Best Accessories For Big Green Egg (BGE)

 

There are more than 200 Big Green Egg accessories that can enhance your overall grilling experience. They can be broken down into a number of different categories.

We’ve put together a list of the top cookbooks, cooking surfaces, rotisseries, ash baskets, and temperature controls.

Whether you’re a Big Green Egg enthusiast with years of cooking under your belt, or you’re just getting started and want the best grilling experience possible, there are accessories on this list to suit your needs.

Best Accessories For Big Green Egg

Best Big Green Egg Cookbooks

You may disagree about whether a cookbook counts as an accessory. Sure, it’s not a physical piece of equipment or type of fuel that you can attach to the grill itself.

But a cookbook has a huge number of benefits. Cookbooks formulated specifically for Big Green Egg grills have a good sense of how the grills function and what dishes can be cooked.

A cookbook is a great accessory to pick up if you want to broaden your grilling horizons past the basics. They can be great sources of inspiration and education.

You’ll be trying out new flavor combinations and methods of searing that you’d never considered before! And with each recipe, you learn a little more about the culinary arts.

#1. Hot Coals: A User’s Guide to Mastering Your Kamado Grill

This spectacular cookbook penned by professional chefs Leonard Elenbaas and JeroenHazebroek teaches you everything you need to know about the art of kamado grilling.

Rather than simply listing static recipes, the book actively teaches you thirteen different grilling techniques. That’s right: thirteen!

You’ll learn how to grill different kinds of steak and meat, how to get the perfect sear, and how to bake a savory dinner.

In addition to the thirteen techniques, the book includes thirty unique recipes, an explanation of how the grill functions scientifically, and a guide to flavor infusion.

This book is a great option to pick up if you’re new to the kamado scene, or if you’ve been kamado grilling for a while but want to try something new.

It covers everything you need to know to create your own unique dishes with prowess:

• A walkthrough of 13 different techniques to utilize the grill’s full range of cooking capabilities

• 30 recipes that you can customize or build upon

• Explanation of the scientific processes behind the grill

• Guide to flavoring your food the way you’ve always dreamed of

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#2. Smoke It Like a Pro on the Big Green Egg

This paperback cookbook tells you everything you need to know through the expertise of grilling professional Eric Mitchell.

The book teaches you about searing, frying, curing, grilling, and smoking super flavorful barbecue dishes.

Eric Mitchell has a wide range of barbecue experience. After spending three years as the New England Barbecue Society’s director, he now has an ongoing certification as a judge for the Kansas City Barbecue Society. He’s competed in multiple worldwide barbecue competitions.

Throughout the book, Eric offers his unique recipes and guidance for making perfectly seared dishes.

There’s also expertise offered on the technical aspects of Big Green Egg grills and other ceramic-based cookers.

The lessons help you understand how your food interacts with the grill so you can achieve greater control and precision.

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Best Big Green Egg Cooking Surfaces

#3. BGE EGGspander Flexible Cooking System

Big Green Egg is the leading manufacturer and designer of kamado grills on the market. The company’s quality and style is hard to beat.

But their leading competition, Kamado Joe, has made a few innovative leaps that completely revolutionize the cooking process.

In fact, the Kamado Joe Flexible Cooking System is so popular that BGE followed their lead and created a system of their own, the EGGspander.

By using split levels of racks within the grill, the system lets you cook dishes on both direct heat and indirect heat simultaneously.

If you’re getting some vegetables heated up while your meat is searing, don’t worry!

By putting the meat on the lower rack and the vegetables on the upper rack, you control the type of heat each is being exposed to.

This makes a huge difference for BGE grills. Though BGE grills are at the forefront of ceramic grill craftsmanship, their designs only allow you to cook at one heat setting at a time.

By utilizing the BGE-customized version of Kamado Joe’s innovation, you diversify your options. No more needing to choose between two delicious but differently-executed dishes you want to pair for your dinner. You can make them both!

One potential drawback is that the Eggspander tends to be a bit expensive. If you have the money, it’s definitely worth it.

But if you need to operate within a tighter budget, you can adapt the Kamado Joe Flexible Cooking System for your Big Green Egg.

This option is less expensive overall, and the various individual cooking inserts you can buy are also less expensive.

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#4. BGE Cast Iron Griddle

The Flexible Cooking System is designed with stainless steel cooking surfaces.

While stainless steel conducts heat well and can stand up to more wear-and-tear than your average metal, it’s not capable of handling every technique you may want to throw at it.

For the things a stainless steel surface can’t manage, a classic cast iron griddle can save the day.

BGE makes cast iron griddle sets specifically for their grill models. While cast-iron pans will technically do the job, a BGE griddle is designed to fit easily into the grill and allow greater cooking flexibility.

The best combination is using both a cast iron griddle and cast iron cooking grates, but the griddle should be the first priority.

Here are just some of the things cast iron can do that stainless steel can’t:

• Get the perfect steak sear

• Cook griddle-style eggs and bacon for breakfast

• Cook scallops properly

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#5. Cast Iron Grill Grates

If you want a versatile cooking surface that can maximize your grill’s potential, then the cast iron griddle is the most important option.

But once you’ve secured that, cast iron grates are an accessory that add another level of grilling prowess.

You can use the grates for indirect cooking of steaks, handling burgers, and doing any other grilling that’s handled outside a pan.

Your best combination is both cast iron griddle and grates because then you can use the cooking might of cast iron for both your searing and indirect grilling needs.

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Best Big Green Egg Rotisserie

There have been a few rotisserie models designed for Big Green Egg grills over the years, many of which are designed by different companies looking to maximize their profits from BGE enthusiasts seeking a great cook.

#6. JoeTisserie

Even though there are several options on the market, there’s only one that stands head and shoulders above the competition. It’s called the JoeTisserie.

Though it wasn’t necessarily designed for BGE grills exclusively, many grillers have proven that it works excellently.

When you put the JoeTisserie accessory into the grill, your Big Green Egg suddenly becomes a rotisserie oven.

The design functions by using an electric motor, which is powerful enough to handle a maximum of 40 pounds of poultry or meat.

Unlike many other rotisserie designs on the market, the JoeTisserie utilizes a wedge-shaped ring. This unique engineering creates a tight seal against the grill lid, which in turn allows delicate temperature control and ideal heat retention.

The rod is made out of durable stainless steel and can be easily installed. It comes with forks that allow quick adjusting of your meat.

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Best Big Green Egg Ash Basket

An ash basket is one of the most ideal accessories for your Big Green Egg. With this product, you can lift the used ash and charcoal out of the grill prior to each cook, rather than letting it accumulate slowly over multiple cooks before finally being cleaned.

You may wonder why removing the ash between every cook is beneficial. In addition to making cleanup easier, this practice also increases the flow of air surrounding your charcoal, which can help it to burn more steadily and hotter.

When the charcoal is choked by ash, the air flow isn’t as reliable, which may lead to stifled or uneven heating.

It’s hard to beat the convenience of an ash basket. Just lift it out of the grill, dump your used ash, and you’re good to go. Cleanup is suddenly a million times easier.

The basket has spaces between its rings, so the smaller ash particles can sift through when you shake the basket to empty it.

After the basket is empty, you just load up your charcoal. Every cook starts with your ideal amount of fuel because you don’t have to guesstimate how much used charcoal will burn.

Starting the grill is much easier, and you have a better sense of temperature control.

#7. Kick Ash Basket

The best BGE ash basket is the Kick Ash Basket. While it may be a little more costly than some market competitors, it’s also built to stand up to repeated use, which is essential since you’ll use it with every cook.

There are also Ash Tools available to complement the basket and make sifting easier.

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Best Big Green Egg Temperature Controls

Cooking with a kamado grill takes a mixture of science and art. The techniques aren’t as razor-precise as with more chemical processes like baking.

But the more control you have over your grill’s temperature, the greater precision you can use when you’re cooking a dish.

If you know what temperature you need, it’s a lot better to use tools to hold the grill at that temperature than let it fluctuate and potentially spoil your flavors.

#8. The EGG Genius

The EGG Genius is a remote temperature control system. Most hobbies and fields of interest have been adapted for the modern world, and grilling is no different!

With advancements in WiFi and Bluetooth technology, you can connect the EGG Genius to any electronic device that runs apps. It might be your laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

Gone are the days that you needed to hover by the grill to make sure everything worked properly. You can remotely set and adjust the grill’s temperature, and the Genius will let you know when ideal temperatures have been reached.

Not only can you monitor and manage your cooking temperature from a distance, but the app even shows you graphs of your cooks with updating data about time and temperature.

You can customize your settings to receive notifications about too-high temperatures, too-low temperatures, and finished food.

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Remote Probe Thermometers

While the EGG Genius is specifically designed to be compatible with Big Green Egg grills, it’s not the only remote thermometer on the market.

Some generic remote probe thermometers may be less expensive. These thermometers monitor the ongoing temperature of your meat just like a traditional probe thermometer, but they feed the information to your smartphone app through a Bluetooth or WiFi connection.

Even if you can’t afford an EGG Genius, a remote thermometer is a convenience that’s too good to pass up. With alerts coming to your phone, you’re free to socialize, walk around, and relax.

Other Thermometers

In addition to a remote thermometer that monitors your meat temperature, there are a few other types of thermometers you may want to invest in:

• An instant thermometer that gives feedback on frying oil temperatures right away

• A temperature gun that lets you check the grill cooking surface temperatures

• An extra probe for if you’re cooking multiple dishes on multiple levels

Final Thoughts

Big Green Egg grills are high-quality models that offer a great grilling experience even without accessories.

But if you use the right accessories, you’ll skyrocket to new levels of control, expertise, and convenience.

Cookbooks are great for stretching your creativity and teaching you about the magic behind kamado grills. Cast iron grilling surfaces are the most universal, while a stainless steel split-level design lets you cook multiple dishes at once.

An ash basket is an essential investment if you want super-easy cleanup and consistently even heating. You’ll love using a rotisserie option to make pounds upon pounds of meat at once.

And of course, the best temperature gauges are ones that offer convenience without sacrificing accuracy.