We have decided that it’s probably time to get a new grill.
Matt was grilling burgers a couple of days ago and announced afterward that enough was enough. Our cheapo propane grill has seen better days. Actually, since it is such a cheapo, it really never saw any kind of great days. It’s always just been kind of mediocre. After a few years of use, there’s now just about one hot spot on the entire grill…and that’s it. Do you know how long it takes to cook burgers for nine people (we have company) on a grill that has one little hot spot?
Looks like Matt may be getting a new grill for Father’s Day. (Or whenever we find a good deal on one that will work for us.)
Anybody have good recommendations for a grill that is reasonably priced and works well?
And while we’re on the subject of grilling…what are your favorite things to throw on the grill? Steaks? Chicken? Burgers? Dogs? Kabobs?
Um, when I said Dogs…I meant the long, skinny hot kind that go on a bun…not your pets. You knew that right?
After 20+ years of grilling on gas, we took a step back and bought the Weber performer charcoal grill….and we LOVE it. It’s a little pricey as far as charcoal grills go(around $329), but cooks so nicely. The luxury is in the gas igniter, so no messing with lighting charcoal, just click about 20 mins before grilling, and you have a perfect cooking surface. We think it works better than any of our other grills, and should last a lot longer because it is so simple, and the food tastes ‘grilled’—something we didn’t even know we were missing. Check it out http://www.csgrills.com/Performer–CL10958.htm?src=Adwords&SrcID=6179572|5161484444
I forgot to mention….we first discovered this particular grill because it is the favorite of “The Barbeque Boys” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3NwHuRwQyU These guys just make you want to grill. If you’re worried about carcenogens from charcoal, avoid lighter fluid and such, use natural wood, and just don’t worry because the concern is WAY overblown http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,287958,00.html
I love my Weber gas grill. We’ve had it for 9 years, and it starts with one press of the button every time. Webers aren’t the cheapest, but they are very good quality. I know people who have spent more than I did buying a new cheap grill every couple of years.
I don’t have a recommendation for a grill, unfortunately ours is not much better than yours. My absolute favorite thing to grill are oysters. Yum! It’s kind of an all day adventure for us. We live in Northern California, so we get up and take a ride to the coast and get fresh ones. We play for a bit out there and then head back in to get the grillin’ goin’. We will usually follow up with some hot dogs and burgers. Just add some potato salad, watermelon, family and friends and I am one happy woman!
We have a Brinkman gas grill that was about $200 at Home Depot. We like it a lot, but have only had it for a year. So far so good!
We have some friends that have a grill that is BOTH gas and charcoal! It is so cool! We like the charcoal flavor, but gas is just very convenient and slightly easier to control. I’d love to have both in one grill! It’s probably expensive (he is an airline pilot), but they’ve had it for several years and love it. I’d definitely recommend that option if you want to spend the money.
characoal, charcoal, charcoal! Need I say more? I bought my hubby a smoker/grill for under $150 a couple years back. He LOVES it! It is something similar to this one:
http://www.chargriller.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=21&products_id=34&osCsid=e2982218ff46c119876676447bb81c04
After much research and a husband totally into the infrared technology, I’m planning on buying the 3 burner infrared Char Broil from Lowe’s. However, I was planning on it going on sale before Father’s Day like last year, and so far Nothing! So, it may be an anniversary present instead (September). We too do the grilling on a tiny portion thing.
We have a Weber and love it. It maintains its temp so evenly that we were able to cook a turkey breast on it a few Christmases ago when our power was out for a week!
We don’t have a grill :-( so wish we did. Maybe by next summer we can get a good one, this year is a bit tight.
Same here, no grill. :( We made do for awhile at the lake just
putting aluminum foil on the grills provided (ick!) but I dont really
like foil touching food anymore. And we live too far from the lake.
So either no grill this year or get one of the cheapo table top models.
Another recommendation for Weber here. We bought ours when our boys were little so we have a gas one. I wasn’t going to be running back and forth trying to coax a charcoal grill going with a toddler and a preschooler. Now my boys are teenagers and it’s still going.
Burgers, chicken, fish, hot dogs, turkey on Thanksgiving (think about freeing up all that oven space!), smoked sausage, corn, summer squash and onion rings with seasonings & oil in a foil packet, steaks – my husband grills them all. I do want to try pizza on the grill this summer too!
Another vote for Weber GAS grill. Charcoal has too many carcinogens. And we want to stay away from them. :-)
We’re getting my hubby a Weber for Father’s Day this year. ;) After years of having the cheapest thing from Walmart (and having 2 of them fall apart), Weber is his request.
I want to try pizza on the grill very soon!
We have a Weber charcoal grill, and we love it. We use it with natural hardwood lump charcoal (free of lighter fluid) that we light with a chimney like this: http://www.amazon.com/Weber-87886-Chimney-Starter/dp/B00004U9VV so we don’t have to use any lighter fluid to start it either.
Another Weber recommendation! We started with a small portable Weber and now have a larger “family size” since our family grew.
Go with a Weber gas grill! We got a cheapo grill for a wedding gift 10 years ago and the thing was HORRIBLE to cook on (it finally got put on the curb this year for clean up week after collecting cobwebs outside at my mother-in-law’s house because we/she never used it because it was so bad to cook on); we also got our Weber grill for a wedding present and it is awesome! We love just about everything on the grill–burgers, brats, chicken, kabobs, pizza, potatoes, steak and more! You will definitely get years and years and years of great results by investing in a Weber grill.
One more thing to add–we actually have 2 Webers, one at our lake cabin that my in-laws had before we got ours and the one at home. I use the one at home year round, so it definitely gets a good amoutnt of use. It has probably been about 10 years since I have cooked a burger on a stovetop!
We have a charcoal grill and love it. We use the natural wood kind of charcoal. My hubby has a chimney so we don’t use lighter fluid to start the coals. We love it it gives the food such a good flavor. He hasn’t used the gas grill in about 3 years.
Hooray for grills! Sounds like ours, it’s maybe 4 -5 years old and probably ready for a new one by next year!
My new favorite yummy treat to make on the grill is apple crisp! Put it on and forget about it until you are done your burgers etc!
Want the recipe? Let me know and I would be more than happy to share!
Christy, I would love if you would share the recipe. It sounds very yummy :)
YES! Can you email the recipe to me? I’d love to share it for everyone! (laura @ heavenly homemakers.com)
We just bought a Charbroil Commercial Series from Lowes, a 3-burner with a side burner, for about $300. And we love it! Several family members have had theirs for 4+ years and have needed no maintenance or repairs. Weber would be great, but it is outside our price range to get a grill the size we wanted. I like this one because there is room to make a complete meal for 5 of us (and 1 more soon). We can grill the meat, veggies in the grill skillet or wok, warm up or toast breads, and use pots on the side burner. Add a salad and all my boys are satisfied without turning on anything in the kitchen.
My favorite things we’ve grilled so far this year have been a chimmichurri marinated flank steak for steak wraps and the zucchini from the garden.
We too only use charcoal! It has a MUCH better flavor!
We got a Weber Performer last year and love it!
Only charcoal grills here also. Much better flavor for the meat. We love them. Just don’t char your food and you’ll be fine.
While I love how charcoal makes food taste, the time and expense make me a happy gas grill owner. I just saw yesterday that the average cost of running a charcoal grill for one hour is $4.00. A gas grill is only $.70, plus I love that it’s ready in 10 minutes!
We love grilling everything! We grill several nights a week during the spring, summer, and fall and even grill some during the winter (even in the snow)!
No recommendations for a grill – we have a UniFlame bought at Walmart several years ago for around $150. It’s huge – four burners with plenty of workspace on the sides, and also includes a side burner, which I thought I would use a lot, but I don’t. It works great, so I don’t see the sense in spending lots of a grill. When it dies, we’ll buy another cheap one. We’ve done this for around 30 years, and it works for us!
We grill a lot of chicken, but my favorite is to butter a big piece of foil, pile carrots, potatoes, onions, etc, in the middle and fold it up. Throw it on the grill for a while, turn it and let it cook some more. My family loves veggies cooked on the grill, and you could use any type of veggies you have on hand!
My Parents got us a Weber grill two years ago, for Christmas and Its a really small, ( like travel camping size ) We really like the quality, but the size is a bit small for our family, so we will at some point get a bigger one! I do really like Weber though!
Katie
Ours was a hand me down and has been rebuilt (new burners, etc) and is still going strong. I’m not really sure of the name though.
We love to grill everything. Chicken, chops, steam, veggie packs, corn on the cob is my fav in the husk MMM!
Am wanting to also try to grill some pizza this year!
You are going to think this is crazy, but it will be the last grill you ever buy and probably the most expensive, but you will cook the best food ever – EVER on this grill.
THE BIG GREEN EGG – I know it is a funny name but I can not tell you how amazing it is. Check it out!
http://www.biggreenegg.com/
after years of wanting one, i surprised my husband with a weber last fathers day…and he LOVES it!! as for my fav. thing to cook on it…PIZZA!!! make your dough…brush it with oil (or butter :))…cook it for about a minute on each side, then add your sauce and toppings and grill another 6-7 minutes (if that)!! YUM!
Weber gas grill – hands down. More expensive, but you will not be replacing it every few years like so many others. Retains the heat and heats evenly. We are so glad we made the investment. By the way, when you have zucchini coming out your ears, slice them thin longways and put on the grill. Brush with garlic vinagrette while cooking to season and keep them from sticking. Fabulous!
Mmm-mm! ~ Make me hungry for some grillin’ ~
We have something that looks like a Weber, might be called a Happy something or other. Got it for free from friends =) And it’s served us for 17+ years! Someday we’ll buy a real Weber or a Green Egg…and a smoker… Gotta have a charcoal grill ~ we use Steakhouse brand wood charcoal and an electric starter (looks like an oven element) that you plug in for ~10 min while it lays on the coals.
SonOne has mastered both burgers and turkey tenderloins (marinated) this year. BEEF is what’s for dinner here, usually. DH is super busy with our house-building, so he hasn’t had time to grill us some rib-eyes for quite a while. He wants to try pizza on the grill, but I’ve been hesitant to let him put my PC stone on there ~ tell me it’s okay, please? or no stone? I have a hard time imagining this…
Seriously check out the Big Green Egg. We are firm believers and will never go back. We even bought a little mini to take camping. We are now grill/smoker snobs and you will never want to eat any other way. We have cooked everything under the sun on it and it is there during winter storms when the power is out. The charcoal is natural wood too!!!! We cook on ours constantly and you use very little charcoal. It is a larger purchase up front but will last a lifetime….Try to find someone that has one and taste a sample you will understand after one bite.
We love our Weber gas grill and have had it for years… when the lid started to look aged, we ordered a new lid for it, since the grill still worked just fine. A nice budget-friendly fix :o)
I agree with those who say CHARCOAL! I bought my little grill for $10, after the grilling season 2 years ago and I LOVE it! My kids love cooking and eatting outside. Our favorites are chicken & pork chops.
Splurge on a Traeger… you’ll never need another grill! You an find them on craigslist at times for good prices.
We love to slice zucchini into spears, marinate it in herbs & olive oil and grill it… YUM!
We just got this grill: http://www.lowes.com/pd_314076-52341-SH3118B_4294857754+1000+4294866705_4294937087?catalogId=10051&productId=3083387&Ne=4294937087¤tURL=%2Fpl_Green_4294857754+1000+4294866705_4294937087_&identifier=Green&N=4294857754+1000+4294866705&langId=-1&Ns=p_product_price|1&storeId=10151&ddkey=http:CategoryDisplay (hope that turns into a link) We love it. It has plenty of space for normal grilling, a smaller place for searing, and the side burner. Its the Master Forge Four Burner Split Lid gas grill from Lowes. It was $329 and you can buy it pre assembeled.
Weber gets my vote. Our Weber has been going strong for years.
Besides cooking meat, we use it with a stone (from Chef’s) to make pizza. It’s too hot in GA to cook pizza indoors. This stone makes a crispy bottom crust with a chewy top crust and no burned cheese…amazing.
Another of our favorites is a Vidalia onion hollowed out a little with butter and some Frontier chicken bouillon or Rapadura vegetable bouillon. Wrap it in foil and cook while the meat is cooking. Delicious!
I don’t have any suggestions on the grill. We just got an off brand on sale somewhere, and it works fine. My favorite thing to eat on the grill is when my Father-in-law cooks steak. I also just tried this recipe and it was so good: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Yummy-Honey-Chicken-Kabobs/Detail.aspx
We are firm believers in “real” grilling – charcoal, not propane. The flavor is so much better. You can get a nice little Weber pretty inexpensively or find a large Weber on sale. Charcoal is not that expensive, plus you can soak some wood chips and throw those on right before you put them meat on. Oh what flavor! We like anything on the BarB – steak, chicken, fish, veggies!
We had a Weber for 8 years – it finally just died. While we did enjoy it, we just got a new Charbroil infrared. Pricey. Fantabulous. I wouldn’t go back to Weber.
We raise our own pork every year – so one of our favorites, naturally — pork chops. They are divine. Just a little Johnny’s Seasoning, and voila! A taste of heaven on a plate. I have a Facebook Album dedicated solely to “The Perks” of having land… yum.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2062538&id=1188272771&l=21ec9bdbe1
Sam’s carries a Green Egg knock-off for half the price.
Justin loves his Weber. Simple, basic,easily transportable, great for steaming, GOOD!
My dad said about 4 weeks ago Good Morning America compared top grills with reasonably priced grills. He said Target has a propane grill for around $250-$300 that was one of the best according to GMA. If you go to their site you may be able to find the story.
Our Weber is still going strong after 12 years of heavy use–including several turkeys each year. We did replace the spark switch thing at some point. I paid $500 at Home Depot.
I absolutely love Weber grills although I’m now considering getting some type of smoker as well. I have had some absolutely amazing food that was prepared on a Big Green Egg.
My all time favorite thing to fix on the grill is turkey breast rubbed with butter and covered with Weber’s Chicago Steak seasoning (I put that stuff on everything!) And of course you have to finish off the meal with a grilled dessert like peach pie! (http://www.joyofgrilling.com/grilled-skillet-peach-pie/)