Click below to see all the benefits, take a free 30 day trial, and help keep this site alive. We tested pint-sized barbecues and scored them on ease of assembly, portability, heat retention and durability. Portable barbecues make life easier for the space-constrained and gardenless.
Some foods such as burgers need to be formed into a more cylindrical or elongated shape to fit inside. The slender device is perfect for cooking hot dogs, most veggies, fish and chicken pieces which slide in with ease. For its Portable Charcoal Grill, Masterbuilt employed a simple version of technology it developed for its larger 560 Digital Charcoal Grill.
A great grill for camping and tailgating, and for apartment dwellers with limited outdoor space. Our R&D department develops high-quality, fairly priced grilling equipment. Nicole Papantoniou is the director of the Good Housekeeping Institute’s weber q Kitchen Appliance and Culinary Innovation Lab where she oversees all kitchen appliance content and testing. This is her third season testing grills for Good Housekeeping and has had her hands on at least 35 grills and counting.
Gas (propane) grills are better for people who want to grill more than once a week and can sacrifice a little heat and the classic taste of charcoal for convenience. The NOMAD has few frills, but a design that keeps heat in and dissipates what heat does transfer to the exterior justifies much of the cost while making it a safer grill all around. It has side dampers to adjust airflow and regulate the temperature when it’s closed. The built-in thermometer skewed about 30 degrees lower than our test probes, but the heat retention was very good overall. He’s been grilling since being put in charge of the hot dogs at a family party when he was probably 7 years old, and he’s been writing professionally about food and drinks for nearly two decades. He lives in Los Angeles, where it’s feasible to grill just about every day of the year.
Steaks are prepared very, very nicely, but other foods are nearly impossible to cook well. It’s big enough to roast a chicken, sear a couple of large steaks at a time, or fit about six 12-inch skewers. But if you’re doing meat and veggies for a family of four, you’re going to be cooking in batches. Most meats need to rest when they’re done cooking anyway, giving you time to do your veggies.
For one thing, when charcoal is lit it gives off an unpleasant odor and smoke that can’t be easily controlled. And charcoal briquettes are prone to flare-ups that could cause a dangerous situation whether you’re in the woods or on a friend’s small deck. A good portable grill gives you the flexibility to cook in confined spaces like balconies or small patios, and also brings your grill to outdoor parties, tailgates, and camping trips. If you want to really get into this age-old debate, we have a full guide to the differences between charcoal and gas grills. Now let’s look at why cooking with charcoal is an excellent choice for portable grilling.
Of all the grills I tested, the Traveler was the easiest to set up and use. Like most portable gas grills, it uses small propane canisters, but it can also use a full-size propane tank with an adapter, so it’s backyard ready if you want to use it as your primary grill. When closed, this portable grill is easy to carry one-handed (as easy as something that weighs almost 30 pounds can possibly be) thanks to a soft, grippable handle. When opened it has 212 square inches of cooking space—that’s enough for a whole chicken with room to spare, a rack of ribs, or close to a dozen turkey burgers. And the design of the grill surface—made of small hexagons instead of slim bars—is incredibly effective at keeping food from sliding down into the coals.
Despite its portability, the Traveler has plenty of cooking space, with 320 square inches (enough for about 15 burgers at a time), plus a small prep table attached to the side. That whole grate has just a single burner to heat it up, but it was able to reach 660 degrees in testing, hot enough to get a good sear on larger pieces of meat. The unit is designed to use camping-style 1-pound propane tanks, but it does include an adapter hose to accommodate the standard 20-pound cylinders, too. After testing this in our Lab and on an apartment patio, the Weber Q 1400 Electric Grill is one of the best tabletop electric grills around.
For pellet grills, we studied the user interface and considered the details of the startup and shutdown process. We also considered if the grilling surface presents a consistent temperature throughout, whether it includes a thermometer or push-button ignition, and how well both perform. There are advantages and disadvantages to a grill surface that naturally presents different temperature zones.
Plus, you won’t get any of that flame-grilled goodness since there’s no, well, flame. The Grill2Go has a maximum 9,500 Btu output, versus the Weber Q 1200’s 8,500 Btu. After we preheated it for five minutes on high, the Grill2Go reached over 600 degrees Fahrenheit, while the Weber Q 1200 never broke 525 °F.