Kamados are all-in-one grills capable of essentially every type of outdoor cooking style—from grilling burgers or steaks, to slow-smoking a brisket or ribs, to even baking a pizza or cake. All this versatility is packed into a straightforward cooking method that requires you to simply light some charcoal and adjust the vents as needed to control the temperature. If you need another reason as to why we praise kamado cookers, they can produce food with 30% more moisture retention due to the low level of airflow used when cooking! If you want the best kamado grill for your budget, look at what we’ve rounded up here for you.
Big Green Egg – Large
Often replicated, never duplicated, the Big Green Egg maintains its status as America’s original ceramic kamado grill for outdoor cooking enthusiasts. The large Egg boasts a cooking area of 262 square inches and can hold either a 20-pound turkey, 12 burgers, six chickens vertically, eight steaks, or seven racks of ribs. Cooking on an Egg is incredibly easy: it involves a small amount of prep, followed by lighting and heating, and then cooling the grill after cooking. Just remember to burp the Egg! In this sense, burping means to open the Egg an inch or two and pause before opening the dome completely. This allows air to enter the dome slowly and prevents flare-ups—and burns.
Kamado Joe Classic III 18-Inch
The Classic III is the third iteration from Kamado Joe, building upon the success of its predecessors. It features a hyperbolic smoke chamber, which changes the air pressure to circulate the air back in a cyclonic smoke ring that’s focused on the cooking grates. This means your food receives up to 20 times more smoke circulation with improved heat distribution for an awesome wood-fired flavor. Another notable upgrade is the Divide & Conquer Flexible Cooking System. You get six half-moon cooking grates with two half-moon heat deflectors, allowing you to create different heat zones to sear steak while using indirect heat for veggies!
Blaze 20-Inch Cast Aluminum Kamado
Replicating the look of a sleek Rocketship, Blaze’s freestanding kamado grill makes our list of favorites for its standout features, quality craftsmanship and backyard chef usability. First off, you get the convection style cooking of a Kamado, with the durability of metal and very good heat retention since it is 1-¼ ” thick. The set of hexagonal grill grates are ingenious; they create beautiful and effortless char marks (the kind you can usually only get with cast iron grates.). The 20” grates are hinged on both sides to make it easy to add charcoal. Did we mention you get two sets of grates? One at the lower level and one at the higher level.
Weber Summit 24-Inch Kamado E6
Simply put, the Summit Charcoal gives you the best of both worlds, combining two power horses, a kettle grill and ceramic kamado, into the ultimate cooker. And if you’re not so sure about how effective a steel and air insulated body is, fear not! This grill can run for about 10 hours on one load of charcoal before it starts to lose heat. You don’t need to babysit it either— once you’ve got the temperature right, just load up your meat and relax. The cool thing about having a steel-based kamado instead of ceramic is that if you do overshoot your target temperature, it’s much more forgiving and won’t take so long to cool down.
Primo All-In-One Oval XL 400
If you are a jack of all trades when it comes to cooking, then the Primo Oval may be perfect for you! This is one of the largest-sized kamados on the market so consider enlisting a buddy to help you cart it around, unless pushing 300 lbs. doesn’t sound like a daunting task. The grill has a daisy wheel, which is essentially a chimney cap that makes it easy to let the smoke flow out of the grill and it also controls the draft of air through the cooker from the lower vent. The cast iron chimney cap and the gasket are heavy-duty too. This helps protect the lid material that provides superior sealing to help maintain the temperature.
After reviewing this list, and determining the best kamado grill for your budget, now’s the time to purchase one if you haven’t already. You can thank us later as you’ll enjoy deliciously cooked food for years.