I have three different types of barbecues - coal, gas, and a smoker, so I can experiment a lot - Guy Fieri
Barbecue is the culinary delicacy that according to Anthony Bourdain, was the first step on the path to world peace. It bridges every cultural, social, and economic divide, and brings people together, uniting them in their mutual love of great food.
If you want to be the life and soul of any party, you need to be the person standing behind the grill and the individual in charge of the smoker.
You don’t have to be the world’s greatest chef to cook great barbecue, you just need to practice and perfect your chosen menu with the right grill or smoker.
But what if you could combine both? What if you could find a grill that wasn’t just a grill, but could also smoke anything you wanted to cook?
That would mean that all of your barbecuing, grilling, and smoking dreams could come true, and you’d be able to cook up a storm every time you fired it up.
The funny thing about dreams is that sometimes they do come true, and smoker and grill combos are not only real, they’ve been transforming the face of the backyard barbecuing scene for the last decade and a half.
And to make sure that you choose the right combo to change your grilling and smoking life for the better, we’ve searched high and low for the best grill and smoker combos that will help you to make all of your culinary fantasies a reality.
Comparison Table
Key Criteria
Even though we’ve spent the majority of our teenage and adult lives at the grill face and loading smokers with all manner of mouth-watering, slow and low delights, it wasn’t easy to try and narrow the search for the best of the best.
In order to separate the wheat from the chaff, we decided to employ a number of key criteria that any grill and smoker combo worth its weight in delicious barbecue should, and needs, to have. And these are the factors that we decided to employ to narrow our search and help us make our decision -
- Cooking Space - How much food can you load on the racks and shelves of a grill and smoker combo is quite possibly its most important asset, especially if you’re going to be hosting large parties and cookouts. The more cooking space the combo has, the more food you can grill and smoke, and the more food you can cook, the more people you can feed.
- Functionality - Any good grill and smoker combo should be relatively simple to use and make the chef’s life easier, and the more features a combo has, the more freedom you’ll have to create your dream menu with it. This means that the combos that made the cut aren't just straightforward, they’re also armed with enough secret weapons to put a mile-wide smile on your backyard barbecuing face.
- Affordability - Grilling and smoking aren’t cheap, so we wanted to make sure that your barbecuing dollar could stretch as far as possible, and measured affordability against functionality in order to find the best combos that you can use to brighten up your backyard barbecues.
Lastly, we decided to focus on brands and combos that we were not only familiar with, but that also had a rock-solid reputation among the grilling and smoking faithful, which is why Traeger, Z Grills, Kamado Joe, and an outsider favorite from down South made the list and other brands didn’t.
It’s time to get long, low, and slow with the best grill and smoker combos…
Best Grill Smoker Combo
1. Best Overall Grill And Smoker Combo: Traeger Grills Pro Series 34 Pellet Grill and Smoker
The premier name in pellet grilling, Traeger is responsible for single-handedly changing the way that amateur and professional outdoor chefs across the country cook.
Their grill and smoker combos never fail to dazzle and satisfy anyone fortunate enough to use one, and their Pro Series was solely responsible for converting us to the pellet cause.
Meeting The Grilling (And Smoking) Criteria
Are you sitting down comfortably? Good, because you’re about to be amazed by what the Pro-Series is capable of doing.
With eight hundred and eighty-four square inches of combined cooking surface, this grill and smoker combo has enough room inside its dome and on its racks to cook either eight chickens or forty burgers at the same time, which means that you’ll be able to feed all of your guests regardless of how many turn up.
With an eighteen-pound hopper (the box that holds the pellets that the Pro-Series uses as fuel), and digital control, the Traeger favorite makes it easy to smoke all of your favorite food. Just load the hopper, stack the shelves, set the temperature, close the dome, press start and it’ll do the rest.
It even has two meat probes that’ll monitor and display the temperature of whatever it is you’re smoking without you even having to raise the lid and check them for yourself.
Grilling with the Taeger is a pleasure, as its open design makes it easy to control everything you’re cooking, and as it uses wood pellets to power its fire, you’ll never have to worry about being drowned in charcoal smoke again.
And as if that wasn’t enough, all of Traeger’s signature grills and smokers have a six in one versatility, which means that if you want to expand your cooking lexicon, you can also use the Pro-Series to braise, roast, and bake and the only grilling limits that you’ll be bound by are those imposed by your own imagination.
The Traeger Way
Traeger invented the wood-fired grill, and for the last thirty years they’ve continued to innovate and improve on their original, often imitated but never bettered design.
They’ve been at the forefront of grilling and smoking design for more than three decades, and are obsessed with ensuring that all of their grills and smokers are safe and simple to use and push the boundaries of grilling technology and what it can do.
Pros
- Cooking Space - The Pro Series has eight hundred and eighty-four square inches of total cooking space. That’s a lot of grilling and smoking room. And as it also has an eighteen-pound hopper it can hold all of the pellets that it needs to cook whatever you want it to, for as long as you want it to.
- Six In One - If you do decide to venture outside of the comfortable confines of the grilling and smoking macro verse, with the Pro Series, you can also try your hand at baking, roasting, and braising, or whatever else takes your fancy.
- Welcome To The Traegerhood - The digital pro-controller and dual meat probes that control everything that the Pro-Series does make it incredibly easy to cook with. You’ll be able to spend less time at the grill and more time hanging out if you cook with the Pro- Series. Welcome to the Traegerhood.
Cons
- A Little On The High Side - It isn’t the most affordable combo on the market, but it’s also far from being the most expensive. As an old uncle of ours used to say “You get what you pay for”, and while you’ll pay quite a lot for the Traeger you also get a lot of grilling and smoking power.
- Never use gas or charcoal again: cooking with wood just tastes better. Traeger created the original wood-pellet grill as the ultimate way to achieve wood-fired taste
- Versatile barbecue cooking: hot and fast, or low and slow, the Traeger Pro Series 34 pellet grill offers 6-in-1 versatility to grill, smoke, bake, roast, braise, and BBQ food to juicy perfection
- Precision temperature control: The Digital Pro Controller rocks Advanced Grilling Logic, which maintains a +/- 15 degree F temperature control to guarantee precision grilling. 450 °F Max Temp
- Sturdy and Durable: Powerful steel construction and durable powder coat finish, easy to clean porcelain grill grates and all-terrain wheels
- Large cooking capacity: 884 sq. in. cooking capacity that can accomodate 8 chickens, 7 racks of ribs or 40 burgers
2. Best Family-Sized Grill And Smoker Combo: Kamado Joe Classic III
Sometimes it isn’t about the size of the grill in the fight, it’s about the size of the fight in the grill, and Kamado Joe’s Classic III packs more grilling and smoking power in its relatively small frame than most of the combos that are twice its size does.
Ticking The Smoking And Grilling Checkboxes
This eighteen-inch high ceramic powerhouse combo uses a three-tier divide and conquer cooking system which provides four hundred and six square inches of total cooking space, and allows you to cook a trio of different foods, at different temperatures on three separate shelves.
And when you’re not grilling, you can close the dome on the Classic III and let it's patented, Harvard engineered SloRoller Smoke Chamber take control, which will engulf whatever it is you’ve decided to cook in slow rolling waves of smoke that not only reduces hot spots but also imbues every millimeter of your cook in rich, dense smoke-filled flavor.
If you’re worried about lifting the lid while you’re smoking and grilling, don’t be as the air-lift system that the Classic III uses means that you can open the dome with a single finger, and carry on doing what the combo does best; grill and smoke.
The Kamado Joe Story
A shared passion for grilling and smoking led two lifelong friends on a quest to solve the problems that beset and plagued the lives of every outdoor cook.
That quest led to them updating the Kamado grill, or “Big Green Egg” as it was once called for the twenty-first century, and Kamado Joe was born.
Passion and innovation are a devastating combination, and they’re the first ingredients that are thrown into the mix when any Kamado Joe grill is designed and manufactured,
Pros
- User-Friendly Charcoal Grill - Devastatingly simple to use and grill and smoke with, the Classic III is fueled by charcoal and when you set it to smoke, will infuse your cook with all the deep, rich flavors that charcoal creates.
- Cooking Space - Four hundred and six square inches might not sound like a lot, but it’s more than enough to feed your entire family whenever you have a backyard cookout.
- Technology Is Their Middle Name - Everything that Kamado Joe revolves around implementing and using technology to make life easier, and the Classic III adheres to that blueprint with its Air Lift hinged lid, Divide And Conquer grilling system and SloRoller Smoke Chamber.
Cons
- Reassuringly Expensive - All of the technology in the Classic III means that it comes with a large price tag that will almost certainly put an egg-shaped dent in your bank balance.
- Premium 18″ ceramic grill with heavy-duty galvanized steel rolling cart with locking wheels.
- Patent pending SlōRoller Hyperbolic Smoke Chamber - The first of its kind, the revolutionary SlōRoller leverages Harvard science that transforms a Kamado Joe into one of the world’s most optimal smokers. By distributing smoke and heat in rolling, recirculating waves, the SlōRoller surrounds food in clouds of delicious smoke while evenly distributing heat—resulting in enhanced flavor and significantly reduced hot spots.
- 3-Tier Divide & Conquer - Divide & Conquer Flexible Cooking System transforms the humble grill grate into the most powerful cooking tool in your arsenal. The revolutionary multi-level, half-moon design frees you to cook different foods in different styles at different temperatures—all at the same time.
- Kontrol Tower Top Vent - Maintains consistent air setting for precise airflow management during dome opening and closing. Constructed of powder coated cast aluminum, the patent pending dual-adjustment top vent is rain and mold-resistant and allows you to smoke from 225F all the way to searing at 750F.
- Air Lift Hinge – The air lift hinge significantly reduces dome weight. The grill dome can be lifted with a single finger giving the most comfortable grilling experience there is.
3. Best Affordable Grill And Smoker Combo: Z GRILLS Wood Pellet Grill & Smoker
Indulging in your passion for smoking and grilling doesn’t have to break your pocketbook and leave you desperately trying to juggle your finances. At least it doesn’t if you cook the Z Grills way and put your faith in their reliable and ever-faithful combo.
Fulfilling The Criteria
With four hundred and fifty-two square inches of total cooking space and a temperature range of one hundred and eighty to four hundred and fifty degrees Fahrenheit, there isn’t anything that this combo can’t do.
And when we say anything, we really do mean anything as it’s been designed and built with an EIGHT in one versatility that means as well as using it for grilling and smoking, you can also use the Z Grills combo to bake, roast, sear, char-grill and barbecue, as it can help you turn your hand to just about any style of cooking.
Its fifteen-pound hopper will let you load it up with enough pellets to see any grilling or smoking adventure to a successful conclusion, and its easy to use controls means that that you can load it, set the temperature, press go, and leave it to do to the smoking for you, while you enjoy spending what little free time you have with your family and friends.
Grilling And Smoking With Z Grills
Z Grills was founded in two thousand and sixteen with one purpose. To provide high-quality pellet grills and smokers at honest prices so that everyone can enjoy the wood-fired flavor and indulge their love of grilling and smoking.
They’re an industry supply specialist who opened their doors to the public and made it possible for every American to equip themselves with a pellet and smoker combo, regardless of their economic status and circumstances.
Pros
- Cooking Space - Four hundred and fifty-two square inches of cooking space is more than enough for any large family and friends cookout, and while you’ll probably use every inch of it, that’s what it’s there for, so that you can make the most of it and cook as much, or as little as you want to.
- Eight In One - If you ever (which is incredibly unlikely) become tired and bored of just grilling and smoking, you can also use the Z Grills comb to bake, roast, char-grill, and more. As we said, there isn’t much that this grill can’t do.
- A Steal At Twice The Price - The Z Grills combo would be a steal at twice the price, but as it is it’s the second cheapest grill and smoker on our list, it’s worth every cent of the asking price.
Cons
- Temperature Control - Some dedicated outdoor chefs have reported that there’s an issue with the temperature control, and even though we’ve never had a problem with it, it might be something to bear in mind if you do choose to cook the Z Grills way.
- ULTIMATE 8-IN-1 (Cover included): Barbecue wood fire pellet grill: bbq✓bake✓roast✓braise✓smoke✓grill✓sear✓char-grill
- Pellet Grill Technology: There isn't an easier way to get wood-smoked flavors than with a pellet grill. Try it, and you'll taste the difference from a GAS or CHARCOAL grill
- Set the Temperature, Relax, and Enjoy: Z Grills pellet grills will do all the work for you once you set the temperature. No labor-intensive start-up. No babysitting the grill. Enjoy the cooking.
- Consistent Results Every Time: The PID technology holds the tightest temperature possible throughout your cooking for consistent results.
- Smoke, Grill, and Everything in Between: With its 180° to 450° F temperature range, this pellet grill has 8-in-1 versatility to grill, smoke, bake, roast, sear, braise, barbecue, and char-grill with incredible hardwood flavor.
4. Best Underdog Grill And Smoker Combo: Oklahoma Joe's Highland Offset Smoker
Don’t let the smoker part of the name fool you, as this behemoth can grill and smoke as much as you want it to, and unlike a lot of other combos, thanks to the additional cooking space above its smokebox, can actually do both at the same time. If you were looking for a versatile, and deceptively agile combo, you’ve come to the right place.
Meeting The Criteria
With six hundred and nineteen square inches of grilling and smoking space in its main chamber, and an additional two hundred square inches in its smokebox, this smoker and grill combo relies on old-school retro know-how and appeal to get the cooking job done.
The heat and smoke that its charcoal fire provides are controlled with a series of dampers, and the impressive hopper will hold as much fuel as you need to cook as much as you want to, wherever you want to.
It’s simple, efficient, and effective and will let you smoke and grill at the same time. What more could you want from a combo?
The Legend Of Oklahoma Joe
“Oklahoma” Joe Davison spent his two thousand dollar life savings designing and building twelve meat smokers that he took to the Oklahoma State Fair in nineteen eighty-seven to sell. They were all gone in under an hour and he took orders for hundreds more while he was there.
A smoking and grilling legend was born that day, and while the brand doesn’t subscribe to any fancy philosophies or ideas, they do make the kind of smokers and grills that are designed to last a lifetime and will never let you down.
Pros
- Cooking Space - With a total combined cooking space of eight hundred and nineteen square inches, you’ll be able to provide your entire neighborhood with dinner if you load the Highland to capacity
- Easy To Control - Just open and close the dampers and baffles, and you’ll be able to easily control all of the heat and smoke that incredible combo makes.
- It’s How Much? - It’s also the cheapest combo on our list and provides a lot of cooking power for a relatively low price.
Cons
- Heavier Than A Family Sedan - It might be built to last, but at just under two hundred pounds the Highland isn’t exactly what you’d call portable.
- Oklahoma Joe's Highland Offset Smoker
- Oklahoma Joe’s Highland Offset Smoker Cover, Black
Frequently Asked Questions
A grill and smoker combo is an outdoor oven and cooking apparatus that allows you to both grill and smoke different kinds of food when you’re barbecuing, having a party, or hosting a cookout.
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