The GoBQ also performed well, cultivating a steady and hot fire, and has a robust 185 square inches of grilling space. It’s a little more expensive than some on the market, but it’s built to last. If you want portable charcoal grilling in a truly portable package, this is the best small grill to buy.
We found that this Weber model is capable of grilling six large burger patties, a whole cut-up chicken, or 10 bratwurst links at a time. And the single-tube 8,500 Btu burner runs along weber genesis 2 three edges for better heat distribution, so all of that space is usable. More space between the coal bed and the grilling grate lessens your chances of ending up with charred food.
Combustion produces odorless carbon monoxide, which can kill in minutes without warning. Before or after each use, crank it up to high for five or 10 minutes to incinerate all the drippings and stuck-on food. Scrape the hot grates with a grill brush, wipe them with a wet rag to remove the soot, and brush them with vegetable oil. The 240-square-inch grilling grate can accommodate up to seven 6-ounce burger patties at a time. The propane coupling juts out the side, and attaching 1-pound liquid-propane canisters is easy.
The Cuisinart Petite Gourmet is one of the smallest grills in our tests, and the size does affect control. If you’re cooking only one type of food that covers the entire grilling surface, then you will want to have consistent heat throughout. If you are cooking a variety of foods all at once, you might prefer different weber charcoal grill temperature zones. To test the distribution of heat across a grill, we grilled different food types in different corners of the grill. You don’t get this uncompromising high-heat cooking performance without some drawbacks. First, the grill top is small, with space for only one or two steaks on it at a time.
Despite its 12,000 Btu output, it ran the coldest of all the propane portables we tested, yielding pallid burgers and flabby, undercooked chicken. When the side tables are tucked inside the grill for transport, the Weber Q 1200 is about the size of a small carry-on suitcase. You need two hands to carry the Q 1200, because it doesn’t have a latch to hold the lid securely to the firebox. But the position of the side handles helps to evenly distribute its 30-pound heft and lessens the burden of hoisting and moving the grill.
There’s also electronic ignition and a built-in dome thermometer for knowing exactly how hot the grate is. The NOMADIQ Grill offers 226 square inches of cooking space across its two nonstick grates, which are heated by individually controlled stainless steel burners that deliver 9,200 BTUs per hour. This means you can only turn on one burner if you are cooking for a smaller crowd or you can cook burgers on one side and warm up the buns on the other. This sleek portable gas grill from Weber is superior in almost every category and was a fairly clear winner as the best portable grill overall. It’s easy to assemble, with just a few parts, and once completed feels solid and sturdy, even when given a few vigorous shakes. The igniter works well and, once lit, the grill got hot, reaching its advertised 500 degrees Fahrenheit after just 15 minutes with the lid closed.
Lesley Stockton is a senior staff writer reporting on all things cooking and entertaining for Wirecutter. 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 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.
The Cuisinart CCG-100 GrateLifter Charcoal Grill has a convertible cooking grate that lifts when you open the lid for easier access to the coal bed. Levers on the sides of the grill adjust to keep the grate in the up or down position. During our tests, one side of the grate would get stuck in a different position than the other about a third of the time, forcing us to wrestle with hot metal. While the grill is hot, scrape the debris and stuck-on food from the hot grates with a wire grill brush. We prefer to do this when the grill is preheating and the embers are their hottest. Wipe the grates with a wet rag to remove the soot, and then brush them with vegetable oil.
Our team found that this is plenty enough room to cook for a good-sized backyard BBQ or backcountry base camp. Smaller charcoal grills like the Weber Smokey Joe 14 can run out of heat if you don’t time your cooking just right. The Coleman Roadtrip 285 tops the list of our favorite propane models when it comes to grill control and temperature regulation. There are three dials that control the different zones, but all of those heat zones overlap.
To find the grill that best suits these demands, we tested a variety of different portable grills, including gas, charcoal and electric-powered models. This portable gas grill has been a Kitchen Appliances and Culinary Innovation Lab favorite for years. It’s small and compact, which makes it quite portable, yet sturdy and powerful for good, fast cooks. We’ve tested both this model and the larger stand-up model with shelves, and were impressed with the sear marks we got on chicken, steak, burgers and hot dogs. The Smokey Joe Portable Charcoal Grill is 14 inches wide and has 147 square inches of grilling surface on its steel grate.