The first bite of tender, fall-off-the-bone meat makes taking it low-and-slow worth every moment. The Smokey Mountain Cooker™ smoker has two cooking grates for smoking multiple items at once, and easily adjustable dampers for precision heat control. There’s nothing quite like waiting all weber charcoal grill day for dinner. For the indirect-cooking test, we cooked a whole chicken at as close to 500 °F as we could get (emulating Barbara Kafka’s famous oven-roasting method). We moved the remaining coals to one side of the coal grate and added half a chimney’s worth of freshly lit coals.
With premium features, such as a hinged cooking grate for easily adding charcoal while grilling, and the One-Touch™ cleaning system with high-capacity ash catcher. At $319, the Napoleon portable charcoal grill is expensive. During our chicken cooking tests, however, this portable grill held its temperature better than any other charcoal grill we’ve tested.
Easy to Clean- With the patented One-Touch Cleaning System in Weber Grills, charcoal ash can be removed quickly with one hand. The porcelain-enamel blast-fired coating allows for effortless removal of soot with just some soapy water. Ace Rewards members are eligible to receive free delivery on orders of $50 or more. I do wish they had given this premium model bigger, better wheels.
The actual cooking grates, meanwhile, are slightly different. The bowl and lid on the 22- and 26-inch models are constructed of porcelain-enameled steel. It also holds its heat well, so you shouldn’t need to add coals as often as you might with a lesser model. The Weber name is inextricably tied to backyard barbecues, but that wasn’t always the case.
To my childhood mind, firing up a weber charcoal grill had existential significance. It felt like an important, manly task because in my home, like I’m sure in many homes across America, my dad was in charge of it. Then he’d empty out the old ashes into a brown paper sack and hand me the cooking grate to go clean in the laundry room. When I got back, he’d pour a big pile of charcoal into the Weber’s shiny black bowl.
We noted similar temperature performance from the Nexgrill, along with similar rib results. Cooking ribs low and slow on the Nexgrill required just 4 hours, 30 minutes. Its rack came out well too, though like the Napoleon, its bark was more pronounced than the Weber produced. The Nexgrill definitely gets hot enough to create a nice sear, but you do have to work a little harder than you do with the Weber to avoid overcooking your meat. We recommend the reverse searing method for thicker cuts. You can also raise the Nexgrill’s adjustable charcoal tray basket to its highest position.