In addition to elevating versatility… The flat cooking surface directly affects the flavor of flat top grilled food. We recommend this Pit Boss griddle grill for its size and features relative to price. For starters, it’s pre-seasoned and offers a total of 62,000 BTUs split between four push-button-ignition burners, and features two large fold-in side shelves for prep that double as a cover. When selecting our flat-top grill recommendations, we relied on knowledge from our extensive grill testing, as well as our experience with brands we know and trust. To be sure we had options for everyone, we selected grills across a wide size and price range, as well as including portable options.
There are no significant differences besides the amount of grill space and a small price hike. We’ve looked at size, features, and budget to help shortlist the best grill for people with different needs. These are all full-sized pellet grills (with one exception), so check out our guide to the best portable pellet grills if you need that feature.
We’ll update with our own review once we’ve had a chance to test it out. You also get a three-year warranty and one of the best customer service teams in the industry in case you have any problems. For one, you need to have a source of electricity to plug the grill in.
But if you’re more of a traditional griller… Why fix what isn’t broken? If you’re looking to test the limits of your culinary creativity, a flat top grill will provide you with the versatility to do so. Luckily, there is a way to easily get all the nooks and crannies of a gas grill clean. What’s more… Flat top grills eliminate pesky flare-ups, which have been known to negatively impact the flavor of gas-grilled food.
Besides the ease of use and maintenance of the cooking surface, another notable pro of the Pit Boss Ultimate Griddle is the lift-off feature. I also rubbed the whole chicken down with vegetable oil prior to applying the rub. This can help prevent leathery chicken skin that sometimes pit boss flat top occurs during the smoking process. It will add flavor and ensure that a whole chicken will have moisture locked in. However, smoking a whole chicken, especially with it spatchcocked, will ensure that it stays juicy and tender as long as you don’t overcook your chicken.
Portable pellet grills weigh under 70 pounds and are small enough to fit inside a car trunk, making them ideal for tailgating gatherings or camping trips. These portable versions can be small enough to fit on a tabletop or large enough to stand on their own using attached foldable legs. But for many, pellet smokers are overpriced foreign objects, although that’s changing as the pellet smoker industry slowly infiltrates the country, one backyard at a time. So we love finding a decent pellet smoker at a low price like Pit Boss. Likewise, the Camp Chef Woodwind WiFi 23 Pellet Grill ($800 at Camp Chef) performed much better in the smoking and searing tests than in the baking.
In fact, I find that the cool spot really cuts down on the size of the usable cooking surface, and I tend to only use the right 2/3rd’s of the griddle. On the flip side, the left side does allow you to keep food warm and do more “zone cooking” with hotter and cooler zones. And with so many different griddles on the market, you may be wondering what outdoor griddle to buy.
It offers a large cooking capacity of 1028 square inches with two rows of racks for two-zone cooking. It didn’t score the highest in our baking tests, but the unit did not drop temperature at mid-range operation when opening and adding food. Even with an 18-pound capacity, we’d like to see a larger hopper, as it seems outsized by the available cooking area. It goes without saying… The main difference between flat top grills and traditional gas grills is the cooking surface. Flat-top grills provide a fully accessible cooking surface from end to end, and griddle and grate models share some common characteristics. They’re rectangular in shape, have two or more gas burners, and they don’t generally have a cover or lid, though many have plastic fold-in side shelves to protect the cooking surface and keep it clean.
Expect extras such as folding side-serving shelves, a wide storage shelf underneath, hooks for grilling tools, and removable grease buckets. Most flat-top grills also have locking castors and powder-coating to prevent rust—these ones can be stored outside. Some flat-top grills feature folding legs for storage or portability. Two-burner grills work for most small families, while four-burner grills are better for larger families or cookouts with friends.
That means you can cook various things on different heats by controlling the burners independently. The most important thing to keep in mind is that a lot of models from Pit Boss don’t come with heat zones you can control. Because of this, you have no way to control the heat of individual burners. You will notice that this leads to an uneven temperature throughout the surface.