Need A Tailgating Griddle? CharBroil 17” Portable Gas Griddle Does The Job

A compact, inexpensive griddle perfect for tailgating or the back patio

If you haven’t yet discovered the joys of griddling, here’s a low-cost introduction: the CharBroil Performance 17” Portable Gas Griddle. For less than $100 you can become your own short-order cook: make eggs, bacon, smashburgers, fajitas, or just heat up a pot of soup. Best of all, you can cook in your backyard or take it on the road: the CharBroil 17” griddle weighs only 23 pounds, so it’s easily portable to a parking lot, campsite, or wherever you want to tailgate.

Basic Specs

The CharBroil Performance 17” Portable Gas Griddle consists of a single slab of cold-rolled steel with wind-blocking sides and back. That’s 280 square inches of cooking space, enough for 16 burgers or a slew of bacon and eggs. It’s powered by a single, rectangular burner that sits just below the steel griddle, 3 to 4 inches in from the left, right, front, and back sides. The 15,000 BTU burner is made of 443 stainless steel fueled by liquid propane. This unit is designed to use 1-lb portable propane tanks but can also be connected to a larger 20-lb tank. Push-button piezo ignition easily lights the burner, and you’re off to the races. If the igniter ever fails you can use a long match to light the burner. For cleanup, CharBroil includes a grease slot at the front of the unit that funnels into a 2-cup slide-out grease tray.

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Assembly

The CharBroil Performance 17” Portable Gas Griddle comes pretty much ready to go out of the box. All you need is a Phillips head screwdriver to bolt the griddle onto the base and attach the rubber feet. The feet are not height-adjustable for leveling, but I had no issues with an uneven cooking surface.

Before cooking, CharBroil recommends sponging down the griddle to remove the factory coating. It’s a good thing, as I noticed quite a bit of gray residue on my rag. After drying, it helps to season the griddle by rubbing on a thin coat of oil and running the griddle on full blast for 20 minutes. Then, let it cool down, and you’re ready for your first cook.

Heat Tests

Does this little gas griddle heat evenly? To find out, I preheated it on high for 5 minutes then shot an IR gun at it. Odds were good that the middle, where the burner sits, would be hotter than the sides. Here are the results:

• 380°F dead center 
• 450°F center back
• 225°F center front
• 325°F left back
• 235°F left front
• 345°F right back
• 285°F right front
  
  

So, yeah, the center back is the hotspot, and the front and sides run cooler than the center overall. The difference was about 75°F. With a single burner on this unit, I actually found the temperature difference to be advantageous. Without adjusting the burner knob, you can move food from back (hotter) to front (cooler) to hold it or slow down the cooking.

Keep in mind, the base unit gets somewhat hot in addition to the griddle surface, so heed the warnings to keep the area clear a few inches around the unit while cooking.

Fried Eggs

The first thing I made was griddle eggs. This is a standard breakfast for me: I saute whatever vegetables I have on hand, push them into a ring shape, then crack a couple eggs in the middle, cover and cook until the yolks are just starting to firm up. I have a giant spatula to remove the whole thing (or you can just slide it out of a nonstick pan). Results here were good, although one egg came out runny and the other slightly overdone due to the temperature differential. No big deal.

No Lid?

Smashburgers were predictably good. Griddles seems to be made for smashburgers. I’d argue that the explosion of griddle cooking is at least partly responsible for the explosion of smashburger popularity. My only gripe here is that a lid would be nice to help melt cheese on the burgers. Sure, you can just flip a disposable aluminum pan over the food but the CharBroil 17” Griddle actually comes with pre-drilled holes near the rear for an installed lid. Oddly, the company does not sell this unit with a lid and does make a lid available for sale as an accessory. Yes, CharBroil’s larger 22” 2-burner griddle can be purchased with a lid, but the 17” cannot. Strange. The good news: you can easily install an aftermarket lid as 17” is a very popular size of portable griddle.

Fajitas

Chicken fajitas turned out great with nice char on the veg and meat. I quickly made these fajitas out in the garage and I gotta say, it was nice to NOT heat up the kitchen on a hot day. I also heated the tortillas on the griddle. Again, the best thing about a flattop is that you can cook almost anything on it.

Tailgating

When winter rolled around early, I tested the “Portable” in the name and took the CharBroil 17” Griddle on the road, to my local ski mountain. In the back of my car, it cooked like a champ. I reheated a stir-fry and some stir-fried rice on it, and my buddy made griddled ham and cheese sandwiches. We also reheated a pot of soup on it.

This thing will make you a parking lot hero. Just keep in mind, it’s ideal for serving about 4 people. If you’re cooking for a crowd, you may want the bigger 22” model, which can also be configured with a collapsible rolling stand, which gets it out of your car.

Conclusion

Rock-solid, portable, adaptable, and easy to use and maintain, the CharBroil Performance 17” Portable Gas Griddle is a winner. Online reviews of this unit are generally positive, although some who purchased the 22” model complain of the lid becoming dented in shipping. Maybe that’s why CharBroil doesn’t offer the 17” model with a lid. No matter. Given the unit’s low price, adding a lid to this thing is a simple aftermarket fix.

The slightly uneven heating is also fine with me: it gives you natural high and low zones to work with. For maintenance, treat this griddle like cast-iron: “clean” it with boiling water and rub with a thin coat of oil between cooks. Do that, and it’ll last a good long time. The unit can also be easily disassembled so you can clean or replace the burner tube (sometimes spiders build webs in there, blocking or slowing the gas flow).

A solid Gold medal.

Warranty

Two years on manufacturing and material defects of all parts.