Perhaps a cast-iron hibachi is your best choice, or again, maybe it’s a simple, low-maintenance charcoal grill. Bagged charcoal is slightly more difficult to light but is easy to work with in that you ignite a pile of it in a charcoal chimney and pour the glowing coals onto the coal grate. You can easily move these regularly shaped Grills Portable Grills pieces with a coal shovel to put the heat where you need it. Charcoal is dramatic and fun to work with; outdoor chefs generally like smoke and flames. Portable grills are fueled by lump and briquette charcoal or propane, each with its own advantages. Lump charcoal is easier to ignite and burns hotter than charcoal briquettes.
The better grills also generally ended up reading out a more consistent temperature throughout cooking. Single-use grills exist, and while they may not be the most practical option for everyday use, if you have one long hike planned and want to do some grilling, this is a good option. The Casus grill can only be used once, of course, but it actually gets fairly hot in about five minutes and stays lit for over an hour. It also has enough space to cook three or four burgers, sausages, dogs, veggies or chicken. If you’re planning a big ol’ backyard barbecue, a full-size grill will keep the masses fed and you in good standing. But if your home or apartment features a small outdoor space, there are small grills made for city dwellers and those who have small balconies.
However, if you want to use a larger propane tank—such as a 20-pound tank—with a portable grill, you’ll need an adapter and regulator. Most brands sell the appropriate attachment for their portable grill models. One downside during assembly was the drip pan didn’t fit properly, which necessitated a small trim to get it to slide in. Out of the box, this can be powered by 1-pound gas canisters, but Weber does sell an attachment if you want to use 20-pound tanks.
The grill also lacks an ash bucket; it does have two ash catches, but they were impossible to clean out without making a mess on my driveway. Because it’s made from cast iron, this grill was super simple to clean, too; just wash it with warm, soapy water, dry it to prevent it from rusting, and apply a thin coat of oil to keep the grates seasoned. If our top Grills Portable Grills gas pick is out of stock, or you’re looking for a portable grill that’s well suited for cooking for a crowd, we recommend the Weber Traveler Portable Gas Grill. They also make a flat iron griddle which you can swap-in for the grill grates, a cover to keep the Q 1200 clean between uses and an adapter that’ll let you use it with larger, refillable tanks.
If you’re specifically looking for a grill to take camping, tailgating, or to the beach, we like the easy-to-move and very powerful Weber Traveler Portable Gas Grill. The Napoleon Travelq is the full-featured grill-on-a-cart you need to wheel out onto the sand. Its dual-sided cast-iron grates can hold up to 18 burgers at a time, with its nearly 14,000 BTUs of power split between separately controlled left and right burners. 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 Coleman Roadtrip 285 tops the list of our favorite propane models when it comes to grill control and temperature regulation. There are three dials that control the different zones, but all of those heat zones overlap.
We spent several days testing 14 of the most popular portable charcoal grills to help you find the best product for your next camping trip or tailgate. After firing up the grills, we measured how hot their grates got, then used each one to cook hamburgers, bratwursts, and corn on the cob. Once we finished cooking, we took note of how much of the charcoal was used up and how easy it was to clean each grill. Cuisinart is better known for kitchen appliances than grills, so it makes sense this petite model is designed with an eye toward food prep, not just grilling.