As with all grills, you should scrub the grates thoroughly with a grill brush while the grates are still hot—this will minimize carbonized, crusted-on food that’s tough to clean later. But some portable gas grills come with handy removable drip trays, which collect grease and are easy to remove, wipe out, and wash clean. Some portable grills have dishwasher-safe components, although all we tested can be wiped down with a damp cloth, scrub brush, or even hosed down. 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. Although it is not the most powerful when measured in output power alone, the design of this grill allows it to efficiently and effectively reach ideal searing temperatures within just minutes of preheating.
In our tests, the Q 1200’s heavy-duty cast-aluminum firebox was the best at evenly absorbing and reflecting heat. That, along with the U-shaped burner, provided the most consistent Charcoal Grills Combo Grills grilling of all the portables we tested, with the fewest hot spots. The Jumbo Joe Charcoal Grill is lighter than our gas pick, weighing under 20 pounds, but it’s not smaller.
It easily sets up on a tailgate, picnic table, or portable camping table so you can cook standing up, but is also safe to use on the ground. I’ve been a backpacking, rock climbing, hiking, and rafting guide in Alaska and Colorado; packing and preparing food Expert Grill Combo Grills for multi-day trips is second nature. Grilling burgers and dogs for 30 Boy Scouts on a river trip in northern British Columbia is no joke. In addition to being an outdoor writer, I’m a foodie who worked as a recipe editor for a major meal delivery company.
This grill offers 218 square inches of cooking space, and its heavy-duty cast iron grates produce a beautiful sear on any food. When testing, food in contact with the cast-iron grates browned exceedingly well, the corn, in particular, had a nice char. You can also adjust the charcoal grate to several height settings to dial up the heat, if desired, and we loved that the grill has a pull-out ash tray that makes cleanup quick and easy. We’ve been testing grills for decades in the Good Housekeeping Institute’s Kitchen Appliance and Culinary Innovation Lab. We’ve tested more than 60 grills, including gas grills, charcoal grills, pellet grills and smokers and more.
Our testers have taken this grill everywhere from the forests of Maine to the Anza Borrego and Mojave Deserts of California to the temperate rain forest of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington. We’ve taken it to BLM dispersed campsites across the continent (for an LNT-friendly experience without an established fire ring). Camryn Rabideau is a freelance writer and product reviewer specializing in home, kitchen, and pet products.
(Pun intended—have you seen that handle?) We didn’t choose the Weber Go-Anywhere Charcoal Grill based on handles alone, but what stands out on this camping grill fits so well with its chosen title. Portability (and room for multiple patties) reign supreme with this camping grill. The cover locks in place with moveable, steel-plated legs that tuck up and around, making the top handle as good as a suitcase handle. However, if that doesn’t suffice, two other handles on the long ends will do the job, especially if you’re moving this portable grill with warm charcoal inside. To find the best portable grills for camping, we grilled dozens of burgers, hot dogs, veggies, and chickens to judge the ease of use, speed of cooking, and heat levels of each grill.
The Cuisinart Venture, with its picnic basket appearance, is a good entry-level grill for the uninitiated and a value model for more experienced grillers. It’s a model intended for direct-heat cooking, as there’s no lid to control humidity for “low and slow” cooking. The burner packs 9,000 BTUs under enameled cast iron, providing adequate heat for small-group cooking. 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. The Big Green Egg is a Kamado-style cooker (Kamado is a Japanese word that roughly means “stove”), which makes it much more than a grill. The ceramic construction retains heat and turns it into a portable oven as well.
After grilling 65 burgers, 30 pounds of chicken, and 25 pounds of bratwurst on nine portable grills, we have recommendations for both gas and charcoal options. If you’ve decided you want a portable charcoal grill, there is nothing like the Nomad—it’s expensive but worth it. Not only is it easy to pack and carry, it excelled at every cooking task I gave it.
These grills require open air for proper ventilation, as they can give off carbon monoxide. If you want to cook inside, you’ll want to look for an indoor grill, which are typically electric. The Cuisinart All Foods Roll-Away scored the lowest in wind resistance.