The Best BBQ Gadgets

Posted: April 03, 2018

I rounded up some of the best BBQ gadgets out there and took them to my grill. And I said, "Hey grill, how you doin'? BBQ season is so close I can taste the smoked brisket and wet-rubbed pork - you ready to start cookin' up some fine food babies with your pitmaster?" And my grill, she blushed a charcoal-ember red, and she said, "Yes."

I bet you can win over your grill with some of these choice BBQ accessories and enhancements too. So check it out, my picks for the best BBQ gadgets.

Oh, and if you like the gadget-ready grill above, it's the JAG, an 8-person communal grill table you can read more about here.

Note: BBQ gadget prices are listed as they were at printing. Prices are subject to change.

Cast Iron Shrimp Grill & Serving Pan

Use this cast iron shrimp grill and serving pan to cook shrimp on the barbie, and you'll have a much better chance of eating shrimp off the barbie. The sturdy slab has cutouts for up to 22 jumbo shrimp, which it says it will grill to perfection in a "pool of flavor," without sacrificing a single crustacean to the abyss between the grill grates, or to the sticky, greedy skin of the grates themselves.

$35 ➠ Amazon

Smoke Puck Meat Infusers

They say these smoke pucks pack punch. Right in your meat's kisser! Smaller than a wood or pellet smoker, or even a wood / pellet smoker box that sits under your grill lid, the Steven Raichlen Best of Barbecue Stainless Smoke Pucks are designed with directed vents that push their smoke where you want it. Again, right in your meat's kisser!

$10 ➠ Amazon

Steak Button Thermometers

In my pursuit to acquire devices that allow me to think and reason even less than I already do, I discovered the Steak Button. A set of 4 thermometers designed specifically for beef on the grill or in the oven, Steak Buttons remove the guesswork and Googling from cooking up the perfect piece of meat. From bloody to burnt, interior temperature translations are easy to read and interpret, ensuring filets, flanks, and loins of desired doneness every time. Steak Buttons measure 3 1/2" long x 1 1/2" wide, and are made of stainless steel and glass. Clean by simply wiping down after use.

$20 ➠ Sur La Table

BBQ Dragon Fire Accelerator

This Dragon doesn't breathe fire, it breathes air. But this air perpetuates fire, encouraging it to burn faster and stronger and continuously until its services are no longer needed, at which point water steps in to extinguish it, and then earth absorbs its remnant ashes. Isn't it inspiring how the elements of nature work together in perfect symbiosis to bequeath us succulent cuts of barbecued meat?

A compact, portable, and hands-free fire-starting tool, the BBQ Dragon proposes to light and heat your charcoal cookery faster than a chimney without the assistance of lighter fluid. It can also control grill and smoker heat levels, juice up smoldering fires, and scare cats off of countertops. I didn't even make that last part up. BBQ Dragon masters point it out themselves in their flame conjurer's copy and I'm very glad they did because, you know what? F cats.

$40 ➠ Amazon

KettlePizza - Pizza Oven Kit for Your Grill

Pizza in the morning, pizza in the evening, pizza at suppertime. When pizza's on a...stainless steel cylindrical insert that transforms your gas grill into the equivalent of a blazing hot wood-fired pizza oven...you can eat pizza anytime!

KettlePizza has been livin' the pie life with their charcoal kettle grill kits for over 7 years now. Those inserts take homely, mediocre 22-1/2" kettle grills, such as Webers and Stoks, and magically transform them into flashy, gourmet pizza ovens capable of putting wood-fired New York slices, Chicago deep dish, and even bacon wrapped bacon in a bacon bowl to shame.

$140 to $220 ➠ Kettle Pizza

SpitJack Magnum Meat Injector Gun

Isn't there a Meat Is Torture bumper sticker out there? I think the SpitJack Magnum Meat Injector Gun is about to inspire its antagonist: Torture Your Meat. This thing looks ominous. Like a kitchen tool I want emphatically prohibited from crossing the threshold to my bedroom, bathroom, or anywhere else my normally-covered orifices might be exposed. Still, the ability to adeptly imbue my roasts and loins and steaks with juicy liquid infusions that will heighten my meat-eating experiences makes sharing a home with the Magnum worth the risk.

$80 ➠ Amazon

Grill Kindle Superbright BBQ Light

Despite the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's endorsement of it, I wouldn't recommend fishin' in the dark. And grillin' in the dark? Even worse. I want BBQ beef brisket, not BBQ man hands. With 10 super-high-powered LEDs, the Quartermasters Grill Kindle brings bright, panoramic, adjustable light to your hot surfaces, and saves you the burnt food, and burnt body part, misfortunes of nighttime cooking.

The Grill Kindle's strong, wide beam illuminates your entire grill, both cooking and surrounding areas. Its adjustable head rotates 190 degrees horizontally or vertically for precise lighting where you need it most at the moment.

$22 ➠ Amazon

Meat Shredding Claws

Second only to my teeth - and probably preferred by the other people at the BBQ - these Claws from OXO shred meat with quickness, efficiency, and panache. Well, as much panache as a eagle's talons or a coupla garden rakes can muster, anyway.

$15 ➠ Amazon

Rib-O-Lator BBQ Rotisserie

Hopefully the Rib-O-Lator is as winning in execution as it is in name. The rotisserie basket fits inside your existing grill where it ferris wheels (i.e., rib-o-lates) your whole chickens, roasts, baby back pork candy, and even salmon fillets and cut veggies into evenly cooked, tender, succulent eatin's.

$100 ➠ Amazon

Smokemiester BBQ Smoker Grill Converter

Holy smokes...miester! A Weber, a hole saw, and a coupla Bud Light Limes on a Saturday afternoon, and my Bru-BQ Wayne kettle grill becomes a Bat-Smoker too! The Smokemiester BBQ Smoker converts any covered grill into a hot or cold pellet smoker / grill combo.

Smokemiester BBQ Smokers aren't cheap add-ons, but they do save you a few bucks, and a lot of space, on purchasing a separate smoker. You can also install these external accessories on smokehouses or, as one owner suggested, an old refrigerator.

$110 ➠ Amazon

Narwhal BBQ Skewer Set

While the narwhal is finally growing in popularity, I can't understand why it's always been eclipsed by the stupid unicorn. From little girls' imaginary friends to disturbing Halloween (or wedding!) masks to unicorn poop cookies, the horned horse gets all the fanfare while the horned whale mostly gets the shaft. With the occasional meme thrown in by the more progressive pop culturists. And narwhals aren't even make-believe. They actually exist, living in the Arctic waters of Canada. Maybe that's the problem. They're Canadian. Canadians never get any respect.

But finally we have here a nod to the narwhal. A somewhat ironic nod given they've been turned into BBQ skewers despite their preference for freezing temperatures, but, hey, it's a start. The set contains a pair of stainless steel narwhals whose head horns spiral out extra far to form your meat and veggies' implements of impalement. They arrive wrapped in a sleeve for safe storage and transport. Each skewer is 13.3" long.

$40 ➠ Amazon

The Grillbot

They say the Grillbot, an automatic BBQ cleaner, is fully effective, easy to use, and, my favorite selling point, fun to watch. I mean, grilling season typically coincides with TV I Don't Want to Watch season, so hell yeah I'm on the hunt for things that are fun to watch in June, July, and August. I might have to invest in a bigger grill though - I'm thinking 52" with HD grating so I can have my buddies over to sizzle up some burgers and then gather 'round the Weber to behold the Grillbot's three high-powered electric motors brush and scrape away all the congealed fat and burnt cheese that gets left behind.

$76 ➠ Amazon

The Smoking Gun Portable Food Smoker

Who wants a pork chop, a salmon fillet, a bloody mary, or a piece of chocolate cake that tastes like it's spent hours slowly absorbing the apple wood of a smoker? Though not a grill add-on, the Smoking Gun portable food smoker is still a pretty cool member of the BBQ arena because in seconds, and without heat, the gadget claims it will inject just about any edible or potable with the natural flavors of fired wood goodness.

Ingredients previously ill-suited for sweat sessions in the smoke sauna, such as butter, oysters, meringue, and sushi, seem to take on the savory profile of hickory, alderwood, or any chips of the user's choosing with a quick, cool blast from PolyScience's handheld gun.

$117 ➠ Amazon

Ziv's Portable Smoker

Ziv likes his fish straight out of the smoker the same night he catches it. Even if he's spending that night in Mother Nature's backyard instead of his own. He created Ziv's Portable Smoker - a cooker box that collapses and folds into a briefcase - for his fellow fishermen and campers. Those who want freshly smoked fish, meat, and veggies around the campfire.

Or at the beach or park. Or off on the side of a road in Tennessee during the family's RV trip to Disney World. Who needs the Cracker Barrel when you've got Ziv's Portable Smoker?

$99 ➠ Amazon

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