Meadow Creek BBQ26S Review

As a Meadow Creek reseller, we’ve been grilling with the BBQ26S Chicken Cooker for years. Last month I got one of these for my own backyard as a birthday gift, so I thought I’d show you how Meadow Creek is changing backyard grilling with their chicken cookers.

Meadow Creek originally designed their Chicken Cookers for grilling large amounts of bone-in skin-on chicken pieces. The deep pits are part of the secret in grilling bone-in chicken; you still have a direct fire, but not as direct as a regular gas or park grill. (Have you ever tried grilling bone-in chicken on one of those?)

The trailer units with three or more pits make it easy to crank out huge amounts of grilled chicken. Instead of wiring two big grates together and having a couple of big men flipping them by hand, these grills have a rotating sandwich grate. The grates hinge along one side and lock on the other. Now even a 12-year-old can flip your chicken!

Meadow Creek BBQ26S Chicken Cooker

Rotating Sandwich Grate

Meadow Creek has a couple of backyard models, including the BBQ42 and the BBQ26S. The BBQ26S has 2.67 square feet of cooking area. It holds 9 chicken halves, 15 pounds of chicken pieces, 24 burgers, or 2 racks of spare ribs. With one batch, it can feed a small backyard gathering. If you’re feeding a small family, fill up the rack and use the leftovers for several handy meals in the coming week.

The 26S has a lid, which is a big help in controlling the fire and penetrating the meat with smoke flavor. It is easy to grill perfectly done chicken wings, quarters, thighs, and legs. The chicken will be fully cooked against the bone before the outside dries out. You can control the color of the skin by cooking with the lid open or closed and adjusting the vents. Flipping the entire rack of meat is effortless; in fact, you’ll find yourself flipping food just for the fun of it.

Lid

Charcoal Pan

This grill works for steaks too, or any other items where you want your meat close to the fire. Simply move the charcoal pan up and set it on the brackets made for this. In this configuration, you won’t be able to rotate the grate, so you just hook the top grate to the lid and cook with the lid open. You could also purchase a flat grate, which replaces the sandwich grate.

All Meadow Creek cooking grates are made with food grade stainless steel. The handles on the body and lid are stainless steel, covered with a spring to keep them cool. There is a charcoal pan in the bottom where you build the fire. This pan makes it easy to clean out the ashes and lets you move the fire closer to the grate when you’re cooking steaks. The sturdy legs and casters make it easy to move around on your patio.

A couple of upgrades to consider are the griddle and the vinyl cover. The griddle is made of thick metal and gives you lots of room for pancakes, bacon, hash browns, or anything you want to fry. The vinyl cover is Amish-made and thicker than what you’d expect from a grill cover at Lowe’s. It will help protect your grill from dirt and moisture.

Cover

As I mentioned at the beginning of this review, I just got a BBQ26S for my own personal use. I broke it in with some sausage links and chicken thighs and legs. Everything was perfect, except that the chicken skin was not as dark and crispy as it should have been. Marlin, my brother and partner in business, usually manages the fire when we’re grilling on one of these, so I had to learn how to operate the vents. I should have opened the vents all the way during the cook instead of about halfway. Also the wind was working against me and I had the lid shut most of the time, which didn’t help crisp the skin. Otherwise, it was easy and stress free. I loved the experience, and the food was delicious.

Spraying the Inside With Cooking Oil

Loaded With Charcoal

Charcoal Lit

Chicken and Sausage

Charcoal Ready to Spread Out

Grate Loaded

Rotating, Locking Grate

Cooking

Sausage

Grilled Chicken!

Ready to Eat!

I hope you enjoyed smelling all this, and I look forward to sharing more of my cooking adventures on the 26S soon.

Have fun!

Lavern Gingerich

PS. Learn more about the BBQ26S Chicken Cooker.