The 10 Best Grills, According to Cooks and Barbecue Experts (2024)

Grill shopping was once as simple as choosing between charcoal’s nostalgia and propane’s ease of use. Visit any hardware store today and you’ll notice a bewildering number of cookers lined up outside. That’s great, because there is a grill out there for any cooking style you’d want to try. To cut through the noise and hype we asked professional chefs, culinary instructors and barbecue experts for the best grills and equipment they use in their own yards.

Space-saving gas grill

Even though he has room in the backyard for all kinds of grills these days, Cincinnati-based chef and restaurateur Dan Wright still loves the Dyna-Glo that was small enough to store on the balcony of his Chicago condo and made cooking outside in winter worth it. “This is one of my favorite grills because it’s small, cheap and capable of doing everything you need,” he says. The grill offers 319 square inches of primary cooking space—or enough for about 12 regular burgers—yet its footprint is only about 24 inches by 50 inches, which you can shrink even further by removing its side shelves. The two burners max out at 24,000 BTUs and allow for indirect cooking to handle things like thick steaks, whole chickens or roasts, while the enameled cast-iron grates absorb a lot of energy to sear food with impressive grill lines.

Does-it-all pellet smoker

The Traeger Timberline Wood Pellet Grill will churn out barbecue all day long without much effort from you. Traeger popularized the pellet smoker design, which is as easy to use as an indoor oven. Plug it into an outlet near your patio or deck and its fan and auger work in concert to automatically feed compressed hardwood pellets into the burn chamber, keeping the grill around the temperature you set its dial to. Atlanta-based chef and restaurateur Ford Fry uses his Traeger for way more than briskets and pork shoulders. Fry smokes tomatoes, onions and jalapeños for salsa and slow smokes big burgers on it too.

The induction side burner separates the Timberline from every other pellet grill; you can get a cast-iron pan ripping hot. Fry says he can cook a steak to rare, then butter baste it in a pan “so there’s no bouncing in and out of the house.” The Timberline’s large cook space fits up to nine chickens, eight racks of ribs or six pork butts, with a max temperature of 500 degrees Fahrenheit.

Rustproof roaster

Reliability and durability are the factors that matter to Portland, Maine-based chef Bobby Will, who cooks on the enameled-steel SmokeFire at home and sometimes brings it to his restaurant. “I find it easier to clean and it doesn’t rust like my old pellet smokers, which is perfect for Maine’s unpredictable weather,” he says. “I also find it holds more consistent heat than other products on the market.” The EX4 pellet grill has 672 square inches of cooking space over two racks and a massive hopper that holds more than 20 pounds of pellets, which is enough fuel for a multi-hour barbecue session.

Once you set the oven’s temperature from the dial—with a range from 200 to 600 degrees—you can control the cook and keep an eye on food temperatures, via the the included probe, from a companion app. “It works really well for things I can set and forget because I don’t want to be standing over a stove, especially on my only day off,” Will says.

Versatile charcoal cooker

A drum-style cooker takes a bit more attention than a pellet grill, but the reward is the versatility to cook low and slow or sear hot and fast. The Pit Barrel Cooker is “a one-stop shop, Swiss Army knife of smoking and grilling,” says Scott Clark, chef and owner of Dad’s Luncheonette in Half Moon Bay, Calif. He uses a larger capacity 22.5-inch model, but most home cooks would be better off with the 18.5-inch cooker. Think of a barrel smoker as a very tall kettle grill: The 36-inch tall tube has a basket for unlit charcoal at the bottom, on top of which you dump glowing hot briquettes that burn and ignite the layer below, keeping the fire going. From there, you have access to two steel rods and the 30-gallon drum has space to hang meat and vegetables that cook gently over the heat.

You can also top the enameled steel drum with the included grill grate to sear burgers and chicken as you would on a standard kettle grill. This primitive cooking method only has one control, a 3-inch diameter hole at the bottom you adjust to control how much air reaches the fire. “You’ve got to get your hands dirty with this and keep a watchful eye on it.” Where the Pit Barrel shines is smoking, accomplished by adding wood chunks on the coals. The eight included hooks will hang plenty of ribs, chicken, pork butt or brisket.

Classic kettle

Despite the convenience of gas, some cooks are charcoal die-hards, including New Orleans-based chef Jacqueline Blanchard, owner of Sukeban. “When I cook yakitori or satay at home, I always grill over charcoal,” she says. “The flavor you get from the fat searing, dripping over the charcoal, almost lightly smoking the meat is something no other method can create.” That might be why the classic Weber kettle has never fallen out of favor, though it doesn’t hurt that it’s also easy to use and load, and isn’t very fussy. “I really enjoy the pure simplicity of the kettle,” says Blanchard.

The Master-Touch comes in eight colors and offers 443 square inches of cooking capacity. It costs more than Weber’s Original Kettle, but it’s worth it. The integrated ash catcher makes cleaning easier and the included pair of grill baskets help pull off dual-zone cooking. Out of the box, you can grill and smoke with the Master-Touch, and the grate has an insert that pops out to accept accessories like a griddle, pizza stone or rotisserie.

Hardworking griddle

Griddles (which lack grill grates) are the most underrated of all outdoor cooking rigs, yet they can do everything from morning pancakes to grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch and steaks for dinner. “The Elite3B is the perfect in-between size that allows you enough space to cook an entire meal but is not so big they are cumbersome to store,” says Todd Johns, a pitmaster and competitive cook in Kansas City who had barbecue restaurants for a decade before focusing on his line of rubs and sauces. The 64-inch by 32-inch Halo cranks out 36,000 BTUs over three burners, but what is unique is its ability to meter out that heat over six zones. You can keep the slab of steel at a consistent temperature or easily create a warm spot to stash cooked food. The lid also makes short work of tasks like melting cheese on burgers. The 564 square inch griddle is inset to protect the burners from the wind and its surface will reach up to 750 degrees in about 10 minutes. The wheels make it easy to roll the 152-pound griddle around a deck or patio and the built-in level, along with the adjustable feet, help level the unit off so you’re not chasing sausages all afternoon.

Clever, digital charcoal grill

While charcoal cooking has a loyal following, the grills that use the fuel are slow to see much innovation; the Masterbuilt Gravity Series is an exception. “I love the Masterbuilt because it functions like a pellet grill but offers the flavor of charcoal,” says Las Vegas-based Christie Vanover, pitmaster of competitive barbecue team Girls Can Grill. “You add charcoal briquettes to the hopper, use the digital controls to set your temperature and go about your day.” Unlike a kettle grill, where you might have to remove your food to add more fuel, topping off the Masterbuilt is a snap since the charcoal chute is next to, and not underneath, the grill. You can also toss wood chunks into the mix and infuse a pleasantly smoky flavor. The 1,050 square inches of cooking surface is enough to feed a family of four with a hopper capacity of 16 pounds of briquettes for longer cooks. The grill’s temperature reaches 700 degrees in about 15 minutes—similar to a kettle—but the Masterbuilt can maintain a low 225 degrees for barbecuing, too.

Luxury pellet grill

Most nights when he cooks outside, Andrew Groneman, who teaches barbecue classes in Wichita, Kan., and hosts a barbecue radio show, relies on this Yoder. “It’s the most versatile cooker out there and it will do everything from cold smoke to sear steaks,” he says. “I have owned one since 2011 and it has a welded body and very stout auger system.” Beyond the brawn, the Yoder has 1,070 square inches of cook surface with about a foot of headroom under the tall lid, meaning there isn’t a roast, chicken or turkey you can’t fit inside. The Yoder also excels where other pellet cookers fall short: Searing from a live flame. By removing a metal heat diffuser plate from inside the smoker, you expose the pellet’s fire pot. When topped with a grill grate, it turns a portion of the cooker into a roaring hot flame to finish thick steaks and grill off some burgers.

Next-gen gas grill

Max Good, vice president and director of equipment reviews for AmazingRibs.com, oversees testing for just about every style of residential backyard cooker and praises the new Genesis for its superior durability and performance. “The burners are more powerful and the high hood accommodates rotisserie cooking, and a bigger right-side shelf for more convenience.” The propane-fueled Genesis provides even heat over the three burners, which max out at 39,000 BTUs under a 513 square-inch primary cooking surface. Weber added in a dedicated sear burner, tucked between the primary burners on the right side of the grill, to provide the extra heat needed to finish proteins. The grill’s Wi-Fi feature enables smartphone reminders when the food hits the target temperature by way of a pair of temperature probes (one is included). Other features of the grill, like a flip-up warming rack that tucks out of the way, a side burner for cooking with pans and a locker to store accessories add convenience. Good says Weber also offers excellent customer service.

Burgers on the go

As the former culinary instructor at Shake Shack, Mark Rosati knows how to griddle a burger. On the go—camping, tailgating, at a friend’s house—he prefers this mobile setup: a portable butane camp stove, which is a powerful heat source, and a cast iron griddle that’s easy to move and has great heat retention. He says he’s able to cook four burgers at a time on the really hot griddle, “which I can’t do inside because the house would smell like burgers for the next five days.” The 3-pound burner runs on readily available, 8-ounce, camp-style butane burners and is easy to take to the backyard or stadium parking lot. The 7,650 BTUs get the 7-pound Lodge cast-iron griddle blistering hot. Rostai likes this 12-inch-wide griddle because the low sides make it easy to access the burger for smashing and flipping, and of course, it works inside for pancakes.