AmazingRibs.com is supported by our Pitmaster Club. Also, when you buy with links on our site we may earn a finder’s fee.
Click to see how we test and review products.
Best BBQ Gifts $201 to $500
Need a great gift for the BBQ lover in your life? Here are several options ranging in price from $201 to $500. These are all Platinum or Gold Medal winners, including everything from a propane smoker to an outdoor pizza oven. Click the links to read our full reviews and check prices.
Char-Griller Grillin’ Pro Gas Grill Review
Low cost gas grills are the instrument of choice for most residential outdoor cooks. We're always on the lookout to review models that deliver a lot of bang for the buck. Grillin' Pro earns our Platinum Medal for exceptional performance under $200. Not built to last, but it will out sear any comparably priced gasser.
Slow ‘N Sear Kettle Grill
The Slow 'N Sear Kettle Grill is mighty nice, but very similar to the Weber Performer, which is not a bad thing. If you're in the market for a new charcoal kettle grill, read our review because this one may be for you. It's definitely worth consideration. We award the Slow 'N Sear Kettle Grill our AmazingRibs.com Best Value Gold Medal.
Pit Boss 5-Series Wood Pellet Vertical Smoker
The Pit Boss 5-Series Vertical Cabinet Smoker is a good unit for this price point. It's easy to use and maintain, produces great results on a variety of meats and has a small footprint coupled with a large cooking capacity. Read our review to learn why we give the Pit Boss 5-Series our AmazingRibs.com Best Value Gold Medal.
Fireboard 2 Drive FBX2D
FireBoard Drive 2 is an updated version of a well-received product that sets the standard for performance and functionality in the wireless food thermometer/thermostatic controller class.
Ooni Koda Gas-Powered Outdoor Pizza Oven
The Ooni Koda is a superb portable pizza oven capable of making restaurant quality pies in 2 to 3 minutes. Completely redesigned from the ground up, Koda outperforms its predecessor, Ooni 3, in every way. It requires no assembly and is ready to cook right out of the box. We reviewed Koda and award our AmazingRibs.com Gold Medal!
Masterbuilt MPS 340/G ThermoTemp XL Propane Smoker Review
Vertical gas smokers are to easy to use. With Masterbuilt's ThermoTemp line, smoking on gas just got easier. Masterbuilt successfully offers groundbreaking use of thermostatic control on a gas smoker at an affordable price. We tested and reviewed their large XL model and award ThermoTemp our AmazingRibs.com Platinum Medal.
Camp Chef Flat Top Grill 600 Review
Sometimes you need a big surface area to cook a lot of food at once. Designed to feed a crowd fast and leave 'em smiling, the 600 is the most popular size in Camp Chef's Flat Top Grill line. Remove the griddle top and it becomes a 4-burner gas grill. Read our review to learn why Flat Tops earn our AmazingRibs.com Best Value Gold Medal.
Portable Kitchen Grill aka PK Grill Review
Read our review to find out why PK Grill owners have been in love since 1952. We tested this classic AmazingRibs.com Platinum Medal winning grill. The rectangular shape makes it a 2-zone king. It has thick aluminum construction that retains and radiates heat, tight fitting hinged lid and the twin dampers in both the top and bottom.
Green Mountain Davy Crockett Review
Read our review of Green Mountain's Davy Crockett. Green Mountain describes their small portable smoker as the Ultimate Tailgater Pellet Grill. It's also gaining popularity with people who want to add a small, set it and forget it smoker to their BBQ arsenal. We tested Davy Crockett and award it our AmazingRibs.com Best Value Platinum Medal.
Oklahoma Joe’s Bronco Drum Smoker Review
Oklahoma Joe's Bronco is a low cost barrel smoker with hinged lid, gasket, side shelf, wheels, grilling capabilities, adjustable dampers, and ability to smoke low and slow up to 12 hours on one load of charcoal. What’s not to love? Read our review for the details on why we award this relatively low cost phenom our AmazingRibs.com Platinum Medal!
Cuisinart 360 Griddle Cooking Center Review
They say that innovation comes in all shapes and sizes and the Cuisinart 360 Griddle Cooking Center immediately speaks to that as outlined in this hands-on AmazingRibs.com review. The 22” griddle sits atop a two burner system that transfers heat from two independently controlled burners to the griddle surface.
Pit Barrel Junior Review
Pit Barrel Junior is a smaller version of the popular Pit Barrel Cooker charcoal smoker. Both are designed to produce a cooking environment in which one temperature fits all. This AmazingRibs.com Gold Medal Award winning smoker is one of the more impressive products we've tested and reviewed.
Kong 50 Quart Cooler Review
This in-depth review showcases the high quality Kong 50-quart cooler. A relatively new player in the cooler field, Elkhart Products only began making and distributing Kong rotomolded coolers in early summer 2017. Elkhart, one of America’s largest custom rotational molding companies has over 30 years’ experience.
Blackstone Rangetop Combo With Deep Fryer Review
Read our review of this cool combo cooker. With its ample cooking area, solid performance, and versatility for both griddle grilling and deep frying large amounts of food outdoors, the Blackstone Range Top Combo with Bonus Fryer easily earns a Platinum Medal.
A Blender That Pulverizes The Competition
If you make a lot of smoothies, sauces, and other blended foods then a high quality blender is in order. While there are several decent economically priced blenders out there, the lifespan of these models tends to be short due to inferior parts and a lack of horsepower, especially compared to a Vitamix or Oster.
ThermoWorks Signals Review
Read our review of the new ThermoWorks Signals, a four-channel Bluetooth/Wi-Fi-enabled remote thermometer with four probes, a Gold Medal Winner.Related articles
Published On: 5/16/2019 Last Modified: 10/21/2021
Grilla Pellet Smoker proves good things come in small packages
We always liked Grilla. The small 31.5″ x 29.5″ footprint makes it ideal for use where BBQ space is limited, as on a condo patio.
Click here for our review on this unique smoker
Our Favorite Backyard Smoker
The amazing Karubecue is the most innovative smoker in the world. The quality of meat from this machine is astonishing. At its crux is a patented firebox that burns logs above the cooking chamber and sucks heat and extremely clean blue smoke into the thermostat controlled oven. It is our favorite smoker, period.
Click here for our review of this superb smoker
Is This Superb Charcoal Grill A Kamado Killer?
The PK-360, with 360 square inches of cooking space, this rust free, cast aluminum charcoal grill is durable and easy to use. Four-way venting means it’s easy to set up for two zone cooking with more control than single vent Kamado grills. It is beautifully designed, completely portable, and much easier to set up for 2-zone cooking than any round kamado.
Click here to read our detailed review of the PK 360
Click here to order directly and get an exclusive AmazingRibs.com deal
Finally, A Great Portable Pellet Smoker
Green Mountain’s portable Davy Crockett Pellet Smoker is one mean tailgating and picnic machine. But it’s also gaining popularity with people who want to add a small, set it and forget it pellet smoker to their backyard arsenal. And with their WiFi capabilities you can control and monitor Davy Crocket from your smart phone or laptop.
Click here to read our detailed review and to order
Masterbuilt MPS 340/G ThermoTemp XL Propane Smoker
This is the first propane smoker with a thermostat, making this baby foolproof. Set ThermoTemp’s dial from 175° to 350°F and the thermostat inside will adjust the burner just like an indoor kitchen oven. All you need to do is add wood to the tray above the burner to start smokin’.
Click here to read our detailed review
The Pit Barrel Cooker May Be Too Easy
The PBC has a rabid cult following for good reason. It is absolutely positively without a doubt the best bargain on a smoker in the world. Period. This baby will cook circles around the cheap offset sideways barrel smokers because temperature control is so much easier.
Click here to read our detailed review and the raves from people who own them
The Undisputed Champion!
ThermoWorks’ Thermapen ONE provides an accurate reading in one second or less. The ONE also includes features that are common on high-end instruments: automatic backlight, rotating display, and water resistant seals. Don’t accept cheap substitutes.
Click here to read our comprehensive Platinum Medal review
If you help us, we’ll pay you back bigtime with an ad-free experience and much more!
Millions come to AmazingRibs.com every month for quality tested recipes, tips on technique, science, mythbusting, product reviews, and inspiration. But it is expensive to run a website with more than 4,000 pages and we don’t have a big corporate partner like TV network or a magazine publisher to subsidize us.
Our most important source of sustenance is people who join our Pitmaster Club, but please don’t think of it as a donation. Members get 21 great benefits. We block all third-party ads, we give members free ebooks, magazines, interviews, webinars, more recipes, a monthly sweepstakes with prizes worth up to $2,000, discounts on products, and best of all a community of like-minded cooks free of flame wars. Click below to see all the benefits, take a free 30 day trial membership, and help keep this site alive.
Post comments and questions below
1) Please try the search box at the top of every page before you ask for help.
2) Try to post your question to the appropriate page.
3) Tell us everything we need to know to help such as the type of cooker and thermometer. Dial thermometers are often off by as much as 50°F so if you are not using a good digital thermometer we probably can’t help you with time and temp questions. Please read this article about thermometers.
4) If you are a member of the Pitmaster Club, your comments login is probably different.
5) Posts with links in them may not appear immediately.
Moderators