If you’ll be tossing the grill in the back of a pickup truck, any of these models will work. But if you’ve got a conventional car, make sure the grill will fit your trunk’s unique size and weber charcoal grill shape. The Petit Gourmet has telescoping legs that fold up neatly, and it’s easy to carry in one hand. Models like this are easy to carry into the park to find your ideal picnic spot.
A basic, more affordable grill might get you through a backyard bash, but a more expensive product will tend to last longer, even under more rigorous or extensive use. Simple grilling, like burgers and dogs, can be done on any portable grill. But if you would like the option to sear a steak and slow-cook chicken on the same grate, you’ll likely only find such features on higher-quality models.
At less than 10 pounds and under 15 inches in diameter, the Smokey Joe was easy to carry and took up little space in the trunk of our car. However, it lacks any sort of mechanism to lock the lid to the base, which forced us to carry it in our arms, which gets messy. 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. Some portable grills may come with additional features to make them easier to operate, more convenient, and more useful.
The charcoal grate is made from heavy-duty steel and the bowl and the lid are porcelain-enameled. Grilling with wood pellets has become quite popular, and smaller portable pellet grills are now available. weber q Some might argue that pellet grills offer the best flavor, and they also have easy temperature adjustments. However, pellet grills are often much more expensive than charcoal, propane, or electric grills.
The large grilling area fits up to 15 burgers or 20 sausages so that the entire meal is grilled, and everyone gets to eat, at the same time. She’s an expert on all things home, including kitchen appliances, grills, and other cooking gadgets. We used the Camp Chef Portable Pellet to grill this rack of ribs in high desert winds for 10 hours — the ribs were perfect, and the winds had no effect on cooking performance.