Outdoor grills advice: pellet vs. gas vs. charcoal

I picked up a Traeger Pro 575 and absolutely love it! The Wifire app is great too.

 

Depends on your situation. For me, propane is just quicker. Have a 4 y/o and 1.5 y/o and aint got time for charcoal to preheat for 30 minutes

That said, I had a charcoal one before and liked it. But that was before wild kids where time to do stuff was so scarce.

 

Depends what you want to use it for.

 

Kamado of any kind.

 

Quick daily grilling? Weekend grilling with no rush and time to get the coals going? Frequently smoking? Ability to use as a charcoal grill and smoker?

 

OP, what do you want out of it?

I smoke briskets, ribs, wings, pork butts (shoulders) and other various meats quite often.

I use a good old fashioned offset stick burner but mine is custom made. I grill steaks, fish, etc on it as well using the fire box and charcoal. Or a combination of charcoal and chips of wood for flavor depending on what the meat is. I use that same firebox for wood when smoking for 12-24 hours, again, depending on what meat it is.

I guess the bigger question is, are you wanting something super easy to quickly grill something (propane grill) or are you going to smoke meats too? You mention a pellet grill, which are great for a good smoke by setting it and forgetting it. Some have propane you can quickly grill up a burger too.

Everyone is different, but I enjoy tending to a wood fire, drinking a beer and enjoying company, while slow smoking some meats.

You can get a good offset for a decent price. Oklahoma Joes makes some good offsets pretty cheap. Just make sure to season it well and take care of it and if will last along time

 

btw: for those who've ever wished to buy custom-smoker rigs (with and w/o trailers), now's the time. Hobbyists and aspiring pros are liquidating their toys. Same thing happened in 2008. But moreso now in Texas, because of the oil crash.

 

I've got one of these...pretty forgiving for someone who is not a great grillmaster (me).

One Star General

https://makgrills.com/

 

Taste the meat, not the heat.

 

I love my green egg. Smoke, bake, sear. It is really a versatile grill.

 

Like others have said, depends on what you plan on cooking and the time you have to actually do it.

Grilling on charcoal always tastes better than grilling on a propane grill. But it takes a lot longer to get your coals ready vs 5 minutes to get your propane ready.

If you just plan on burgers, steaks, pork chops/tenderloin and chicken then you don’t need a smoker. Choose propane or a charcoal grill based on the time you have to cook. In my opinion Weber is a great option for either choice.


The same thing with a smoker. A wood pellet is a lot easier to use and you can set it and forget it but you get a better smoke flavor burning actual wood with an offset or a cabinet smoker.

A ceramic (kamado joe or big green egg) allows the best of both worlds (an offset can as well) and you can grill and smoke on them.

I actually have a Weber propane grill which i use on weeknights when I need to cook in 30-40 minutes and use it for burgers, chicken etc

I also have a Kamado Joe which I use for steaks, fajitas and other stuff but I really only use it on the weekends because of the time it takes to get the lump charcoal ready. It’s a great smoker as well but the issue is the size. If you plan on doing more than 3 racks of ribs you need something bigger. Plus they are expensive and not necessary if you just plan on grilling meat.

I also have a cabinet smoker that uses wood chunks (Backwoods G2 Chubby) that I use most of the time for brisket, ribs, butts as I just like it better than the ceramic for smoking. but you can’t grill on it.

So if you want quick and easy grilling go with a propane.

If you have an hour or longer to cook when you want then get a charcoal grill instead.

If you want something that is awesome for grilling and smoking, go with a ceramic (if it is in your budget).

If you want an easy smoker that doesn’t require paying a lot of attention get a wood pellet. If you care more about the smoke flavor and enjoy tooling around when you smoke meat, get an offset or a cabinet.

 

where should I look?

 

But more importantly how’s your back doe??

 

Offset smoker.

 

I have a large affinity for the $99 black barrel pits that you see at every hardware store. You can cook anything on those short of a brisket or smoked turkey and such, just depends on the fire you build.

Weber-types are great, eggs are great.

Offset smokers are great, but expensive and overkill for a lot of things.

Gas grills are great for a quick few things, I'm always a little bummed when I'm done cooking chicken breasts/pork chops/burgers on a carefully built charcoal fire and the fire is still sitting there perfect to cook more stuff. Seems wasteful.

As was said, just depends on what you're going to be doing. It honestly depends more on the cook than the grill.

There may be a better place, more bbq-centric, but this was a quick search. Nobody seems to be letting them go cheap.

https://austin.craigslist.org/search/sss?query=bbq+smoker

 

Which brings us at last to the moment of truth, wherein the fundamental flaw is ultimately expressed, and the anomaly revealed as both beginning, and end. There are three doors. The door to your right leads to the pellet, and the salvation of Zion. The door to the left leads back to the gas, to your bbq chicken, and to the end of your species. As you adequately put, the problem is choice. The third door leads to charcoal. But we already know what you're going to do, don't we? Already we can see the chain reaction, the chemical precursors that signal the onset of emotion, designed specifically to overwhelm logic, and reason. An emotion that is already blinding you from the simple, and obvious truth: the chicken is going to die, and there is nothing that you can do to stop it.

 

Do we bake it?

No, no, nooooo, no.

Do we fry it?

No, no, nooooo, no.



Where there is smoke, there must be ...

 

Whats the best affordable propane grill

 

I bought my first grill 9 months ago it was a Louisiana Grill LG900 at Costco.
link here: https://www.costco.com/louisiana-grills-lg900-pellet-grill-with-flame-broiler.product.100458788.html

This thing has 919 sq inches of cooking area. I can smoke 4 full racks of pork ribs at once. Costco usually has a summer sale where grills get deep discounts. I got mine 300 bucks cheaper than retail during the sale last year. I was a BBQ noob and did not know anything about controlling a fire properly. The beauty of a wood pellet grill is that you don't have to know-how. You just load the pellets push a button and it does all the work.
I have had great results with my wood pellet grill. My recommendation would be to go big on the cooking area so you can cook more at once, its a lifesaver when cooking for lots of people at once.