Grill – Now this is a highly contested and very subjective question but for me the Weber One Touch Silver Kettle Grill is a solid choice. This will give you enough surface for most occasions and the build quality on a Weber is hard to beat. I will say however that it does get a little crowded for larger groups of people but the trade off is you don’t have to use as much charcoal as you would on a 21″ for your normal usage.
Ash Catch – The first and easiest modification to a standard Weber grill that I recommend is to replace the flimsy, low capacity, hard to clean ash catch on the Weber above with a metal bucket. I found mine at a hardware store but here is an example of what I am talking about. Not only do you have to clean it out less often but when you do its much easier and cleaner. You will want to remove any handle that might be attached to it.
Grill Brush – For this I have found the GrillStone Grill Cleaner to be the most effective at quickly removing grime and grease from the grilling surface. It does leave behind a layer of dust after using it so its not a bad idea to wipe this off even though the product description does indicate that it is made out of non-toxic ingredients.
Charcoal Chimney – I’ve recently switched to the Sandbar FlatFire Charcoal Chimney for my charcoal lighting duties but you can find these things all over the place for $15-$20. The main advantage of the Sandbar is its durability and ability to fold flat for transportation which is key when I’m loading up my Civic for a camping trip. The key takeaway is that you switch to a chimney for lighting your coals and avoid lighter fluid or match light charcoal. Once you make this change you’ll never go back to lighter fluid tainted burgers again. Update: it appears that Sandbar is no longer selling the Flatfire Chimney
Meat Thermometer – This is somewhat of a luxury item but I consider the Thermapen to be an indispensable tool and a good investment if you grill the majority of your meals like I do. There are several techniques to determining done-ness on meat but for sensitive items like chicken I advise consulting a meat thermometer so you hit the sweet spot every time. There are much less expensive options on the market but the key advantages to this product is its speed of reporting and the small probe which lets less of the juice escape when you are probing.
