Wood pellets deliver temperatures hot enough for grilling steaks and chops or can be set for low and slow cooking of ribs and brisket. You simply set the grill to your desired temperature, and it does the rest. The three main types of fuel sources for grilling are wood pellets, propane gas, and charcoal briquettes. The fuel source can make a big difference in determining which type of portable grill you buy.
If you can’t face the prospect of going without your Big Green Egg for a weekend, the MiniMax Big Green Egg is much smaller, but it still isn’t terribly portable. However, if you want to smoke, grill, and bake outdoors, this ceramic cooker is a strong choice. Fans have added thermometers, fastened knobs to make it easier to open and close vents, weber charcoal grill attached hanging ashcans, and come up with creative ways to cook taller items, like beer-can chicken. Whether it’s the salty sweetness on that lightly charred corn or the rich smoothness of smoked meat, warm weather begs us to get outside and light a fire. Note, that you should remove as much grease as possible before burying the grill.
The porcelain-coated cast-iron grill grate is quite non-stick, with even delicate fish filets releasing pretty easily. The only part about using the Nomad that I didn’t love was emptying it. Because weber genesis 2 it needs to be emptied while completely open, it was hard to lift when attempting to dump the ash into a bin. On its website Nomad suggests using a shop vac to get all the spent charcoal out.
This can be remedied by doing away with this disposable part or just by putting a rock in it. If you’re looking for a larger model, the best way to get the weight off your back is by going with a wheeled model. The Coleman Roadtrip 285 has large wheels that handle fairly rough terrain and a long handle, so you don’t have to hunch over while hauling it.
The char lines produced were good, but we definitely saw better from some of the other models in this list. That said, we found this barbecue easy to set up, save for the fiddly regulator valve. A wood pellet grill is the best option for living spaces with small yards, patios, or balconies — often, it is the only permissible option.
I have no doubt that that would do the trick, but if you’re off on an adventure an hour from an electrical outlet, a shop vac might not be practical. That said, I’m hard pressed to imagine a better camping grill than this. The Nomad does cost more than anything else I tested, but it was unparalleled both in how it cooked and how easy it was to move. Rounding out the bottom of the list for this metric is the Camp Chef Portable Pellet.
We found the u-shaped burner of the Camp Chef Portable BBQ to be one of the best single burners in our review. The large surface of the Cuisinart All Foods Roll-Away gives the cook multiple heat zones to work with while grilling. The infrared burner of the Solaire Everywhere heats the entire grill surface to about the same temperature.
In our tests, the Jumbo Joe produced the best seared burgers, barbecued chicken, and grilled bratwurst. The two adjustable vents, in the lid and firebox, allowed the quickest and easiest temperature control of all the grills we tested. Even after loading the Jumbo Joe with a full chimney starter’s worth of red-hot embers (about 90 briquets), we could still tamp down the temperature to medium heat. We couldn’t do that with the 14-inch Weber Smokey Joe, where the one vent and the lack of airflow caused the coals to extinguish while we were cooking. British thermal units are a measure of maximum heat output over the course of an hour.
This model cools down almost as quickly as it heats up for a quick get-away, with a locking lid and enough space to store one-pound gas canisters. If you’re looking for a compact model to fit in the trunk of a smaller car or one that’ll take up minimal space while it’s not in use, the Coleman Roadtrip 285 is not the grill for you. This grill is bulky compared to many other portable grills we’ve tested, and relies heavily on its wheels for transport. At 47 pounds, it’s not very fun to lift much further than in and out of a truck bed. But this grill makes up for deficiencies in portability with top-tier grilling performance and easily earns our recommendation for a large-sized portable grill.
Despite that, we loved cooking with this portable pellet grill – it is the perfect addition to an RV setup. Weber has a reputation for building grills that gracefully blend cooking performance and reliability, and that tradition is rolled into a portable package with the impressive Weber Q 1200. Simply put, this model let us grill with more precision, predictability, and control than most of the other models we bought and tested. Take your portable grilling game to the next level with the Gourmia GBQ330 Smokeless BBQ.