Gas Grill

A gas grill is a burner-fired grill running on propane (from a refillable tank) or natural gas (plumbed from the house line). A row of metal burners sits beneath the cooking grate; above them, angled metal “flavorizer” bars or a bed of ceramic briquettes spread the heat and catch dripping fat. Push-button ignition lights it, and a knob per burner sets the flame.

It is the default American backyard grill — gas grills outsell charcoal — precisely because it trades some flavor for a lot of convenience. Weber, Char-Broil, and a long list of others build them from cheap two-burner carts to six-burner outdoor-kitchen rigs with side burners, sear stations, and rotisseries.

Gas flows through a valve and a venturi tube that mixes it with air, then out through small ports in each burner, where it ignites. Above the burners, the flavorizer bars take the direct flame, spread it into more even heat, and — the part people miss — vaporize the fat that drips onto them, which is where most of a gas grill's flavor actually comes from. The hot gas rises, the closed lid traps it, and the grill cooks by convection as much as by the grate.

Because each burner has its own knob, temperature control is immediate and repeatable — no waiting on coals to ash over, no choking vents to cool things down. Light all the burners for an even hot grate; light only one side and you've built a two-zone fire — a direct side to sear and an indirect side to roast — in about fifteen seconds.

Always open the lid before you light it — gas pools in a closed box, and igniting a closed grill can go off with a lid-lifting whoomph. Open lid, turn on the burners, hit the igniter, then close the lid and preheat for 10–15 minutes before scraping the grate clean. For most cooking, light only part of the grill: thick cuts and bone-in chicken go on the unlit indirect side with the lid down, then finish over the lit side — the gas version of a reverse sear.

You can coax some smoke out of a gas grill with a smoker box — a small steel box of wood chips set over a lit burner until it smolders — or a foil pouch of chips. It adds a real hint of smoke for a grilled cook, but it is a supplement, not a substitute for a charcoal fire or a dedicated smoker on a long cook.

The gas grill's case is weeknight reality. It lights in seconds, holds a dialed-in temperature without attention, cooks burgers, dogs, vegetables, and skin-on chicken beautifully, and is wiped down and off in minutes. For fast, direct cooks — the bulk of what most households actually grill — the flavor gap with charcoal is small, and the convenience gap is enormous.

It's also more versatile than its burgers-and-dogs reputation. With direct and indirect zones, a smoker box, or a plank, a gas grill will roast a whole chicken, bake a pizza, and turn out far more than the cliché suggests. If you grill several nights a week and value showing up to a hot grate in ten minutes over chasing the last ten percent of smoke flavor, this is the right tool.

The honest limit is flavor on the cooks where smoke matters. A gas flame simply makes less of the smoke and combustion character that defines barbecue, so on a long low-and-slow cook or a thick steak, a charcoal kettle or a wood-fired pit pulls ahead. A smoker box helps but doesn't close the gap, and a gas grill is not a real smoker.

Most gas grills also don't sear as hot as a bed of charcoal unless they have a dedicated sear burner, and they carry more to break: igniters, regulators, and burners that rust and clog over the years. The good ones get expensive fast. None of this is fatal — it just means a gas grill is built for ease and speed, and you go elsewhere when deep smoke or maximum sear is the point.