construction, the same easy-to-work-with grates, and it even had a chimney vent on top that provided excellent temperature control. The charcoal basket was on adjustable hooks, so I could bring it closer or further from the grates depending on how hot I wanted them. It performed just as well in the indirect cooking test as the Nomad. But the things that made the Rambler a great grill are also the things that made it harder to move. Carrying it two blocks was not impossible but it required more exertion than any of the other charcoal grills. It also required more assembly of the wrench and screwdriver type, though it still only took about 30 minutes.
Portable natural gas grills can’t provide the flavor of charcoal grills, are not as common as other types of portable grills, and tend to cost more than propane models. For smoking and other forms of low and slow barbecue, portable wood pellet grills give you more cooking surface area than portable gas or charcoal grills do. On a gas or charcoal grill, you’d need to set up a 2-zone cooking system with the heat on one side, and the food on the other. On a Traeger, you can use the entire cooking surface to barbecue. The grill functions like a smaller version of a full-size gas grill. We loved that we could light it by simply turning each burner’s knob to the ignition setting—there was no need to fiddle with an ignition button.
If you can’t face the prospect of going without your Big Green Egg for a weekend, the MiniMax Big Green Egg is much smaller, but it still isn’t terribly portable. However, if you want to smoke, grill, and bake portable bbq outdoors, this ceramic cooker is a strong choice. Whether it’s the salty sweetness on that lightly charred corn or the rich smoothness of smoked meat, warm weather begs us to get outside and light a fire.
Like the Traveler, the Weber Q2200 can also accommodate a full-size propane cylinder with an adapter. The push-button ignition is battery powered, which I actually found slightly easier to use. The Q1200 arrives mostly assembled—we were able to get it ready for testing in less than 10 minutes. Lighting it was easy thanks to its battery-powered electric ignition that’s a welcome upgrade over the less reliable piezo ignitions found on many portable gas grills. Smaller grills can manage with 8,000 BTUs , while larger models might need 20,000 BTUs per burner. As a guideline, consider that heat output should be between 80 and 100 BTUs per square inch of cooking surface.