Best BBQ Grills And Smokers For Fall: Cooking With Fire

Grilling, backyard barbecue, and all things cooking and dining outside have been hot since the coronavirus pandemic began. BBQ fans are trying to extend the season as long as possible as cooler weather sets into the northern part of the country, and if you are going to be out cooking in lower temperatures, one way to keep it fun is with fire. Even though propane and gas grills are the most popular and bestselling models in this country, and have some key appeals, nothing beats a actual fire on a crisp fall day, and in some cases, your cooking can double as cozy outdoor firepit.

Every year I write about all kinds of grills and the best technology, new and old, but today my focus is entirely on fire based grilling and smoking and the best fun cooking tools for making the most of the rest of outdoor barbecuing season. And as sports slowly begin to return, many of these are also perfect choices for tailgating, outside the stadium or virtually at home.

Nuke Gaucho Delta: My number one new favorite grill of the past year, and ideal for a party! I’m not alone in this, as the top website devoted to in-depth grill reviews, AmazingRibs.com, gave it their coveted highest award, the Best Value Gold. No one in the world cooks outside more than Argentineans, who have developed a very specific style of grill design for cooking over real wood fire, known as asado. The made in Argentina Delta authentically captures this at a lower cost than most previous offerings in this style, many of which are five figure custom jobs. Key features of a traditional asado grill include a grate that raises and lowers over a bed of burning wood coals as the way to control temperature, since there is no hood, and a side reservoir for constantly turning fresh wood into ready to add coals so you can go for hours without a break. This new model from a new company (Real Fire BBQ) has both, and is heavy duty, high quality, quick to set-up, on serious wheels so you can move it easily, and includes practical accessories and free truck delivery for $1,399. It’s fun, very effective for cooking a mixed grill for a crowd, and is a conversation and social centerpiece. There is simply nothing else like it on the market, and the same passionate company also makes a few more and less expensive models, all in the Argentinean style.  

Kudu: As we saw with Argentina, there are a lot of countries with really rich outdoor cooking traditions, where fire and food mean more than just dinner, part of the social fabric, and another example is South Africa, famous for its get togethers known as braais. After Stebin Horne traveled from his home in Georgia to South Africa, where he fell in love and stayed, he found inspiration for his grill company in “the communal homemade braais where friends & family gathered around an open flame to cook, eat, and socialize in an unhurried way.” Named for an African antelope, what really sets the Kudu grill apart is that it is a complete modular system that can be configured to meet a variety of needs and quantity of cooking while also remaining portable.

The main components are a round base tray that holds the coal or wood, made of heavy gauge steel coated with ultra-high temp ceramic. On either side the base has cylindrical slots that anchor two vertical steel “elevation bars” onto which cooking surfaces like a 19-inch diameter steel grate and 16-inch cast iron skillet mount. The unique design allows you to use one or two or more accessories over the fire simultaneously, while varying the height of each one from the flames, as well as rotating them so each is completely above, partially above, or not at all above the fire. The base tray sits on removable legs with self-leveling feet so it’s at the right height, but if you take them off you can set it on a fireproof surface, and the base also has cool to the touch handles to make it easy to move or hold even when a fire is going.

The standard kit at $499 includes the base tray, legs, stainless steel cooking grate, two elevation bars and cast-iron griddle. Additional accessories that can be purchased separately or in various packages include a domed cover that turns the base into a smoker, a carry bag that packs the whole thing up like a drum set, heavy duty lidded Dutch oven with hanging bracket to go classic cowboy, and a rechargeable motorized rotisserie. It is simple but unique, sleekly designed, and allows you to cook over an open flame using your choice of fuel: natural lump charcoal, briquettes, firewood, or smoking wood. The Kudu system is a really good choice for someone who wants a full-blown home grilling set up but also the flexibility to go mobile, car camping, tailgates, the beach, etc.

PK Go With Flipkit: The original PK Grill (Portable Kitchen) is a classic of the outdoor cooking world and longtime bestseller that I have written about before. Largely unchanged in the past seven decades, its clamshell design of virtually indestructible, rustproof, very light and very heat conductive hand poured aluminum does it all, grilling directly, indirectly or smoking in a simple package (read more in my previous grilling piece here). But PK just released its first really new style and departure, the PK Go. At first glance it appears to be a smaller, more oval version of the squarish original, with short legs meant to be set on a safe surface, and it is. It has the same very efficient material and two-part domed style, along with the signature PK venting that allows precise temperature and airflow control.

So what’s new?  When you remove the lid you end up with a throwback homage to the classic open hibachi style coal grill like my dad used to use, with his set on a stack of cinder blocks. But the really big game changer is the FlipKit, with a second cast iron grate and base set up so the lid turns into a second mirror image hibachi, two grills in one very portable package, doubling the cooking surface. Live fire outdoor cooking does not get any more portable than this, and the whole setup, ideal for two-zone cooking on both grills, is just $270. NOTE: The new PK Go is on sale now but does not begin shipping until November 16.

Solo Stove Grill: Until now, Solo Stove has “only” made the world’s most efficient wood burning camping stoves and amazing outdoor firepits, all ultra-efficient, easy to light and very portable. But the company just released its first grill, using the same signature high-tech cylindrical design in high quality 304 stainless steel. The round canister shape has a double-wall design using air intake holes on the bottom pull air in towards the fuel source, while the double-wall construction allows the air to be heated up and fed through the top vents providing an extra boost of pre-heated oxygen, creating secondary combustion that eliminates smoke and minimizes ash. The result is a hotter fire with less smoke that is easy to light! The unit ($600) comes on very sturdy mid-size legs for a 22-inch cooking height designed to double as a social firepit gathering place, but you can add taller legs for a traditional kettle height. It is so easy to set up and so fast to heat up that Solo Stove claims “box to burger in 30 minutes.”

ASmoke Portable Pellet Smoker: Pellet smokers and grills use real fire but burn pre-made small wood pellets. This definitely lacks the romance of a roaring open flame, but even a non-pellet wood burning smoker is going to be closed anyway - that’s what smoking is all about. The reason pellet smokers have become so popular is because they are the easiest way to get top quality real slow smoked barbecue with no fuss, no muss, little oversight and incredible consistency. I’ve written a lot about pellet grills (and why I love them), and while some starter models can be found in the $3-500 range, better ones usually go over a grand, there has never been anything like the new ASmoke, which is ultra-portable, has the full feature digital precision that makes pellet smokers unique, and costs just $240. The name comes from the company’s preference for applewood, and ASmoke sells its own straight from the orchard applewood pellets, with no binders or fillers, but you can use any standard wood pellets. There are bigger pellet grills, and there are better pellet grills, but there is no grill that des so much for so little, is so portable and allows you to make world class smoked meats, from ribs to brisket to pulled pork to wings, and more, for this price. If you’ve been wanting to add a smoker to your outdoor cooking arsenal but have been put off by the cost, this is the answer.

ASmoke was originally a crowdfunded product, and technology specialty website Techcrunch did an in depth early review, concluding that “If you’re looking to bump up your outdoor cooking game, the ASmoke Portable Pellet Grill is a remarkably affordable way to do so.” The reviewer, an experienced smoking fan wrote “The ASmoke punches above its weight class. In testing, I did an extended, seven-hour smoke of a pork shoulder blade roast using the provided Applewood pellets, and the results were fantastic. I’ve smoked a lot of meat using a Traeger Pro 575, and this was easily on par with the best results I’ve had…”

Kamado Joe Classic II 18-Inch Ceramic Grill: There may be no style of grill as unique - and uniquely popular - as the Kamado, based on ancient Japanese clay ovens. It is a distinctive style, a vertical teardrop shape usually made of ceramic and now beefed up with all sorts of space age materials and insulations. Kamado cookers are extremely efficient, burning for a long period of time on a small amount of lump charcoal, and very versatile: they can get very hot, you can smoke in them, sear at temperatures hotter than any propane grill will get, roast, make pizzas, even bake bread. They have developed a cult following, and once you get yours dialed in, they work great. The problem is that the high quality Kamado grills that popularized the style tend to be very expensive, and this inspired a lot of low-quality cheap knockoffs with little in between. I personally have a Komodo Kamado, the Rolls Royce of the genre, which I have written about here before, and the quality and technology is stunning, but the price can be off putting. If price is no object, read my earlier story here.

For the best combination of value and quality, I went to the BBQGuys, the top online specialty retailer of all things outdoor cooking. BBQGuys was a large brick and mortar retailer in Baton Rouge, Louisiana that made the early jump to e-tailing and is now a giant, to all things outdoor cooking what Zappos is to shoes. I asked them for their top pick, and BBQGuys’ outdoor cooking expert Chef Tony Matassa said, “Kamado Joe models are at or near the top of the list in terms of versatility. It has a stainless-steel braided gasket for extreme longevity, and provide effortless operation with smartly designed lid-assist mechanisms. Along with Kamado Joe’s trustworthy reputation and solid price points, those features make this line of kamados a great value option.” Kamado Joe makes a wide range of sizes and models, but the Classic II is the perfect full-sized choice for your primary backyard grill, with side tables, and while it is not cheap, no good Kamado-style is, and it will give you many years of excellent performance at $1,200 with free shipping (and it’s heavy!).