Outdoor or indoor? For outdoor, opinions are all over the place. But for slow cooking (200-250 degrees, 12+ hours), a cermaic unit (with auto temp control) would be my favorite. For normal grilling (300+ degrees), the a weber charcoal does wonders. We have a gas unit but it gets almost no use. It simply doesn't get hot enough to do the job that a charcoal unit used with lump charcoal can do.

Outdoor is what I am looking for.

Very happy with Weber gas grill. Excellent performance.

Here is a link that might be useful: Weber Grills

For outdoor - Weber is excellent quality. Used to buy cheap grills and after 5 years, that would be worthless. have our Weber now over 10 years and its as good as the day we bought it.

Kitchenaid is made in China, a lot of companies are sourcing from there. Does not make it a bad grill. I went up scale and had to eventually decide between the DCS and Alfresco. I went Alfresco because the rotisserie motor is integrated into the lid and it had a better lighting system.

Purchased a Napolean last year. The grill is made in Canada. It is an excellent grill. I have the 450RBI which has the infared cooking unit. It came with the rotisserie unit which I have yet to use but will try this year.

Cooking grates are stainless steel. Easy to clean. Has a drip pan under the grill that collects the grease. Easy to change and dispose of.

Enjoy the journey.

eal51 in western CT

I'll second the Weber idea (if gas), otherwise a Big Green Egg for charcoal.

Here is a link that might be useful: I have this one... very happy!

sorry, but this is a pet peeve of mine:

a device that makes flames that has grids that you place food on to cook rapidly, like a steak, is not a "barbecue". it's a grill.

"barbecue" is a method of slow-cooking using low dry heat that usually contains smoke made by hardwoods or at the very least natural hardwood charcoal.

i like weber products because they're fairly affordable and last a long time. i have a weber genesis silver gas grill (make sure you get cast-iron grids, not enameled) and a weber smokey mountain unit that i use to barbecue.

(again, sorry if i came off as lecturing. this is a big pet peeve of mine. almost as bad as the ubiquitious misspelling/mispronounciation of chipotle!)

Well I'm pretty opinionated on this, but here goes:

Charcoal and a covered grill - this is the only way to go. You probably already have a gas range, another isn't really needed. However, charcoal is completely different, whether you use it very hot or very cool. When doing something like a roast chicken, set it to about 500-550 and only cook 45 min. On a gas grill this would incinerate the food, however, because the charcoal burns off most of the oxygen, the chicken won't burn up. Incidentally, that's what causes the "smoke ring", lack of oxygen. Be a little careful opening the top to check, sometimes the air coming in will flash the tips of the wings into flame.

For a whole turkey do it about 450 with some foil over the leg ends, it takes about 12 min/pound and IMNSHO it's better than deep fried.

Thin crust pizza takes 6 minutes at 600F and is unmatched. (Watch this like a hawk).

For slow cooking, there's nothing like a mild smoky very low fire, about 225. I do whole pork shoulders and briskets (only use packer cuts) and cook them overnight, about 14 hours.

As for brands, the ceramic ones like Big Green Egg are great. But the larger Webers for grilling and the Weber Smoky Mountain for BBQ are also excellent. Don't get too small a grill though, it's nice to have lots of space for a two level fire, very hot for searing, cool for cooking.

Be sure to get a BBQ Guru (thebbqguru.com) for temperature control, and a good instant read thermometer like Thermopen because things happen fast.

Look around for a source of good lump charcoal. I like People's Woods and Wicked Good Charcoal, but depending on where you are there are a lot of others. Lump is much better than briquettes because it leaves less ash, burns hotter and doesn't put off tastes into the food. The two I mentioned also light very quickly if you use a plumber's torch and actually the grill gets up to cooking temp faster than our oven. With lump you don't have to wait for the entire surface of the charcoal to be burning, just light it and once the temp in the grill gets up, start cooking. Don't try that with briquettes, they give off bad flavored smoke until fully lit.

Here you go: Kalamazoo 900HS Hybrid Free-Standing Grill with Side Burner

Don't want to steal this thread, but have a couple of related questions/comments

ncaralph - great post. Can you also grill on the Weber Smoky Mountain for BBQ or just barbecue? Which grills/BBQ do you actually have? I just gave up a New Braunsfel grill w/offset smoker when I moved. It was good for grilling both large and small amounts, but for smoking it was hard to maintain temp and seemed to be a "fuel hog" - only good for smoking in quantity. Do you know of anything good for both smoking and grilling both larger and smaller batches?

Fahrenheit_451 - Looks fabulous, but a little out of my price range

For years we had a great 'when used' charcoal Weber grill. The problem was that DH and I are very big on convenience and rarely used it. I purchased a Bull gasgrill with surrounding flagstone and ledge a few years ago but it can be purchased w/o the enclosure. What I wanted most was one with high temperature that I think makes the food taste better so that is one thing I looked for. Mine has two levels and once it is browned the food can either be put at the higher level or temp turned down or food placed at the side (ours is large enough). It also has a rotisserie that I have never used. The salesman said he never used his either. The quality of the stainless steel seems to be a factor for durability (since it is always outside) and this one was a grade higher than some. It can also be used as a smoker when burners are on low. Seems that there were some other things to look for at the higher end like quality of the igniter but I have forgotten them. Anyway, if you are only looking to spend a little I don't think it matters much. If middle I like my grill. And, if a lot I suppose someone who has been in business forever and will stand behind their product. Hope this helps. Sorry, I am so wordy. Oh yes, look at how you willl have to clean it. None of the ones I saw are that wonderful but you can burn the food off ...

You will never have a steak better than one cooked on the big green egg :) We're going to purchase our second egg this summer. The high heat sears the meat to perfection. We cook on ours almost daily...salmon, chicken, turkey, duck, scallops, steak, lamb...it does it all :) We LOVE our egg.

You can grill (high temp cooking) on most smokers. But they are not necessarily the best for that application. For example, the ceramic smoker I have (grill dome) has a much smaller grate than weber so we use the latter for hamburgers. WSM (Weber Smokey Mountain) also has a smaller surface so it may have the same issue. Hre is a forum for folks with that unit: http://tvwbb.infopop.cc/eve/forums

As for maintaining temps, you need a temp controller as I and someone else mentioned. Guru and Stoker fall in that category. If you get the stoker, you can control and monitor it better than most expensive home ovens using a computer! You can set up a multi-hour cook and have your phone show you the progress of the cook, set alarms if the fire goes out or the food becomes ready, have a complete graph of the cook and temp of the meat (using multiple probes). You can monitor the cook from any place in the world. Below is the link for the PC application that does that which I wrote (it is yours for the taking).

Here is a link that might be useful: Stoker control application

@chefkev - The Weber Smoky Mountain is really too small for grilling.

We have a Kamado which is very similar to the Big Green Egg and use it all the time summer and winter. I used to have a succession of Webers of various types.

@janicedallas - IMHO there are 2 things about making charcoal convenient, good lump charcoal and a really good way to light it. Good lump leaves very little ash, so you don't have to clean it out very often. I do it about every 2 months cooking at least 3 times a week. And while I get some odd looks when I pull out my plumber's torch, the grill gets going very quickly. For steak and artichokes, we start the artichokes when I fire up the grill and everything is done about the same time.

Another thing about a ceramic grill and lump is that when you close the top it goes out and you can reuse the charcoal left over. I generally only refill the grill once every 2 - 3 cooks or so, assuming I'm doing something quick like steaks.

chefkev, you can grill on a WSM. it's got a water pan that sits over the fire, and that's what moderates the heat and keeps in indirect. if you remove the water pan, the temps will rise to those appropriate for grilling.

but, as others have noted, the configuration makes it less useful for grilling.

oh, and as far as making lump charcoal use convenient, a chimney starter makes it fairly effortless.

Thanks ncaralph, Kamado looks sweet - it's something to aspire to after I've finished paying for my remodel. Thanks too edlakin for your info - have to agree that chimney starters are great.