Testing charcoal grills requires a lot of hands-on cooking, and your results will obviously vary based on your technique and ingredients, among other factors. Depending on the season and how your charcoal grill is set up, your experience cooking and grilling will likely be very different from ours. For example, a kettle-style charcoal grill left in the July sun all day will run a lot hotter than it will in the cooler spring months.
Also, a note about grill thermometers. None of the hood thermometers built into these grills mirrored the temperatures recorded by our own thermocouples and data software. It’s not uncommon for grill thermometers to read high, so we recommend keeping an oven thermometer or Bluetooth thermometer handy while you’re grilling, either for your meat or for the grill’s temperature itself.
We placed two steaks on each grilling grate near the center and seared them for 5 minutes before flipping them over and searing for another 5 minutes. With a good and reliable grill, this will give you a steak with a seared outside and a medium rare to medium center. If you prefer meat that’s more well done, you can extend the cooking time or sear and finish cooking in an oven.
High-heat searing was our first grill test.
The best charcoal grill for steak searing in our lineup was the Weber Classic Kettle. The steak had nice grill marks while keeping a medium doneness on the inside. The worst was our Tacklife review unit, which didn’t hold much heat and didn’t sear while cooking. The steak on that grill needed an additional five minutes to get to a temperature of 135 degrees Fahrenheit, the minimum for medium rare.
Chicken and indirect, medium heat
Next, we tested each grill’s medium heat cooking capability by roasting whole chickens. The trick here is to keep the grills at a hot enough temperature to cook a chicken for upward of 2 hours.
For our tests, each grill gets a full chimney of lit charcoal and a 6-pound chicken opposite the coals for indirect heat.
We cooked chicken over indirect heat until it reached an internal temperature of 165 degrees F.
The difference between the two was largely in the crispiness of the skin, with the Weber producing the superior results. Meat from the Nexgrill was delicious, with just a bit more flavor than the Weber. Between them, I’d say it largely depends on your budget and what style of grill you prefer for other meats like burgers or steak. Weber certainly had the superior sear in that category.
Low-and-slow ribs
Our last test is grilling barbecued ribs, specifically baby back pork ribs. This style of cooking requires strict temperature control over a period of multiple hours. Ideally, a quality charcoal grill (or any smoker) will keep its fire humming along close to 225 degrees Fahrenheit for as long as possible.
