Memorial Day is just over a week away, and it’s now time to take a look at this year’s best grills and accessories with our favorites for you to pick up before one of 2023’s biggest outdoor cooking holidays rolls around. From pellet grills to thermometers and more, we’ll have everything you need to have a stellar outdoor BBQ in this year’s 9to5Toys Memorial Day Grilling Guide down below.
The perfect backyard cookout doesn’t have to be hard
Three of the year’s biggest outdoor grilling holidays are arriving over the next few months, with the first being just over a week away. Memorial Day marks a time when we get outside with friends and family to enjoy warmer weather and great BBQ. Well, there’s only great BBQ if you’ve got the tools and means to make it, and that’s what we’re aiming to accomplish with this grilling guide.
Starting out, you’ve got to pick a grill. There are a lot of options out there, ranging from charcoal to gas, pellet, and more. However, when it comes to our top pick, it has to be a pellet grill/smoker. I recently got one of these myself and it’s changed how my wife and I cook. Before, we had a gas grill and separate vertical electric smoker. However, the smoker never held temperature great and the grill was only good for, well, grilling stuff. A pellet grill is extremely versatile.
With most pellet grills, you’ll get a low temperature of around 180F and a high of around 450F, though some models can reach 600-700F with ease. This wide temperature range, and the fact that the fuel source is wood pellets, allows you to use these grills for low-and-slow smoking for amazing BBQ as well as higher-temperature searing or grilling for juicy steaks and burgers. All of that happens on one unit, which takes up less space on your patio and makes it easier to cook various meals as well.
Pellet grills are the easiest way to have a solid cookout on Memorial Day
When it comes to choosing a pellet grill, there are a lot of brands out there. Some of the bigger ones are Pit Boss and Traeger, though Weber has recently gotten in on the fun and Z GRILLS is a more up-and-coming brand. This year, however, it seems like most companies are starting to really integrate smarts into their grills and smoker. Weber is one such company, which not only has built-in Wi-Fi on its SmokeFire lineup but also now includes two meat probes. These meat probes are monitored through the recently-updated Weber app and allows you to monitor a cook’s progress without having to use a secondary system or open the lid. In addition to that, the app will let you turn the temperature up and down remotely, and even get the grill pre-heating before you head outside.
Of course, Traeger offers many similar features with its WiFIRE pellet grill lineup, as well as delivering lower-cost models which ditch the smarts for a simple-to-use digital control panel to dial in the temperature. For those who are looking for the tried-and-true brand, it’s hard to beat Traeger. While Weber has been around for many years, the brand just started making pellet smokers, whereas Traeger has been a market leader in the industry for quite some time. Regardless of whether you pick Weber or Traeger, or even one of the other brands mentioned below, having a pellet smoker on hand for your backyard BBQ will be crucial this Memorial Day.
Why you should use a pellet smoker for your next cookout
Now that we’ve covered a few of the main brands, let’s dive a little deeper into why a pellet smoker is our top pick for your backyard cookout. We’ve already talked about how versatile they are, but you could still achieve a similar result by using separate cookers just the same…right? Well, mostly. The benefit of a pellet grill is the digital control panel. Most gas grills and standard chimney smokers rely on traditional dials that turn from high to low, requiring you to constantly monitor the temperature and guess where it should be turned to. However, with a pellet grill, you’ll get a digital control gauge that lets you choose a temperaturte and stick to it. This makes it easier to use than normal grills or smokers, and also means that whenever it’s time to raise (or lower) the temperature, you don’t have to guess. Simply turn the dial (or use the app) and the grill does all the hard work of regulating the temperature for you. Those who choose the app-enabled pellet smoker will have it the easiest, though, as they can just simply open the app and turn the temperature up or down from the couch depending on what the meat probe is reading.
Another great benefit of using a pellet smoker is that you can go from smoking to grilling in just a few minute’s time, which is something that most other grills just can’t offer. I’ve already done this a few times myself, where we started off smoking at around 250F for some chicken thighs and then ended up at 400F+ to give the skin a good crisp before pulling it off, and it worked fantastically. This is just something that normal chimney smokers or grills can’t achieve by themselves, making the pellet grill even more versatile.
Best Memorial Day pellet grills:
- Weber SmokeFire Sear+ ELX6: $1,679
- Weber SmokeFire EX4: $1,099
- Traeger Ironwood 885: $1,500
- Traeger Pro Series 22: $500
- Traeger Pro Series 575: $800
- Pit Boss 440: $285
- Pit Boss 820: $584
- Z GRILLS 7002C: $569
- Z GRILLS 700D4E: $619
If you’re not a fan of pellet grills, there are still other options out there
If you don’t like the thought of having to deal with pellets or having a one-size-fits-all setup, then our next-best recommendation would be a separate propane/natural gas grill with an electric chimney smoker. If you use the two right, you can achieve a similar end result to a pellet smoker, though it does take a bit more work. The grill (my preferred brand here is Char-Broil) is perfect for steaks, hot dogs, burgers, and chicken, though you’ll likely be cooking hotter and faster than a smoker with this. Then, you can pick up a vertical chimney smoker (I like the electric models from Masterbuilt) for those lower-and-slower cooking experiences whenever you’re ready to BBQ like a pitmaster. Where having both comes in clutch is going from the vertical smoker to the grill in order to crisp up the skin of chicken or finish off a stalled brisket, making it a solid choice all around.
Best Memorial Day propane grills and electric smokers:
- Char-Broil Performance 4-burner gas grill: $370
- Royal Gourmet 6-burner gas grill: $414
- Amazon Basics 4-burner gas grill: $308
- Masterbuilt 30-inch Digital Electric Smoker: $280
- Masterbuilt 30-inch Analog Electric Smoker: $127
- Cuisinart 30-inch Electric Smoker: $199
Pellet and wood species matters
You’ll want to pay close attention to what pellets or wood chips you buy for smoking. Not all pellets or wood chips are made equal. Some of the lower-cost pellets will be natural wood, sure, but there will be fillers in them which can add an unwanted flavor to your meals, as well as unknown other ingredients or chemicals, which is why I did plenty of research to find reputable brands for pellets that stick to just wood, and nothing more. Bear Mountain pellets is the brand I personally chose to go with, and you can find their products on various websites or in stores including Amazon, Lowe’s, Tractor Supply, and direct from the brand itself. For wood chips, Weber has actually been my favorite brand for whenever I was using a vertical chimney smoker.
Once you have a brand you like, it’s time to think about the type of wood you’re going to use. Weber has a nice chart on their website which helps to pick the right wood for whatever you’re cooking, though it’s pretty hard to go wrong there. Apple or cherry are probably the two most common smoking woods, and typically the ones that I use myself. They have a more mild flavor and pair well with everything from vegetables to fish, poultry, to pork. For lamb or beef, it’s not the best, but typically pork and chicken will be your two most used meats on the smoker. The thing to remember is, it doesn’t hurt to experiment. While Weber says that mesquite doesn’t pair well with chicken, that’s really up to you to decide, so if you’re wondering how somethings tastes, maybe just give it a try and see for yourself.
Best Memorial Day pellets and wood chips
The right accessories go a long way
Once you have everything else picked out for your grilling setup, it’s time to finish things off with the right accessories. Having the proper tools on hand for a cookout can mark the difference between an easy and hard time making your favorite meal. There are only a few key accessories that I think everyone should have when it comes to doing a cookout, and i’ll outline them here with reason why I think these are some of the best choices.
For starters, you’ll want a good wireless meat thermometer, preferably one that has both an internal and external temperature sensor. My favorite in this department is MEATER, as it connects to my phone and tells me what the ambient temperature is of each thermometer as well as the internal temperature which can help figure out what needs to rotate where halfway through the cook. However, Weber sells the iGrill kit which monitors internal temperature (and with enough probes, you can do ambient with a spare thermometer too) and still connects to your phone just the same. There are other brands out there to choose from too, but MEATER and Weber are two of the main players in this space.
Another must-have accessory is an instant-read thermometer, and ThermoPro comes in clutch here. While a leave-in meat thermometer is great for monitoring the progress of a cook throughout the day, an instant-read lets you check various parts of the meat within seconds to know if it’s all at temperature or not. ThermoPro is my go-to brand here, and I’ve had one of their instant read meat thermometers for years and use it frequently.
Then, you have gloves. Sometimes nitrile gloves with an insulating barrier inside are great, especially when you’re doing something like pulling pork apart. But, my go-to option is MEATER’s grilling gloves. They’re thick enough to protect my hand against high heat on the grill and the silicone helps me to grip pans, tools, and plates whenever I’m walking to or from the kitchen.
Also, one can’t forget a good tool set. Cuisinart has probably the best pre-assembled kits for grill tools, as it includes a solid set of tongs, a good spatula, skewers, and a big meat fork. There’s also a grill brush in there, but we recommend picking up a wooden scraper instead as there’s no chance of leaving behind little metal bristles when you use wood to clean the grates.
Top Memorial Day grilling accessories:
- MEATER Plus: $80
- MEATER Block: $300
- Weber iGrill 3: $79
- ThermoPro Instant Read Meat Thermometer: $14
- MEATER Grilling Gloves: $35
- Nitrile Gloves with Cotton Liners: $15
- Cuisinart Grilling Tools
9to5Toys’ Take
As we close out this year’s Memorial Day grilling guide, we just have a few more things to say. Grilling and BBQ is really a personal thing. What wood you use, the method you choose, and the meats you cook all comes down to personal preference. I have friends who swear by offset smokers with massive wood chunks, and refuse to use pellet grills. Others only use big drum-style smokers, and more don’t even smoke meats at all, as they stick to just strictly grilling.
If you’re looking for a solid, easy-to-use, and (mostly) foolproof way to get out and cooking this Memorial Day, then a pellet smoker is going to be your best bet. It’s not the traditional choice, but it works great and is super simple to set up and use. I’ll be firing up my pellet grill for Memorial Day for sure, and I hope you’ll join me in making some of the best homemade BBQ you’ve had yet on it.
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