The 5 best grilling thermometers, shared by food experts
A grilling thermometer can help you cook your meat precisely to avoid foodborne illnesses or overcooking juicy cuts.
Not only is this what Hugh Mangum — Mighty Quinn’s BBQ co-founder and pitmaster — uses at work, but it’s also what he has at home and gifts to friends who like to cook. “It’s the most user-friendly, reliable, simple to use, easy to read and bomb-proof thermometer I have ever found, bar none,” Mangum said. “At $35, it may seem steeper than what you can pick up at the grocery store, but I can assure you that it is money well spent, as this will be the last thermometer you ever buy and it’ll save you money in the long run due to the food you won’t overcook.”
“This unit does everything except light your grill. It even comes with a fan that attaches to your ceramic grill and controls the air flow to give you what all cooks crave the most in their cooking: consistency,” said Dave Anderson, founder of Famous Dave's. “This unit can connect to your smartphone in case you are smoking up a larger hunk of meat and you need to quickly run to the grocery store. Here’s the biggest crazy feature: It even connects to Alexa.”
ThermoPro’s smart thermometer boasts a 4.6-average rating from more than 22,400 reviewers on Amazon. It includes preset temperature guides for nine different meats (noting their USDA-recommended level of doneness). “A Wi-Fi dual-probe thermometer lets you monitor the meat and grill temps from your phone instead of having to constantly open the grill,” noted Angela Davis, a recipe developer at The Kitchenista Diaries.
Although this thermometer comes at a higher price point, it’s the best you can get, according to Phan. “In fact, this one is considered the gold standard on the market. The unit is solid — everything from the feel to the material and its performance,” he said. “It’s also very accurate, with a temperature range from -58 degrees F to 572 degrees F and it’s waterproof with a sturdy hard plastic so you don’t have to worry about water or dropping it.”
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