Flimsy charcoal grills with loose, warped lids and rickety moving parts make temperature control a nightmare. Charcoal grills don’t need to be tanks made of heavy, quarter inch-thick steel, but they shouldn’t be tin cans that lack structural integrity. Once the grills were sufficiently hot, we tested the high heat grilling capabilities by cooking lamb chops and marinated boneless, skinless chicken breasts.
The Cuisinart was also the only grill with which we experienced grease flare-ups when cooking. Though you only have to endure setup one time, build time is definitely relevant if you’re picking up a charcoal grill for a last-minute barbecue. The Weber Original Premium Grill took 15 minutes to assemble, while the Weber Original Grill took only 10 minutes.
It’s a rotating group of three blades you turn with a handle projecting from near the bottom of the bowl. Still, you’ll have it up and running in no time, especially if you follow guide to using a charcoal grill that’s a complete A to Z that will help you master this form of cooking. There portable bbq are several ways to light a charcoal grill, but the best option is to use a chimney starter. All you do is place crumpled newspaper in the bottom of the tool with charcoal on top, and after you light the bottom, your charcoal will be ready to add to the grill in around 10 minutes.
The Cuisinart Black Kettle Grill is one of the smallest we tested with its 18-inch kettle. It’s similar in size to the Weber Original Kettle Charcoal Grill, though unlike that grill, it comes with an ash pan and a thermometer. However, a major downside to this grill was that the built-in thermometer barely worked.
That said, this Weber takes under 10 minutes to set up and requires no hardware. Like the Weber Original Premium grill, hamburgers tested on this grill cooked up to a perfect medium rare. The chicken we grilled took four minutes of sear time and 25 additional minutes on indirect heat to come up to a safe internal temperature. If you’re portable bbq looking for the best affordable charcoal grill under $100 that will cook your meat to a perfect temperature, then this Weber is for you. Under the lid it looks more like a gas grill than a charcoal grill thanks to 549 square inches of porcelain-coated cast-iron grates plus a secondary steel rack for warming or indirect cooking.