The outdoor cooking product landscape has taken big leaps in the past five to 10 years. With smokers, pellet grills and pizza ovens becoming an even bigger part of the picture, dozens of niche brands entering the category, new technology and more sizes available, it is a great time to be a pitmaster. Fantastic options and improvements in the gas grill and charcoal grill categories remain.
It’s hard to imagine the classic grill will ever go completely out of style, but another outdoor cooking appliance has been hot on its tail — flat-top griddles, the ones from brands like Blackstone, Weber, Loco Cookers and even pellet grill juggernaut Traeger. Outdoor griddles add a layer of versatility that isn’t achieved as easily, or at all, with a grill.
Here’s why many are opting for flat-top grills in 2024 and a breakdown of griddles versus grills to help you decide.
What’s so great about a griddle?
A well-seasoned griddle is a joy to cook on as it will give you a way to cook a wide range of food types and styles with less clean-up than cooking indoors.
If you’re unfamiliar with griddles, these appliances are nothing new. Electric versions have been in homes for decades and commercial versions in many restaurants for just as long. These often large, flat cooking surfaces are excellent for cooking a lot of one thing or a variety of dishes at the same time. Like grills, you can find griddles in smaller forms to best fit your needs.
There are large grills like the Recteq Flagship 1400 XL, Traeger Ironwood XL, Monument Denali 605 Pro and many more, but foods that are easy to cook on a griddle are far less so on a grill of any type.
A clean and well-seasoned griddle is perfect for cooking a wide variety of foods without any sticking.
A griddle excels at cooking small, loose foods and getting great sears. When I say small, loose foods, I’m talking about vegetables, rice, hashbrowns, bacon and the like. Tender meats like flaky fish also do really well on griddles and aren’t so easy to cook on grill grates. These things are all great on a flat top because it is a solid piece of metal. On a grill, small pieces of food and liquids, like eggs, would fall through the grates.
Perhaps one of my favorite meals to cook on my griddle is breakfast. It’s wonderful to be able to cook an entire meal on one appliance. From pancakes and sausage to eggs and hashbrowns, it all is done easily on a flat top.
The flat surface of a griddle is perfect for cooking multiple items at once, which saves dishes and time.
A griddle itself is quite versatile, but many useful accessories can add even more flexibility to its use. Accessories kits such as this 140-piece tool kit for $28 on Amazon get you a range of different spatulas, hooks, skewers, tongs, and more, all of which work just as well for a grill. The key items in the kit are the domes, which are available separately like this one from Cuisinart. These are great for covering foods that may need steam to cook a little faster or lock in heat to keep items warm.
You can also find things like this universal wind guard that also adds a warming rack to your griddle. Accessories like this make cooking a bit easier as they block wind from affecting the flames from the burners and add a second tier to get food off the griddle but still keep it warm. There are also add-on lids to lock the heat in across the entire griddle cooking area.
What about grills?
Nexgrill may be well-known for its gas grills, but the Oakford Reverse Flow charcoal grill brings a level of cooking that was widely unavailable for the average home cooker.
Grills in varying styles have been around for a very long time. So, it is understandable that there is a wide range of grill types and accessories that go with them. A grill’s biggest advantage over a griddle is access to a direct flame. This applies to all gas, charcoal, and even some pellet grills. Being able to put food directly over a flame offers a char that isn’t equally achievable on a griddle.
For some, the main advantage of a grill over a griddle is flavor. Gas grills are sort of lost in this area since the fuel source has no flavor, but a smoke tube can help. These accessories are filled with wood pellets or wood chips and can impart that flavor to the food. Pellet and charcoal grills offer flavor by default due to the fuel source.
The variety of compatible fuels that work with pellet and charcoal grills offer a range of flavors that can complement and add to a meal in ways that a griddle simply can’t. From regular charcoal to new flavored options like this Garlic Onion Paprika and Hickory Wood from Kingsford. When it comes to pellet grills, the options for fuel here are vast. Many grill makers have their own varieties of pellets with blends of wood types, single woods, and much more.
As for accessories, as I mentioned in the griddle section, many of the same accessories you’d use for a griddle will work for a grill. Grilling accessories are about as big as the options for grills. Some are designed to open up the range of meals possible on a grill, such as this universal griddle accessory. Perhaps you want to turn your pellet grill into a pizza oven, which can be done without the attachment, but it won’t be nearly as good.
The downsides of a griddle or a grill
When a griddle isn’t well-maintained, it can begin to flake and lose its ability to keep food from sticking.
Nothing is perfect, and that applies to these two cooking appliances. Aside from the things mentioned above, like how cooking eggs on a grill would be more difficult than on a griddle or how griddles can’t easily add smokey flavors, there are ways each cooker separates from the other.
A big difference between the two is the maintenance. Regardless of what you cook on, you’ll need to clean your grill and griddle. The needs of each are very different. A grill will take less effort to prep for your next meal. In contrast, a griddle needs a bit more work to get it ready and keep it in tip-top shape.
The flat top of a griddle needs to be seasoned properly to prevent food from sticking and to prevent rust from developing. Not all is lost if your griddle starts to rust or flake; you can restore a griddle, but there is more you’ll have to do if you don’t properly maintain it.
Cleaning a griddle is easier
Because there are no grates for food to fall through, many people consider griddles easier to clean, even if the flat tops require seasoning and are more susceptible to corrosion.
Griddles typically have a grease shoot into which you can scrape all the leftover bits where they’ll be caught by a drip tray below. A flat-top griddle then needs only a good wipe with a wet cloth and maybe some gentle soap to get it back to square one. A grill, on the other hand, often needs vigorous scraping and retrieval of food and grease that has fallen onto the burner into the chamber below.
Grills have some downsides to maintenance too, especially if you use a pellet or charcoal grill. These two create ash from the fuels used, and you’ll need to clean that out between uses. You’ll also need to deal with any grease that may fall between the grates, where the grease on a griddle is directed to a grease trap and easily cleaned out.
Which should you choose: Griddle or grill?
Beef brisket can be tricky to cook as it requires a long time at low temperatures to properly break down the fat and meat fibers.
Well, this is a tough question for anyone other than yourself to answer. Much of the choice comes down to the foods you enjoy, what you’d like to have the option to cook, and how much effort you want to put into maintaining your cooker.
There are ways to cook almost everything a griddle can on a grill by using different accessories. You’ll have to buy these things, like the griddle attachment, a mesh tray for veggies and other things. Where on a griddle if you want to cook loose or tender foods, you can simply fire up your flat top and start cooking without setting anything extra up.
A griddle won’t flame broil your food and won’t add additional flavor like hickory or pecan like a grill can. So, the decision between a griddle and a grill ultimately comes down to your preferences. Whether you want the smokey sear of a grill or the vast cooking area of a griddle prime for some fried rice, you’ll be on the way to making some amazing meal whichever you choose.
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