However, since the vents are metal, we had to wear grill mitts while adjusting them, which was awkward. Our chicken kabobs came out juicy with a great smoky flavor that can only result from charcoal. We could easily get our arms around it, and at 31 pounds, it was easy enough to carry a short distance to our small SUV, where it fit easily inside the trunk. Armed with knowledge about the different types of portable grills, shoppers must balance the pursuit of flavor with the desire for convenience. Below is info about factors and features to keep in mind when choosing the best portable grill.
This design allowed us to create three possible heat zones, which is impossible to do on most other portable grills. This capability allowed us to grill a burger at sear temperatures on one side while cooking our chicken and vegetable kabobs at a lower temperature on the other side. The Coleman roasted well with the lid closed, although we found the lid’s latch a bit weber q hard to operate. If you prefer that smoky charcoal flavor, the lightweight Weber Jumbo Joe Charcoal Grill 18″ matches the searing and grilling abilities of a full-size kettle. In our tests, the well-placed vents in both the lid and the firebox provided precise temperature control that no other portable charcoal grill we tried—including two other Webers—could match.
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. The Coleman Roadtrip 285 just felt flimsier than the Weber Traveler. And though it was on wheels, folding and unfolding the legs of the grill weren’t intuitive. weber charcoal grill The grates were also mostly closed, making it more like a grill pan than a grill. I tried to cover both the “portable” part and the “grill” part in my testing. For those grills with wheels, I walked them around a large, uneven lawn with plenty of divots to see how they rolled.
After grilling 65 burgers, 30 pounds of chicken, and 25 pounds of bratwurst on nine portable grills, we found the best ones for both small backyards and outdoor adventures. The Weber Q 1200 Gas Grill is our pick for the best portable gas grill because of its no-fuss convenience and stellar grilling performance. For charcoal purists, we recommend the Weber Jumbo Joe Charcoal Grill 18″.
Our tester was truly impressed at how secure the HitchFire felt when mounted to her truck, and she said it never budged on a 350-mile drive. The Camp Chef Portable Pellet is about as transportable as this genre gets, and offers top-tier cooking performance if you’re able to power it. We’ve tested hundreds of products in our camping kitchen reviewsincluding the best camping tables and top camping coffee makers for your outdoor forays. We also have reviews highlighting the best camping stoves and much more. This model was engineered with boaters in mind so if you’re setting sail this summer, you might give the pricey Magma a closer look.
Despite being light and very portable, the Venture features a heavy-duty cast iron grilling surface that cooks evenly and sears well. In fact, I rarely turned this one up past medium, because it gets plenty hot on low. Conversely, don’t plan on cooking slow and low with this; it’s a “sear things and be done” sort of grill. Wirecutter’s Michael J Kennelly used the Weber Q 1200 we tested to grill on his roof in Brooklyn from 2019 to 2020. They said the two-part grate was a little more annoying to deal with than the one-part grate on older Weber Q models, but it made up for it in ease of cleaning.
The middle dial controls a burner that spans the length of the whole grill, while the other two dials control an additional burner on each side. The Roadtrip 285 produced better results from our white bread heat mapping test than any other grill we’ve tested. The Solaire Everywhere infrared grill is a unique product on our roster and performs very well in a few categories. First, it is very small and compact, and its construction is tight and carries quietly. Most importantly, the high-powered ceramic “flameless” burner that sits below a carefully designed grate of v-shaped bars cooks steaks better than anything else in our review. For those excellent cuts of red meat that require nothing more than a touch of flame, this is the best portable grill on the market.