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Nothing says summer like cooking over an open flame. 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.
This is time of year when, like a groundhog, the grill starts to poke out of the snow and show its rusty, neglected self. If you're in need of a new grill this year, here's our guide to the very best portable grills. We've researched and tested dozens of them to see which can brat the best.
For your other outdoor needs, check out our guides to the Best Camping Gear, Best Tents, Best Rain Jackets, and the Best Binoculars.
Updated May 2024: We’ve added the Skotti grill, some accessories for the Nomad grill, and the Ignik propane growler, and we’ve updated prices throughout.
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Of all the charcoal grills I tested, the Weber Jumbo Joe strikes the best balance of affordability, features, and ease of use. It's big enough (18.5 inches in diameter) to smoke two racks of ribs or to fit burgers and corn for six people (admittedly, this was crowded) but small enough that you'll still have room in the trunk for a cooler and camping supplies.
It's one of the most versatile grills I tested. Grilling, barbecuing, smoking—you can do it all with ease. Thanks to its dual-vent system (one at the bottom, one at the top), you get the same fine-grained level of temperature control you'll find in Weber's full-size kettles.
It weighs 22 pounds and has a handle with a bar that fits over the top to keep the kettle and lid together for easy carrying. I tossed mine in the back of the car for trips to the lake and the park and it never tipped over. The ash catcher at the bottom makes cleaning less of a hassle by allowing you to dump the excess without removing the grill grates.
The Jumbo Joe has a considerable following on the internet. Fans have added thermometers, fastened knobs to make it easier to open and close vents, attached hanging ashcans, and come up with creative ways to cook taller items, like beer-can chicken.
It's not perfect, though. No thermometer is included, and Weber does not make a storage cover for the Jumbo Joe. If you want to do any indirect-heat cooking, you'll want to buy the hinged grill grate for $40 so you can feed in fresh fuel without removing the top grill, and the $26 charcoal basket is also useful. Do yourself a favor, throw away your lighter fluid and get a charcoal chimney starter ($28).
Nomad's striking, suitcase-style cooker (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is to grills what the Yeti is to coolers: better in every way, but expensive. The Nomad is well built, sturdy, and easy to carry. It is heavier than the the Jumbo Joe at 28 pounds, but the shape and large handle actually make it easier to carry in my experience. Like the Jumbo Joe, the Nomad uses a dual venting system to achieve good airflow even when the lid is closed. The vents, combined with the raised fins on the bottom of the grill (which elevate your charcoal allowing air to flow under it), allow for every precise control of both high and low temperatures.
The Nomad ships with a single grate, giving you 212 square inches of cooking space, slightly less than the Jumbo Joe above. In practice, this isn't a big difference. I managed to smoke nine chicken breasts, and another time I fit two racks of ribs. If you need to grill for a crowd, pick up the second grill grate for $158, but even without it I never felt cramped while cooking for five (two adults, three ravenous children). For 2024 Nomad has introduced some new accessories, one of which is essential: the ash and coal shovel ($88). The shovel greatly simplifies cleaning out your Nomad and frankly should be included when you buy one. The other thing I really like is the Carbon Steel Griddle ($168). It requires seasoning, but once you have it set up it turns your Nomad into a flattop that would make a Waffle House chef proud. Ventilation holes around the sides of the griddle help keep the air flowing and the heat up. Nice as it is, using the griddle made me realize what I'd really love is a half-grill, half-griddle option for maximum cooking flexibility. (Technically you can get this by using your grill plate on half the grill and griddle on the other, but that requires double the charcoal.)
Perhaps my favorite part of the Nomad is that, unlike every other grill here, the exterior stays relatively cool, and you can close it up and carry it off shortly after cooking—meaning that, when the no-see-ums descend at dusk, you can scramble back to the car and make your getaway without melting the plastic chair you accidentally packed next to the Nomad. Nomad offers some custom charcoal, and it is very nice but expensive ($36 for 10 pounds).
If flavor is your only criterion, I would argue that charcoal is superior to propane gas. But flavor is rarely the only factor. We don't grill in beautiful meadows under a rainbow every day. Often, we grill after hours on a Friday while we're also trying to set up a tent, inflate a mattress, and wrangle hungry children. And that's when the convenience of propane trumps charcoal.
For those times, our favorite small gas grill is the Weber Q 1200. It's big enough for a family of four and strikes the best balance between ease of use and cooking performance. It has a thermometer and some side tables to hold your plates and tongs. It's also a champ at keeping a constant, even heat in pretty much any weather conditions. A storm blew in one afternoon, but it just kept on cooking despite the high wind and rain.
It's good at minimizing flare-ups. To test this I marinated some chicken in lemon juice and olive oil and laid it on the grills. Every grill flared somewhat, but the Q 1200 (and the Coleman below) have heavy enameled cast-iron grates that are closed over the burners, which helps keep the flaring under control.
The main downside is its weight. It may be totally unfazed by weather, but it's a heavy 30 pounds. The $117 wheeled stand is worth a look if you plan to transport it a lot. (Also be sure to check out the new Weber Traveler below.) Other nice accessories include the griddle for $65 and a storage cover for $22.
Snow Peak's Takibi Fire & Grill is like the Nomad above, it's extremely well made, but expensive. It was designed to last forever, and by all accounts it does. It has legions of fans, including Gear Team senior associate editor Adrienne So, who says it made her like camping again. Snow Peak CEO Tohru Yamai designed it more than 20 years ago and has only ever received two customer complaints, which is equally impressive.
That's a lot of hype, and I was prepared to be underwhelmed, but the Takibi lives up to the hype and then some. It's not my number-one pick, because it's not quite as versatile as the Weber (you'd have a hard time slow-cooking on it or smoking anything, although there is a $350 oven attachment), but in most other regards I like it better. It folds flat, leaving more room in your trunk; the grill top is a grid so small things won't fall through, and when you're done cooking it turns into a fire pit. I cooked with wood and charcoal, both of which worked fine. There is an add-on cast iron coal bed ($33) that holds charcoal, but I don't see it as necessary (nice to have perhaps, but not necessary).
While slow-cooking on the Takibi would be challenging, you can at least adjust the grill height to control temperature. It is designed to let heat out the sides, as well as up to the cooking surface, so it's slightly less efficient than a covered grill, but this is only really a factor when cooking large cuts of meat (tent them with foil). It's easy to set up and simple to clean and pack away. My only real complaint is that without a lid you can't smother your remaining charcoal and reuse it, but in most cases when the food is done I load up the Takibi with firewood and enjoy it as a fire pit.
The GoBQ is the most portable grill in this guide. It's so small and light it'll fit in a backpack. It's even TSA-approved. Yup, you can fly with the GoBQ. The packable, rollable GoBQ is unlike anything else listed here—it's made of a fire-proof, non-stick, non-toxic silicone-coated fabric, essentially the same stuff that's used in baking mats. The charcoal hangs in a mesh wire basket, and the ingenious grilltop rolls and unrolls. GoBQ says the fabric can withstand over 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit and should last through 50 or more cooks, making this a good choice for traveling, but not everyday use.
One word of caution: Either use ready-light charcoal, a fire starter, or a charcoal chimney. You don't want to squirt lighter fluid all over the GoBQ. (Really, you don't want to squirt lighter fluid on anything. Ever. Seriously, stop doing that. Get a charcoal chimney.)
The GoBQ weighs just 8 pounds and offers 185 inches of cooking space, making it a good option for couples on the go or a small family looking for a light meal. In my testing, cooking on the GoBQ was like cooking over a campfire. There are no vents to open and close, so you'll have to control heat with the lid and by how you add fuel. It's cooking, the old-fashioned way, but if you haven't done that much you might want to practice before you have hangry kids clamoring for dinner. Still, if your primary criteria is portability, this is the best grill around.
Not everyone has a yard, and it's increasingly common for apartments to ban open flame grills on balconies. This is where electric grills come in. It's grilling, sort of, but without the flames.
After trying a few different options, I've come back around to the one that got me through apartment life: the George Foreman grill. Some may turn up their nose and say this isn't really grilling, but there's no grilling police (as far as I know), and it's as close as some of us can get—so grill on.
I haven't used the fancier models, but this basic four-serving one served me well for years. You can pull the grills out for easy cleaning, there's a drip pan to catch all the grease, and if you're not in the grilling mood, it doubles as a Panini press.
Keep in mind that this is a little different than normal grilling, since it cooks from the top and bottom, which means your food cooks faster. Make sure you preheat your grill until the green light clicks. This will ensure that your food doesn't stick to the grill plates.
If you're headed “out there” but need a compact grill you can fit, along with all your other overlanding gear, in, say, your 1989 Jeep Wagoneer, the Skotti is the grill to get. The Skotti is a completely collapsible, lightweight, stainless steel grill that's the perfect overlanding companion. It's quick to set up and cools reasonably fast so you can pack it away, and it can cook with propane, charcoal, wood, or even those little isobutane canisters usually associated with backpacking stoves. It's this latter option that really sets the Skotti apart, making it more versatile than anything else on this page. You could even, if you don’t mind the weight (6.6 pounds), take this thing into the backcountry.
I tested it using all of its fuel sources, and while I am partial to the charcoal and wood options, it's nice to have propane or butane as an option in this day and age of fire bans. You do have to insert a burner pipe and heat dispersing plate to use the canister fuels, but otherwise cooking is about the same regardless of fuel source.
The Skotti isn't huge. With 116 square inches of cooking space, it's best for couples or small families. I was able to feed five grilling the main dish on the Skotti, but I made all the sides on my stove, which is to say, it can be done, but it's not ideal for larger families.
If you want to make your Skotti more versatile, there's a collapsible lid ($129) that fits nicely on top and opens up the possibility of smoking and slow cooking with indirect heat. This is also one of the few grills on this list that's just elegant to look at. I almost felt bad getting it all greasy and blackened. Almost.
The Weber Traveler's sturdy design and easy collapsing and extending system make it the simplest wheeled grill I've tested. Setup and teardown take mere seconds.
Like the Q above, Weber's Traveler uses a single burner that wraps around the entire bottom of the grill. That's covered by a two-piece cast iron grill grate that's solid where it runs over the burner, which acts as a heat diffuser and keeps the burner from getting covered in grease. Speaking of grease, it has a slide-out grease trap that's easy to empty. It also has a built-in thermometer that's reasonably accurate, but I still suggest getting a separate instant-read thermometer.
No matter how you measure it, the Traveler's 13,000-BTU burner gets plenty hot, and it really shines when searing. The 320-square-inch grilling surface is big enough to grill for a crowd. The only real knock against the Weber is that it is big. It'll still fit in the trunk of most cars, but it definitely takes up a considerable amount of space.
Cuisinart's Venture portable gas grill looks like something Apple would make, if Apple got into grills. It's really a two-part grill that packs up into a lightweight, easy-to-carry package. The base comes off and features a flip-out propane bottle holder (we discourage you from using those; see why below) as well as serving as a place to cut. The integrated bamboo cutting board fits on top of the base, which gives you somewhere to prep your meal even if there's no picnic table around.
Despite being light and very portable, the Venture features a heavy-duty cast iron grilling surface that cooks evenly and sears well. In fact, I rarely turned this one up past medium, because it gets plenty hot on low. Conversely, don't plan on cooking slow and low with this; it's a “sear things and be done” sort of grill.
My only complaint about the Venture is that the grease tray is small and therefore prone to spilling if you aren't careful when you slide it out. Despite that, this is a clever, fun, well-designed grill that's perfect for searing on the go.
The iconic Big Green Egg has a cultlike following. But they are, indeed, big. 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.
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. The MiniMax Big Green Egg is identical to its larger cousin in nearly every way, but smaller. It weighs 75 pounds, making it by the far the heaviest grill I tested, but the double-handle carrying system makes it easy for two people to carry it. The problem is that the 13-inch grilling surface of the MiniMax can only grill for about four people.
It's big enough to roast a chicken, sear a couple of large steaks at a time, or fit about six 12-inch skewers. But if you're doing meat and veggies for a family of four, you're going to be cooking in batches. In practice, this isn't so bad. Most meats need to rest when they're done cooking anyway, giving you time to do your veggies. In my testing, the Mini Big Green Egg has excellent heat control and, like the larger version, is extremely fuel-efficient.
You can find a local store that carries the MiniMax here.
The FirePit+ is a sleek, portable mesh box with removable legs, a hibachi-style grill, and an ash bin. It uses a Bluetooth-compatible app to precisely control the airflow, which in turn controls your cooking temperature. Be sure to read through my colleague Adrienne So's full review of the original model for more details, but I set out specifically to see how it grills, and the answer is: very well.
The main drawback when using the FirePit as a grill is its size. It's big enough to cook for four, but it's long and narrow, which makes some things awkward (I suggest you don't try a whole chicken). It's best suited to grilling kabobs and the like. Think “food on a stick.”
Perhaps the best thing about the FirePit is that when dinner's over, you can lower the fuel rack and turn it into, well, a fire pit. And of course it can recharge your devices, but there's something vaguely sacrilegious about sitting around the fire charging your phone.
The ubiquitous disposable, green propane bottle is convenient, but it's a huge source of pollution. It's illegal in many jurisdictions to throw them in the trash, though that doesn't stop most people, it seems, given how many of these end up in landfills every year. Don't be that person.
For years I've recommended small propane tanks instead, but the Ignik gas growler takes this to another level entirely. I've been testing the Gas Growler X Deluxe, which gets you a 10-pound propane tank with a nice padded/insulated sleeve and a handy strap for carrying, and it makes your camp set up look so much nicer than a bare tank. It also save your shins during those inevitable run-ins with cold hard steel that come from lugging around a big propane tank. A 10-pound tank lasts me about two weeks. It's small and light enough to cart around, though if you want something smaller Ignik also makes a 5-pound version ($110) and a 3.8 pounder ($80).
You can also buy an adapter ($15) to refill your smaller canisters, though this may not be legal nor advisable, depending on where you live and your level of common sense, as you can easily overfill or break the valve. If you live in California, you may also be able to bring in 1-pound canisters for free refills, or exchange empty canisters for full ones.
The terms grilling and barbecue are often used interchangeably, which is fine, but if you get serious about cooking over flame you'll want to learn the distinction. Grilling usually means cooking directly over high heat, while barbecue typically refers to cooking over indirect heat for longer periods of time: You grill steak. You barbecue ribs.
I used both methods to test, grilling everything from steak and salmon to corn and even kale. (This recipe for grilled kale is my go-to for testing how hard it is to clean a grill. It's delicious but incredibly messy.)
For the charcoal options, I also smoked ribs, pork, and brisket, If you're planning to smoke, I highly recommend investing in some kind of thermometer system. I use Weber's Connect Smart Hub ($86), which is nice and portable, and two probes is generally all I need on small grills. I also never cook without my trusty Thermopen One ($100).
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