OUT WEST APPROVED
BBQ & GRILLING ACCESSORIES
steak
ABOUT OUT WEST BBQ...
When we say OUT WEST APPROVED, we mean it. All of our recommended products and accessories have been hand-tested by our team or our partners to ensure you are only purchasing the best product on the market. Since we do not carry our own inventory of products, you can rest assured that any recommendation we provide is, in fact, the best product for performance, quality, design, and affordability. Our detailed product reviews are designed to take you through our process of testing and rating a lineup of productsto find the winners and losers, andthen bring out our top picks and help you decide which product is best for your needs, style,and,of course, budget.
KETTLE UPGRADES
Slow and Sear Deluxe for 22” Charcoal Grills ($99.95)
Your kettle grill is great for burgers, but how about a grill-roasted turkey or some pulled pork? If you want to cook low and slow, the Slow 'N Sear is a huge upgrade on just banking the coals on one side of the kettle. Now, you’ve got two separate cooking areas for direct and indirect heat. Meathead swares by this one.
Weber 7403 Char-Basket Charcoal Briquette Holders ($19.99)
Not ready to jump in with both feet? It’s cool. Try some indirect heat cooking with these baskets. Use the area right over the coals for searing, then use the other for an indirect finish. This comes with two baskets, so you’ve got multiple options for heat control. Extra bonus – set a portable rack right on top of the baskets for a rocket-hot sear on some tuna.
Upper Deck Stainless Steel Grilling Rack ($35.99)
More grill space, more flexibility, more control. What’s not to love? Add a tier to your 22” kettle grill with this extra rack. Use it for extra space and do a second rack of ribs on top of the first rack. Use it for temperature control and glide chicken pieces into the perfect doneness. Use it for extras and toast buns while grilling burgers. This is an extra you’ll use all the time.
ADD-ONS
GrillGrate ($95.99)
You see the flames burst up through the grill onto the food. Looks great in a TV commercial, but doesn’t taste good at all. Why not just get rid of flare-ups altogether instead of tending them with a spatula and spray bottle? These interlocking auxiliary grates act like super- flavorizer bars, eliminating flare-ups and pushing the vaporized drippings right back towards the food for distinctive grilled flavor.
A-Maze-N Pellet Smoker ($29.99)
Smoking with wood chips and chunks is tough. Maybe you don’t have enough heat and lose the smoke in the middle of your cook. Maybe you’ve got too much airflow and your wood catches fire. Take the straightforward route and smoke with pellets. It’s the same wood, just repackaged so it actually works. Team up your existing grill with this smoker and get smoking meat today.
Pizzacraft Pizza Stones ($39.99)
Pizza is good. Grilled pizza is better. Your best road to a crisp browned crust without charred spots is a pizza stone. Put these stones on the grate and crank up the heat – they can take it. You won’t make a better pizza at home without a dedicated pizza oven. This set uses four small stones instead of one big one, so you can move them around while hot without putting yourself in the hospital.
GRILL TOOLS
Weber 7429 Rapidfire Chimney Starter ($22.99
Stop. Put down the lighter fluid. The best way to light your charcoal is with a chimney starter. Fill it with coals, light a wad of newspaper under the chimney and wait. It works every time. There’s no foolish dump gimmick here, just a solid handle a safe distance away and a swing handle to tip the coals onto the grate. This is the easy way to deal with charcoal, and it lasts forever.
Presto 8800 Eversharp Knife Sharpener ($23.36)
A dull knife is a danger to you, your family, and your food. Keep a good edge on your blades quickly and easily with this electric sharpener. The difference between working with a freshly-sharpened blade and a dull one is like night and day. You’ll be surprised at how much more enjoyable your kitchen is when you’ve cleaned up your knives in this unit.
Weber Style 6435 Grill Pan ($23.99)
Don’t just do the main course on the grill, do the sides too. A grill pan sits on the grate with slits tight enough that small stuff won’t fall through. Do up some cherry tomatoes without losing the juices to a skewer, or try some grilled green beans. Grilled flavor makes everything better, and a grill pan makes it possible to cook the small or delicate stuff without leaving it stuck to the grill or falling onto the coals.
Weber 6470 Fish Basket ($25.97)
Grill fish without fear. Or at least grill fish without losing the best bits of crispy skin to the grill grate. Even an all-but-surgically cleaned grill grate has trouble with delicate meats like fish and scallops, so make it easy on yourself. Fish goes in the basket, you flip and move the basket, then you get to eat the whole thing.
Premiala Awesome Meat Injector ($32.95)
Brines and marinades are great, but they can only help the parts of your meat they actually touch, and that doesn’t go too far. Let your inner mad scientist out to play and get real flavor inside where it counts. This injector is the real deal that you can keep using on the regular, with the cleaning tools and spare parts to keep it safe and working down the road.
HAND TOOLS
Sienna Appliances Grilltastic Steam Cleaning BBQ Grill Brush ($109.99)
Wanna cook? Gotta clean. Do you want the best grill brush out there? This is the Cadillac option, combining a steel brush with a steam cleaner. Even the stickiest glazes come right off under that combo. You’ll do in 5 minutes what would take an hour with a steel wool pad. If you love grilling, your grill deserves the best, and your time has value. Spend it wisely.
NPYPQ Kitchen Tongs Double Spatula ($13.99)
Just when I think I’ve got everything, they come up with something that’s just too clever: build the spatula into the tongs. Instead of having to choose between grabbing by the sides with tongs or sliding underneath with the spatula, you can grab from top and bottom with these spatula-tongs. These guys are crazy-useful, and worth a hook on your grill.
GrillArt Grill Brush and Scraper ($19.97)
Do you want the second best grill brush out there for ninety dollars less than the Sienna? Right there with you. This brush is powerful and uses a woven brush head instead of bristles, so that’s no more broken bristles to pick out of your food. Those helixes dig deep into the sides of the grate too, so you get the whole cooking surface.
Cuisinart CP_1116 Sauce Pot and Basting Brush ($12.26)
When you cook on the stovetop, it’s easy to baste with any container. On the grill, any container means two or three things to knock on the ground and spill everywhere. This unit combines a pot for sauce, a lid, and a silicone basting brush. You can hold the sauce securely in one hand while basting with the other, then cover the pot to keep the flies off your glaze.
1EasyLife Metal Meat Claws ($22.98)
Unleash your inner beast and shred pulled pork like you mean it. These claws are faster and better than a couple of forks, and will plow through a whole pork butt with ease. The handles insulate you from the heat of the meat as you shred. They’re good for other things too – use these to get a stable grip on hot food while you cut it or move it.
Grill Armor Heat Resistant Gloves ($25.95)
Your skills are only as good as your hands can manage, and you’re hands can’t manage much right over a hot fire. Solution: gloves. Not those stupid oven mitts that take away all your dexterity, but modern gloves that let you use actually use your fingers. Modern fabrics protect you from 900° temperatures while keeping your grip. Lose the potholders, grab the gloves.
Thermoworks Thermopop ($34.00)
Here’s a pocket thermometer that works fast, works accurate, and doesn’t cost you a fortune. Smoking Meat Geeks chose it as their value pick. The tip is thin so it doesn’t wreck your food. The backlit display is big and easy to read and can be rotated to match your angle instead of making you crane your neck around a hot grill. Get those steaks off at the perfect temperature. Medium rare for me.
Weber Available 6625 Tool Set – Spatula and Tongs ($29.99)
Nothing much is happening on the grill without tongs and a spatula. These are a good size with comfortable grips, and the durability to last. They’re dishwasher-safe, so they’re easy to keep clean, and they’ve got good hanging hooks so they’re easy to store. What more do you want from your basic day-to-day tools?
KNOWLEDGE
Meathead: The Science of Great Barbecue and Grilling ($20.51)
I don’t mean to talk you out of any of the other stuff on this page, but your best route to making better food is to know what you’re doing. Meathead Goldwyn and his crew have the experience and the science to make your food better. There are great recipes here, and the kind of backbone that lets you create and evaluate your own recipes and style. Read it.
BEST OF THE BEST
TESTING, RANKING & REVIEWING
Meat Thermometers
Instant, Wireless, Wi-Fi
Gloves
Silicone, Leather, Synthetic
Grills & Smokers
Kettle, Bullet, Drum
ABOUT OUT WEST BBQ
Just a small group of guys in the Arizona desert who like to spend weekends (and plenty of weekdays) cooking outdoors. Over the past few years,we have tested, reviewed, and ranked about 100 products forgrilling, smoking,and cooking. This letsus provide good folk like you everything you want to know before you chooseone grill over another. No job is too small —we bring the same fire to judging grilling and BBQ accessories. We use all this stuff to bring you our findings here on OUT WEST BBQ. Take a look around the site for detailed reviews of single products, roundups where we find the best product for a given job, and comprehensive listingsof our all-time favorite BBQ grills, smokers, and tools. You can check out the links below for our ‘Best Of’ roundupsto find all of our OUT WEST APPROVED products.