The Best Grill Accessories Just in Time for Barbecue Season (2025)

While the Mercer Culinary Hell’s Handle fish turner is designed specifically for big fillets of salmon or tilapia, the spatula is incredibly versatile for all sorts of grill-friendly food.

The wide stainless steel top is strong enough to slide underneath and flip thick cuts of meat on the grill with one movement, so you don’t have to stab your steak to flip it over and lose those all-important, flavorful juices.

The flexibility of the steel also makes it easy to maneuver the spatula around more delicate items like fillets or veggie burgers, with a nonslip handle so you don’t drop the goods mid-flip.

A good set of grill tongs is like an extension of your hand, so you feel comfortable adjusting food to make sure it’s perfectly charred. Good doesn’t necessarily mean fancy, though: These stainless steel tongs from Daily Kisn get the job done for less than $10, helping you turn steaks and chicken legs like a pro.

The rubber strips feel solid, so the tongs won’t slip out of your hands as you’re working the grill, and the scalloped ends grip meat nicely. The point is you don’t need fancy tongs—as long as they check all these boxes, any pair will do.

Taking the internal temperature of a steak on a 400-degree grill shouldn’t require you to test your pain threshold. The Lava Tools Javelin Pro Duo gives you a reading in just two seconds, accurate to within a degree, sparing your hand.

This quick-read thermometer is loaded with a few convenient features, too. Using the touch sensor, you can check high and low readings. The display auto-rotates 180 degrees, making it easy to read from virtually any angle, and there’s a backlight you can activate by giving the thermometer a shake. A magnet built into the back lets you conveniently stick it to your grill when it’s not in use.

The Javelin Duo Pro isn’t the cheapest meat thermometer, nor is it the most feature-rich. We think it hits a sweet spot, balancing price and functionality to offer a solid, reliable grilling essential.

While a regular meat thermometer is always a reliable tool, smart tech integration is never a bad thing, and the Chef iQ certainly backs that notion. You can essentially survey the entire cooking process from your phone, taking away the guesswork of grilling and allowing you to monitor your burgers and steaks from a remote-friendly location.

Additionally, simplified cooking presets can help grill masters-in-training to set cooking times for a wide variety of foods, allowing you to fully customize and optimize the grilling experience to your liking. With enhanced cooking accuracy, wifi compatibility, and long-lasting battery life that requires a charge after over 40 hours of use, what's not to love?

This ultra compact option is easy to store and features an ergonomic handle that gives you good leverage to go after the tough gunk. We also love how it molds itself to your grill, allowing for a deeper clean over time. Each scraper is made of Red Oak and Beech hardwoods and is coated in all-natural, non-toxic mineral oil for enhanced durability.

The only issue now is finding the motivation to actually get scraping (which, in reality, you should do every time you use your grill!).

Sauces drip off food as you’re basting them, causing flare-ups that can burn your hands if your basting brush is too short. This foot-long brush keeps your mitts out of harm's way as you slather on the BBQ sauce.

Its thick stainless steel handle gives you something substantial to hold on to as you’re basting those chicken thighs at the back of the grill. And it’s made for high heat: The silicone bristles are heat-resistant up to 480 degrees. The bristles are detachable, too, which makes them easy to clean. You can even throw them in the dishwasher.

For smaller items that don’t fit directly onto your grill grates, like sliced veggies, the Grillaholics heavy-duty grill basket is a worthy alternative. You can infuse that smoky flavor into vegetables, shrimp, or diced meats easily in the basket without fear of pieces falling through the grates, notoriously a pain to clean up.

The grill basket is stainless steel and comes with curved handles so you can place it directly in your grill and take it off without risk of damage or drops. This is especially key for any grillers prone to accidentally feeding the pets as often as the people.

To get the same grill contact treatment for small foods, this Weber grill pan is a great hack. The pan has thin slits across the surface to drain away excess liquids without being large enough for food to fall through.

The pan is also designed for even heat retention across the entire surface, preventing hot spots. The grill pan has raised edges so no food slides off, and the curved handles make for easy transportation. Most importantly, my dad uses this pan for his own barbecues, so it certainly has at least one major seal of approval.

For handling scalding hot food just off the grill or flipping huge cuts while they’re still on the grill, proper protective gloves are a necessity. The Artisan Griller BBQ Grilling Gloves are some of the best you can get for the cost.

The gloves are heat- and flame-resistant, and the 17-inch neoprene sleeves provide adequate protection all the way up your arm, keeping you safe when the grill would normally get too hot to handle.

The interior of the glove is made from soft, jersey cotton, which stays comfortable even as your hands warm up and start to sweat. On the outside, the palms are textured to give you a good grip. That comes in handy when you’re moving heavy, greasy plates of food with gloved hands.

This Cuisinart cast-iron grill press is perfect for getting deep grill marks on burgers, paninis, and other barbecue staples. It weighs 3 pounds, enough to help you easily squash patties flat. Most importantly, it has a wooden handle, so it won’t get too hot.

A cast iron weight is useful in the kitchen year-round, and this press has molded stripes so you can make perfect grill marks, whether you’re cooking on a grill, a flat-top, or a cast-iron pan. And if you're a fan of smash burgers, even better, as this is the best way to get your patties as flat as possible without totally mangling the burger. However, we do suggest using it in conjunction with burger parchment paper, or things can get a little unruly.

If you really want to give your cooking a personal touch, you can fine-tune your flavors by grinding whole spices to make your own dry rub. This small hand grinder from Skeppshult makes it easy to wait until the last minute to grind your spices fresh.

Made from cast iron, it should last for years, even if you leave it outside with the rest of your grilling kit.

If you want to take your burgers to the next level, this burger press from Cuisinart is a helpful guide. It helps you make consistent patties in a number of sizes, including sliders. You can also use a smaller press on a big burger to make “Juicy Lucy” style stuffed burgers.

Whether you’re working with ground beef, chicken, salmon, or black beans, the press is non-stick coated, so the patties won’t break up when you take them out. While you don’t need a press to shape burgers, it’s a helpful way to prep efficiently.

If you’re cooking on a charcoal grill, the Weber Rapidfire chimney starter is a huge time-saver. Lighting all the coals in the compact chimney, rather than piling them up in the grill, makes it easy to get your coals lit in 15 minutes or less, no lighter fluid required.

It’s also safer, thanks to an extended handle and a stainless steel guard to prevent any embers from reaching your hand. Just throw in a couple of starter blocks or some old newspaper with the charcoal and you’ll get those coals glowing in no time.

We’re big fans of the bristle-free helix-shaped metal wires on Grillart’s grill brush. While they don’t scrape off residue quite as well as metal bristles, there’s a much smaller chance of metal wires coming off the brush and ending up in your food. That seems like a good tradeoff to us.

Your grill is easier to clean while the grates are still hot, so we appreciate having an insulated, 18-inch handle that’s ready to deal with the heat. The extended handle also gives you the leverage you need to break loose stubborn bits. The built-in metal scraper on the back of the brush is useful, too, if you need to scrape off some stubborn char.

We like the comfort, coverage and storage of this basic but durable grill apron. It’s made from heavyweight cotton twill, which is more breathable than stiff vinyl, while offering decent protection from small splatters and spills. (Though unlike vinyl, it can get soaked.)

A long adjustable strap makes this apron an option for up to a 50-inch waist, so it will fit just about any body type, and extends all the way down to the knee, providing plenty of protection.

It has four large pockets in front, which are deep enough to hold your tongs, spatula, and other tools. There’s also a handy chest pocket for a smartphone and a loop for a side towel. Grilling can get messy, so an apron is a must if you’re entertaining and want to keep your clothes clean and crisp.

If you often find yourself running back to the kitchen to finish one more bit of prep work throughout the barbecue, this Prodyne cutting board is a great option. The board comes with a deep bottom tray for storing your already-chopped food or scraps. You can even use the tray to marinate meat without fear of spilling.

The cutting board is detachable from the tray for easy access, though each side has an opening so you can slide chopped vegetables directly into the tray below. Similarly to the Weber grill pan we recommend, you can rest easy knowing this board also has my father’s personal stamp of approval.

For pancakes, eggs, and at-home hibachi, this Little Griddle stainless steel griddle is the grill accessory for you. The griddle fits on most grill sizes and provides a smooth, flat surface.

The griddle is designed with underside cross bracing to even out heat distribution across the entire surface, so even for your first pancake of the morning, you can get a nice golden brown color. The griddle also comes with two side handles for easy transfer on and off the grill.

Grillart’s stainless steel Kabob skewers have a solid design: The food slider on the end of each skewer lets you push the food off the kabob so you never have to touch it with your hands.

Most importantly, the tips are angled with a raised dot on the side to keep all your items on the skewer, even if you hold it at a precarious angle.

For built-up grease and grime on your grill grates, the Goo Gone cleaner spray is your best bet for the best price—it’s our best budget pick for grill cleaners. The spray is designed specifically for grills and grates, with a gel-style texture that sticks to the bars instead of dripping off.

Even after you have cleaned your grill with the Goo Gone spray, you don’t have to worry about chemical-scented smoke or potential flare-ups from excess spray. The formula is biodegradable and safe to use on food surfaces.