Lesley Stockton is a senior staff writer reporting on all things cooking and entertaining for Wirecutter. Her expertise builds on a lifelong career in the culinary world—from a restaurant cook and caterer to a food editor at Martha Stewart. She is perfectly happy to leave all that behind to be a full-time kitchen-gear nerd. Keeping coals lit in the Weber Smokey Joe Charcoal Grill 14″ was a challenge for us.
Great for camping and super convenient, bigger than what I thought it was gonna be but still compact enough to fit everywhere I love it. We independently research, test, review, and recommend the best products—learn more about our process. Even though the Weber Q 1200 neatly folds up (albeit into a not-so-compact package), the lack of a lid latch is perhaps more annoying than anything when considering the portability of this grill.
The GoBQ also performed well, cultivating a steady and hot fire, and has a robust 185 square inches of grilling space. It’s a little more expensive than some on the market, but it’s built to last. If you want portable charcoal grilling in a truly portable package, this is the best small grill to buy.
The wood pellet grill can get up to 500 degrees Fahrenheit, and in addition to its main grilling area, it also has a removable upper rack. You can control the grill via its digital dial, and while the model is compact, keep in mind it weighs a substantial 42 pounds. Among the charcoal models, the Weber Go-Anywhere scores top marks for control. Thanks to a relatively deep basin, we were able to build and stoke a substantial volume of coals to achieve the exact heat we desired.
Portable kamado grills are gaining popularity, but we think their 12- to 14-inch grilling surfaces are too small to justify the high price. We didn’t focus heavily on hibachis because they’re lidless, primarily for high-heat grilling, and limited in performance. Looking for the right balance of heating power and portability in a grill? The maximum heat output is 11,000 BTUs and it is spread over a generous cooking area of 225 square inches. I have to say that this is a grill that is both easy to assemble and set up. The integrated stand comes with two wheels, so moving it around is not a problem.
The Cuisinart CCG-100 GrateLifter Charcoal Grill has a convertible cooking grate that lifts when you open the lid for easier access to the coal bed. Levers on the sides of the grill adjust to keep the grate in the up or down position. During our tests, one side of the grate would get stuck in a different position than the other about a third of the time, forcing us to wrestle with hot metal. While the grill is hot, scrape the debris and stuck-on food from the hot grates with a wire grill brush. We prefer to do this when the grill is preheating and the embers are their hottest. Wipe the grates with a wet rag to remove the soot, and then brush them with vegetable oil.
In addition, we promptly dismissed gas grills equipped with a coupling for a 20-pound propane cylinder. We prefer 1-pound liquid-propane tanks because they’re small and lightweight enough to stash in a backpack or tote bag. Portable gas grills come equipped with a coupling that fits 1-pound liquid-propane canisters . These mini propane cylinders weber q are lightweight and packable, and they’re available at most hardware stores. While setting them up, make sure that there are no structures or even tree branches around the area. In addition to performance, we test ease of use and score each grills on the types of features they have like shelves, storage space, amount of wheels, etc.
Despite its 12,000 Btu output, it ran the coldest of all the propane portables we tested, yielding pallid burgers and flabby, undercooked chicken. When the side tables are tucked inside the grill for transport, the Weber Q 1200 is about the size of a small carry-on weber genesis 2 suitcase. You need two hands to carry the Q 1200, because it doesn’t have a latch to hold the lid securely to the firebox. But the position of the side handles helps to evenly distribute its 30-pound heft and lessens the burden of hoisting and moving the grill.
We are proud of the work we’ve done to hash out all the options and are honored to be a small part of your transient culinary journey. The performance of the George Foreman’s electric grill plate is basically impervious to wind, and all of the food is protected beneath a gigantic lid. The design of the Camp Chef Portable Pellet is practically unaffected by wind. The burner is deep within the tub of the grill body so it’s protected by the walls of the grill, the heat distributor, and the lid. We smoked a rack of ribs on a pretty nasty fall day at an elevation of 7,000 feet in central Utah and had absolutely no issues with wind.