Char-Broil Kettleman Charcoal Grill Review
Melted Pimento Cheeseburger as a trial run.
I’m extremely lucky to be able to test out Char-Broil’s new charcoal grill. It’s called the Char-Broil Kettleman. It is a sleek and modern upgrade of the classic charcoal kettle grill that we all know and love. It is a sturdy grill with high quality features.
Amazon sells the Kettleman at this link.
The most noticeable upgrade over the standard kettle is the hinged lid. No more laying the lid on the ground. The kettleman has a hinge which allows the lid to tilt back. A very nice upgrade.
A nice thermometer positioned over the lid handle.
Massive exhaust holes. These are the largest exhaust holes I’ve ever seen. They are controllable so you can have the exhaust as small as you like.
The charcoal ash catch is located below the grill and is easy to slide in and out. Also of note is the multiple air intake holes. This thing can really fire up a nice high heat with all these air intakes. This also allows a good coal burn with plenty of oxygen.
I dumped a charcoal chimney with about 30-40 briquettes over the right side of the grill. This allows for a direct heat and indirect heat area. I wanted to sear some burgers over high direct heat and then melt pimento cheese on the burgers over indirect heat.
The biggest cooking difference between the Kettleman and the classic kettle grill is that the charcoal grate is only 2 or 3 inches away from the cooking grate. This is nice! This allows for an extremely high heat for grilling steaks. Imagine a bunch of coals bunched up under the grate with a steak positioned 1 inch above the heat! Yes!
Today, since I was cooking burgers, I went with a single layer of coals which gave me a nice medium high heat. This positioning allows for cooking with much less charcoal. Just a few coals are all you need for a standard cookout. I placed a lot more coals than I needed because I knew I had a 10-15 minute indirect cooking time for melting the pimento cheese.
I made ⅓ pound burger patties and covered them with Montreal Steak seasoning. I placed them over direct heat and flipped them after 3 minutes.
Look at those grill marks! The Kettleman has a thick grate and this creates a thicker grill mark.
My homemade pimento cheese recipe can be found via this link. It’s so easy. Basically, it’s a mix of cheddar cheese, mayo, pimentos, jalapenos and salt and pepper. It melts so well and is so tasty! It’s perfect for melting on burgers.
Oh man! Look at this burger. The oozing pimento cheese is a fabulous addition to a tender and flavorful charcoal grilled burger. The toasted pretzel roll takes this simplistic recipe way over the top. The whole point of today was to test out this awesome new grill. Today was all about tinkering with this new toy. But this simple recipe was absolutely amazing. Give it a try!
My Rating: ★★★★☆
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