The 7 Best Portable Charcoal Grills 2023 Expert Reviews

This propane grill has a 280-square-inch porcelain-enameled, cast-iron cooking grate and delivers 12,000 BTUs of heat per hour when connected to a 14.1-ounce or 16.4-ounce liquid propane cylinder. It comes with a push-button starter and removable catch pan, and it’s even compatible with the 1000-series Weber griddle. Two spacious tables provide extra space for prepping and weber genesis 2 serving, while the ergonomic side handles ensure easy transport. Since the grill has cast-iron grates, it is a bit heavy, weighing over 43 pounds, but it’s a small sacrifice if you want a grill that’s extremely reliable and simple to operate. Portable gas grills are generally designed to be used with small 1-pound propane tanks, and with these, a regulator is not needed.

That means you can, say grill chicken at lower heat on one side while you char asparagus on high on the other, or leave one side off completely for successful indirect grilling. The single-rack model with the largest grilling area is the Coleman Roadtrip 285. As the name describes, it has an impressive 285 square inches of cooking space.

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 weber charcoal grill 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.

That’s why you’re probably on the hunt for one of the best portable BBQs. If you have questions related to barbecue or grilling, please post them to the comments section at the bottom of any page. If you have business or tecnical issues, please contact us with this email form. The FireBoard Spark is a hybrid combining instant-read capability, a cabled temperature probe, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi connectivity. Couple that with high standards of design and workmanship and it’s a “must own.” Click here to read our comprehensive Platinum Medal review.

portable bbq

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.

This Camp Chef model has a stable cooking surface that prevents any wind from getting through to the grilling grate. We cannot guarantee that the Go-Anywhere will boast the same heat output as its gas-powered competitors — that’s up to you and your coal-stoking abilities. There is certainly a learning curve to mastering different heat zones, but cooking over charcoal potentially offers an accuracy that cannot be matched when cooking with gas.

If you are cooking a variety of foods all at once, you might prefer different temperature zones. To test the distribution of heat across a grill, we grilled different food types in different corners of the grill. No thermometer is included, and Weber does not make a storage cover for the Jumbo Joe. If you want to do any indirect-heat cooking, you’ll want to buy the hinged grill grate for $35 so you can feed in fresh fuel without removing the top grill, and the $23 charcoal basket is also useful.

The grill comes to temperature quickly, but there is some variation in hot spots, especially towards the outside edges of the grill, which charred more than the center, where foods cooked slower. This Weber grill is a mini version of the brand’s well-loved charcoal kettle. Testers appreciated the solid but portable build and how quickly they were able to set it up. The fact that the carrying handle doubles as a lid holder is also useful for keeping an eye on the food when cooking. Like most of Weber’s grills, the Q1200 has a disposable drip tray below the grill, which makes clean-up much easier than some portable grills with drip trays that need to be washed out periodically. We especially liked that the shelves that were big enough to hold tools, plates and cutting boards.