Best Indoor Electric Grills – Tested & Reviewed

Philips Infrared Smokeless Grill our top pick for indoor grilling.

One of the highest-quality electric indoor grill you’ll find, it excels at searing meat, which as it turns out, is a lot to ask. Several of the grills in our lineup (the last three on the list) really struggled at yielding sears expected you’d expect from a traditional grill.

How the Phillips IR Grill Works

It works using infrared heating units located on the side of the grill and reflected onto the cooking surface.

This design creates an evenly-heated surface. It helps reduce smoke up to 80% — according to Philips — as it prevents grease from dripping onto the heating element. So it’s while no cooking is ever completely “smokeless”, it’s one of the most smoke-free in our Top 10 round-up.

With 1660 watts of power (14 amps) it’s gonna require most of what your standard home circuit can handle, but this is pretty standard when it comes to these electric grills. Phillips advertises a max temperature of 446F – which we clocked at 425F, close enough.

The manufacturer also boasts reaching max temperature in 8 min, again, we found that more or less to be true with a reading of 410F; which is more than we can say for several of the electric cookers we looked at. Now, here’s the one thing with IR cooking, you’re not supposed to look directly into the light, but there’s no real way to avoid it. These heat lamps get very bright, you can’t make it out in the picture, but I assure you, the first time you fire it up you’ll be surprised.

Cooking the Steak

When we dropped the steak on the grill it instantly gave us the sizzling sound we were looking for. But as the Phillips only has two settings (all the way on, or warm) the idea was to flip the steak as much as we could to achieve a nice sear as well as a medium cooked steak.

After the first flip things looked excellent, nice sear marks, the second time we turned the steak over we weren’t as impressed; likely due to the fact that the rods had cooled a bit as compared to when we first dropped the steak on. It’s worth noting, the nonstick rods allowed for the meat be flipped without losing its crusted marks.

All in all, we ended up with a steak that looked the part of grilled meat.

As for its “smokeless” performance, it didn’t seem to produce a great deal of smoke (as shown in the pictures) but still set off our test smoke alarm mounted on the vaulted ceiling directly above the grill.

All the grills produced some level of smoke (see more on this at the end of the article).

Cleaning

Since the Phillips is designed to provide more of a “true” grill, you’ll note the one downside: it’s not easy to clean the inner reflective shields. The grate rods clean just fine with some water and a wipe down, but since the inside of the grill ends up with fat drippings on the side panels where the lights are it leaves a trace of burn marks from the drippings which are hard to get off. However, we feel this is a small price to pay for grilling in your kitchen.

Final Take

All in all, we were happy with the overall performance of the Phillips, delivering (more or less) as advertised. The Phillips grill from the Avance collection is the best performer on our list for someone seeking food that looks like it was grilled outdoors. And at its price-point, you can’t beat it.

The Weber Q 2400 is a high-end indoor grill, like the Philips Infrared. It’s got a 1560-watt heating element and a 280 sq. in. grilling area, which lets you easily fit 6-8 large chicken breasts. The cast-iron grates are coated in a non-stick porcelain that is easy to clean, and pair that with the 500F max temperature and cool aluminum liner that Weber built in that retains heat and radiates it evenly.The cast iron grates lend some nice browning. One complaint is that it can take forever to preheat up to 20 minutes. The controls are also difficult to use when the grill is hot, as they sit uncomfortably close to the hot cast aluminum body. But for a solid electric grill that cooks chicken well without creating any smoke, the Weber Q 2400 is another great choice.

The Livart has an open-face design and grate, designed for Yakitori-style cooking and kebabs but that works well for regular grilling, too. It gives you some extra freedom for handling food in small areas and is even height-adjustable. It also heats up quickly, with 1450 watts of heating power behind it.

Since there is no lid for the grill, however, it can take a bit longer to cook food all the way through, without the lid reflecting heat. And the cooking area is very small – roughly 70 square inches – and can’t fit more than a couple of chicken breasts simultaneously.

This unit, sits closely behind our top pick, the Phillips, for a “true” grilled experience. For cooking some chicken or beef skewers and kebabs, it works fine. You won’t get perfect sear marks, or do any cooking for large groups, but it’s an okay choice for cooking on your countertop without creating tons of smoke. The main knock is the limited cooking surface which makes less than ideal for cooking up two meaty steaks at once.

But, all in all, it’s cheap and it works.

This Hamilton Beach Grill is a step-up from the Gotham Steel electric grill while price similarly. It has 118 sq. in of cooking area, which Hamilton Beach says is enough to fit “8 servings”; it’s more likely to fit about 6 burgers, 2-3 steaks, and maybe 4-6 large chicken breasts.

How does it perform? For such an inexpensive grill, this one delivers, cooking chicken breasts smoothly and evenly without any sticking or burning. It can reach a decent 450F, which is enough to get some browning going on with your chicken and keeps them juicy without creating much smoke. Combine that with the non-stick surface and it performs well for cooking chicken.

The grill plate and drip tray come off and go in the dishwasher. The lid also has this cool viewing window, so you can keep an eye on your chicken as it cooks. It would be nice if the top lid was easier to clean, as it does not go into the dishwasher and is a bit large. Not much else you could ask for in an indoor grill. It’s not as nice as the higher-end grills but costs far less.

This one is more griddle than grill, but we felt it was worth including for that reason. The 100 sq. in. of grill space and additional 100 sq. in. of griddle let it cook almost anything, even pancakes, and eggs, in addition to juicy chicken. There’s even a fancy kickstand to tilt it upwards for collecting bacon grease. Both cooking surfaces come out for cleaning and are dishwasher safe.How well does it grill? Well, it takes a very long time to heat up, but when it does, it’s hot enough to get a decent piece of chicken, with nice grills marks and a decent amount of juice – browning the meat without creating a lot of smoke. And the non-stick surface flips chicken easily without tearing it.

It’s not anything to write home about, but its affordability and versatility earn a spot on our list.

The Power Smokeless Grill has something very unique; a fan that captures smoke, making it perhaps the most smoke-free indoor option. Couple that with some excellent cooking and grilling capabilities, and this is one sweet grilling machine with a mid-range price tag.The non-stick ceramic grate fits about 4 or 5 large chicken breasts at once and heats up to 450F – perfect for searing both chicken and steak. And it can be easily controlled it via the cool LED temperature dial and requires almost no pre-heat time. Our biggest complaint is the lack of cooking surface. At only 110 sq. in, there’s only room for about 3-4 steaks or large chicken breasts.

But Again, the real draw here – besides the excellent grilling performance is the built-in turbofan, which captures what little smoke is created and “extracts it.” There’s even a tempered glass lid to help keep smoke contained.So if want as little smoke as possible, don’t want to compromise your grilled chicken, this is the grill you need.

This Delonghi Indoor Grill stands out mainly for a large grill area of 260 square inches one of the largest on our list–that is coupled with a comfy price tag, giving you a spacious indoor grilling experience on a budget. It doesn’t get as hot as others, like the Power Grill, but does have five heat settings to choose from. It also does not heat consistently and can result in some uneven cooking.It can also be hard to clean, with the non-stick coating flaking off when scrubbing or washed frequently.But, for the price, you can get some decent grilled chicken; the glass lid helps trap juices for a juicy piece of meat, and the grill surface lends itself to decent browning – despite the flaky non-stick coating and uneven heating. If it heated more consistently, the Perfecto would be perfect for its price. As it is, it’s a decent choice for plenty of grill space on a budget.

Everybody knows the George Foreman appliance line. This model is an inexpensive, compact grill ideal for everyday kitchen use. The George Foreman signature sloped design helps fat to drip away and collects it, resulting in much less smoke than a conventional grill. This may sacrifice a bit of juicy flavor but makes it possible to grill indoors in tight spaces.The 240 sq. in. of cooking surface fits a bunch of chicken breasts, several steaks, or even a whole chicken or two – so you can cook for more than two. The unit can be used on a tabletop or counter, as well as on the stand outside. The stand is kind of wobbly and doesn’t feel secure, but you likely won’t be using that indoors.

It’s also very slow to heat up and doesn’t get very hot; it needs to be maxed out to get any kind of searing temperature. This makes it poor for steak, but it still makes a decent piece of chicken. It’s not as hot as other units in our roundup, but with patience, you can get some decent browning and grill marks. If you’d like a George Foreman grill without spending a lot of money, this one will do.

The Gotham Steel 1619 is another affordable smokeless electric grill, with 120 sq. in. of grilling space and a sweet non-stick surface made from a Titanium-Ceramic combo – essential to grilling chicken. It also has a removable drip tray that blocks grease from getting onto the heating element and burning, which prevents it from making much smoke.Unfortunately, that’s about the best part of this grill. It’s small, easy-to-clean and doesn’t stick well, and doesn’t create much smoke, but isn’t very good at cooking chicken. It’s not hot enough to create a good sear or browning, and the heating surface is very inconsistent, cooking foods very unevenly.

If you’d just like an inexpensive electric grill that won’t create smoke, and don’t need a lot of grill space, it might do the trick – but there are better options out there.

Rounding out our Top 10 is another George Foreman Grill. This one’s a bit more expensive but packs a decent 200 square inches of grill space and a variable temperature control, in addition to the signature slant for collecting grease and fat.How does it cook? The non-stick grill surface gives decent grill marks, but the grill itself doesn’t heat evenly. It’s also wobbly on its stand, though if you’re using it indoors, you don’t really care about the stand.

An okay choice for an indoor grill with large grill area, but you can spend less for a better cooking experience even with the DeLonghi Perfecto or Hamilton Beach Smokeless Grill.