The Handbook for Choosing Your Meadow Creek Smoker or Grill
This full-color guide is packed with charts, photos, and articles to help you determine if Meadow Creek is a good fit for you and choose the model that fits your presentation, cooking style, menu, and crowd size goals.
Some of the chicken cookers have brackets to raise the charcoal pan for grilling those meats that require more heat. The flat grate is made to use when the pan is raised. It rests on the pit without flipping. When you raise the pan, you can no longer flip the standard sandwich grate. Plus these meats are usually too thin to use with the flipping grates anyhow. On the BBQ26S and BBQ42, you can get by without a flat grate because you can hook the top part of the sandwich grate on the open lid, but even then, the flat grate is a little handier and you can close the lid when you're cooking to capture some smoke.
Thermometer
You can add a thermometer to a chicken cooker lid to monitor the temp in the grill. The only time this would be useful is when you have the lid closed. We've never needed one of these when cooking chicken, but I can see it might be helpful if you really are determined to know the temp in the grill.
BBQ42 Options
Insulated
Insulation in the BBQ42 makes a lot of sense if you can afford the up-front cost. Insulation adds a sealed double wall to the firebox. The lid won't be insulated.
With insulation, you should be able to cook three rounds of chicken with one load of charcoal, instead of one round. This means serious charcoal savings if you use it a lot.
Plus your paint won't overheat and peel off, so it will take less repainting and maintenance. I don't want to make it sound like the paint job on these is junk. They use high heat paint from Sherwin-Williams, but you have to realize these pits endure a lot of heat.
Charcoal Pullout
The pullout is a drawer in the bottom of the pit. You can pull it out to add more charcoal or clean out the ashes. If you'll be grilling all day long, this option would be very useful, but normally, it works just as good with a standard charcoal pan insert. You can add charcoal between batches and lift the pan out the top to remove the ashes.
BBQ26S Options
Hitch-N-Grill Bracket
A cool little gadget for mounting the grill to the hitch of your truck or SUV. If doesn't work well in a van loaded for a one-week vacation, or any vehicle with a low hitch.
Trailers Only
Slideout Grates
To load/unload the grates, you would normally need a person to lift the grate on each side and walk it to the end of the trailer. You can't do this if you're trailer has a roof on it. The slideout grates option puts the grate on a track that slides over the side of the trailer. It was invented so you could remove the grates from one side.
Additional Pits
Pretty simple. Need more cooking space? We can add as many pits to your trailer as you want.
Lids
Without lids, it takes a lot of flipping if you're fire gets frisky. The lids really help control your fire and make it less stressful to grill perfect chicken. Also a great option if you are required to cook meat covered. The lids option includes a double partition between the pits to make room for the lids. We can make them removable. (Sorry, the double wall partition is missing in the picture at right.)