Oil the grates after heating them, before you cook anything—it’ll help keep food from sticking. Attaching the vent, ash catcher, and legs to the Weber is dead easy—everything simply snaps into place. Throughout, we also tested our “necessities”—accessories such as spatulas, tongs, grill brushes, and sheet pans. We learned a lot about them , but they also helped us identify a few design strengths and flaws of the grills.
Superior Heating and Temperature Control- The circular shape of Weber Grills creates a convection heating system which cooks evenly and consistently. Hot and cold spots are a relic of the past with the charcoal grills Weber offers today. Their heat dampening system allows for excellent temperature control and longevity of fuel. There’s nothing quite like the smell and taste of a charcoal grill in the summer. Charcoal grilling takes a bit more time and attention to get things just right, so when you choose to use a charcoal grill for a barbecue, everyone knows you mean business. With a 733-square-inch cooking grate, it offers very generous cooking space, as well as an additional warming rack.
The true original Weber grill, the Weber Original Kettle Grill, can be purchased for under $100, making it our top pick for best budget grill. This grill measures 18 inches wide, which is a noticeable surface-area difference from the 22-inch grill. It does not include a lid hook or thermometer, and the ash catcher is not enclosed.
Then we slow-grilled cut-up chickens to see if our contenders could hold a low temperature evenly across the whole grate. Finally, we roasted whole chickens indirectly to see if weber genesis 2 the grills could create browned skin and perfectly cook meat without charring. Sam Sifton, editor for the Cooking section of The New York Times , joined us for these tests.
I personally pull it out at 160F since it’s easy to overcook poultry. Remember, heat levels will rise for a few minutes while the bird rests off the grill. However, there’s one technique that I swear by and it makes it easy to use your Weber as a smoker.
As the chicken cooked we monitored the grills’ temperatures, using the built-in thermometer where available and a probe thermometer where not. The goal was a steady hold at 375 degrees Fahrenheit, and we adjusted the vents to get as close to that as we could. After 45 minutes, we flipped the chicken parts, slathered on a coating of barbecue sauce, and closed the lid for another five minutes. We repeated this step twice more, rounding out the cook time at an hour flat. Then we had a taste, paying special attention to the breast meat—a long cook can dry it out. The Blackjack Kettle Grill also features two air vents, and it was easy to control the grill temperature with them.
If you are new to charcoal cooking then this classic grill is the perfect place to start. Our rib experience with a few of the other grills was far from ideal. At times, the inside of this grill hit temperatures as high as 400 degrees F.
The legs and ash catcher slot effortlessly into built-in sockets and lock into place with idiot-proof spring pins—not a bolt or screw in sight. Weber even supplies a simple plastic tool to help you attach the thermometer without digging out a wrench. All you need is a Phillips screwdriver to attach the side handles, and something dense to tap the end caps of the wheel axle into place. One person can have the grill up and running within minutes of opening the box. While still not small enough to fit in a day pack, it makes for the perfect city-living, can-only-grill-in-the-park grill. It’s got Weber’s charcoal-standard ash catch at the base and airflow dampers on the lid (there aren’t any on the base, sadly).
Weber’s scaled-up version of their classic two-wheel kettle is crafted of premium-grade steel and clad in heavy-gauge, rust-resistant porcelain enamel in slate blue. Features include a spacious cooking surface, convenient hinged cooking grate, painted metal worktable, lid holder, removable LCD cook timer and built-in thermometer. Touch-N-Go electronic gas ignition system lights charcoal briquettes with the push of a button . Includes two charcoal fuel holders and a weather-protected charcoal storage container. Charcoal grill has a one-touch cleaning system with high-capacity, removable ash catcher. Storage includes a lower wire shelf and three hanging hooks for mitts and tools.