REVIEW – I don’t consider myself a cook as much as I consider myself an eater. I like to eat but to do that I have to cook. The best thing about cooking is the eating part. The worst thing about cooking is the cleanup. For that reason, I’m always looking for shortcuts and ways that can make cooking quicker and easier without sacrificing taste. I’m already a huge fan of the Instant Pot, and now I have another favorite kitchen helper. It’s the Cuisinart GR-5B Series Griddler FIVE tabletop grill and panini press. Let’s get cooking and check it out!

What is it?

The Cuisinart GR-5B Series Griddler FIVE tabletop grill and panini press is a small tabletop 5-in-1 cooking appliance. It’s a contact grill, panini press, full grill, full griddle, and half grill/half griddle.

Specifications

Adjustable temperatures from 175-450 degrees
Weight: 12lbs
Dimensions: 8.75″ x 16.00″ x 13.75″

What’s in the box?

• Cuisinart GR-5B
• Scraper
• Instruction/recipe book

Design and features

The Cuisinart GR-5B is a compact tabletop appliance that has a stainless steel exterior with a large handle on top and a small backlit LCD on the front.

Attached to the back of the unit is the non-replaceable power cord which felt a bit too short to me at 36 inches.

The right side of the unit has a sliding latch on the side of the handle that allows you to open the lid 180 degrees if you want to use the cooker as a griddle.

Without unlocking the handle, the lid opens as you see in the image above. It opens far enough that it will rest in this position without needing to manually hold it open.

Unlocking the handle will allow the lid to swing open and then rest on the handle to create a full cooking surface.

As mentioned, this is a 5-in-1 cooking appliance. You can use it as grill like you see above…

Or you can press the black button on the side which allows you to remove the non-stick cooking plates which are reversible.

Just press the button on either side and lift out the dishwasher safe plates.

Then you can flip one or both over to the flat griddle cooking surface shown above. This will give you the ability to cook different foods on either side like pancakes or fried eggs on the flat side and bacon or sausages on the grilled side that has the ridges that keep the food out of the grease/oils.

If there is any excess grease, oils, or juices, they will run off into the built-in collecting tray that can be removed for cleaning.

Let’s get cooking!

The first step to using the Cuisinart GR-5B Series Griddler FIVE is to plug it in and press the on/off button. When you do this, the LCD will light up and will show the default temperature of 400 degrees. You can use the knob on the right to change the temp from 175-450 degrees in 25-degree increments and switch between grill and griddle modes.  When the mode and temperature are set, the grill will preheat and then beep when it is ready to be used.

The first cooking test I did with the GR-5B was to make some toasted meatloaf sandwiches. I love using leftovers and toasted meatloaf is one of my all-time favorites. I also decided to split some leftover baked potatoes and put them on the grill too.

The GR-5B’s cooking surface is roomy enough for two standard sized sandwiches when using it as a panini press.

With the sandwiches in place, you can close the top. When I say “close”, that doesn’t mean that the lid will lock in place. The lid floats, so it presses the food between the two cooking plates but does not latch shut. The lid is heavy enough to keep everything in place and cooks from both sides so don’t have to manually flip the sandwich mid-way through which in the past usually meant losing some of the meat and other toppings in the process.

Besides the mode and temperature, you can also set a timer to count down or count up to a certain length of time so you won’t overcook your food.

For toasted sandwiches, I just opened the cover after 5 minutes to check to see if the bread was toasted to my liking and adjusted from there. Timing will be dependant on the type of bread and the selected temperature. I will say that at 375 degrees, the sandwiches toasted much quicker than my usual stovetop frying pan method and the meat inside was perfectly heated.

It was definitely love at first bite!

And the clean up was crazy easy too. I just waited for the grill to cool down and then wiped the plates with a paper towel since there wasn’t any residue left on the plates other than a little bit of grease from the butter.

A few days later I grilled up some smoked sausages.

Sausages don’t squish like sandwiches when you cook them with the cover closed, so the cover didn’t want to float too well at first.

Jiggling the handle and opening and closing the cover a couple of times fixed that and the back tilted so it would be flat against the sausages. Now I always look at the grill from the side to make sure the lid is positioned correctly for optimal cooking.

Almost done! Yum, another winner winner not a chicken dinner.

What I like

• Easy to use
• Easy cleanup
• Faster than using a frying pan to grill/fry meat and toast sandwiches

What needs to be improved

• A longer power cord would be nice

Final thoughts

The Cuisinart GR-5B Series Griddler FIVE tabletop grill and panini press has become a regularly used cooking appliance in my home. My favorite use for it is to make toasted sandwiches because it makes them quick and perfectly. I also like to use it grill up chicken breasts, sausages, pork cutlets, etc. I prefer to use the GR-5B with the cover in the closed position because it keeps grease spatters to a minimum which means less clean up for me. And speaking of clean up, popping the plates off and throwing them and the drip tray in the dishwasher is about as easy as it gets. The Cuisinart GR-5B Series Griddler FIVE tabletop grill and panini press gets two thumbs up and a happy tummy from me.

Price: $99.95
Where to buy: Cuisinart.com and Amazon
Source: The sample for this review was provided by Cuisinart.

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: Cooking, Food, Grilling

Cuisinart GR-5B Series Griddler FIVE tabletop grill and panini press review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 1, 2019 at 8:00 am.

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REVIEW – I am a huge fan (no pun intended!) of grilling. I tend to cook that way on any temperate afternoon or evening, if I have the time and ingredients. When the Gadgeteers were offered a chance to try the Tenergy Indoor Electric Grill, I spent several milliseconds before responding with a huge “Me! Me! Me!” I was chosen and it arrived a week or so later and I’ve been forced to grill food on it for several meals. See what lengths the Gadgeteer team will go to for our readers?

Note: Photos may be tapped or clicked for a larger image.

What is it?

The Tenergy Electric Indoor grill is just that: an electric grill that can be used indoors for smokeless grilling of meats, veggies, or kabobs that you’d normally take out to your patio to grill over charcoal or a gas flame. Like an animal.

Specs

• SMOKE-LESS TECHNOLOGY – Creates 80% less smoke than other indoor electric grills. The infrared heat is only directed at the grill rack’s surface and the cooling tray catches grease and oils before they get the chance to become smoke.
• Advanced Infrared Heating Technology – 1660W powerful heating element cooks meats, fish, poultry, and vegetables perfectly. The unique infrared heating technology evenly spreads heat on the grill top. Food is guaranteed to cook uniformly, no cold zones or weak spots.
• GRILL LIKE A PROFESSIONAL – Quickly heats up to an ideal grilling temperature of 446°F within 6 minutes. Enjoy searing meats and vegetables with steakhouse like quality diamond grill marks.
• Easy Clean Non-Stick Surfaces: non-stick grid, dishwasher safe removable parts, makes cleaning easier than ever.

What’s in the box?

• Grill box with captive power cable
• Non-stick Grilling surface
• Stainless steel removable drip pan
• Instruction booklet
• Warranty card

Design and features

The Tenergy indoor grill is a compact 19.5″ (including the grill’s handles) x 13.5″ x 7″. The grill area is 12″ x 8″. This means that you can’t put some larger items on it, and there’s no cover for smoking or holding in the heat to cook around the entire surface of the food. The heat only comes up from below.

The standard 3-prong plug fits most modern US electrical sockets and pulls no more power than a toaster oven or a waffle iron.
Before we get into the use and performance, let me give you an overview of the grill and how it works. First off, they spare no quarter in reminding you that this is an indoor grill, only, not for outdoor use, even on your deck, even under an overhang. Indoors only. OK, got it.

It is smokeless because the drippings from your grilled products do not touch the heat source, which is the usual source of smokey flare-ups. The infrared radiation comes from the two long inner walls, through clear glass panels that protect radiant foil reflectors that focus the heat from the lamps up to the surface of the grill.

Anything that falls through hits the much cooler drip tray and can be washed off easily in your dishwasher. The non-stick grill can also be put in the dishwasher, but in use, I found that it usually needed some soaking and non-abrasive elbow grease to clean, especially if fatty foods were involved.

There is no temperature control. It’s Off, WarmUp, and On – period. This means you’re going to have to monitor your foods more than you may be used to with a covered grill that has an adjustable flame, or a charcoal grill with a variable rack level. I found it also meant I turned some items more, in order to keep from burning.

The smaller size will mean you may have to cook in waves or shifts, rather than tossing on the entire meal. This only became a problem when I was trying to bulk grill food for lunches or larger groups. Normal cooking was fine.
Total run time may also present a problem. You should not run the grill longer than one hour at a time, and then it needs an hour rest.

Setup

Other than washing the pan and grill and wiping down the inner surfaces with a damp cloth to remove manufacturing detritus, there’s no real setup. You do need to place it on a flat, heat-proof surface (We use our glass cooktop because the Lovely Bride will have my head if I mess up her new countertops. Plus, this puts the grill under the range hood, should something start to smoke.)
Read the instruction manual. It’s only 8 large print pages of bullet points, and it’s going to prevent you from doing things that experienced grillers may take for granted. Like grilling frozen foods.

Performance

Our first use was for two fairly lean NY Strip steaks. They were at room temperature and took only 4-6 minutes per side to be perfectly medium rare. Drippage was minimal. Cleanup was a breeze.

The second outing, I got more adventurous. I usually grill about half of a 6.5-pound bag of frozen chicken thighs from Costco for a week of lunches and salads at a time. On my gas grill, they go on the grill frozen and take about 30 minutes from lighting the grill to bringing them inside. With the Tenergy, you cannot grill frozen foods, so I had to thaw them out in the fridge for a day or so. Then, I could only fit 4-6 on the small grill (versus 8-10 on my gas grill). They cooked nicely and turned out much more evenly cooked than on the gas grill, where rendering fat drips down onto the heat plates (the angled metal panels that cover the actual burners), burns, smokes, and flames up. This can sometimes overcook some parts of the food if you aren’t keeping an eye on it, but it also imparts a taste that was missing from my indoor-grilled foods.
My Lovely Bride volunteered for clean-up duty that night and reported that it was a horrendous ordeal to clean out the drip pan, the grilling grate, and the side panels. With the fatty thighs (half of which I had marinated in white wine and spices before cooking), they dripped and spattered in all directions, which made for a huge mess inside the heat box. “If you’d have cooked those outside on the gas grill, I wouldn’t have had to clean up anything!”

What I Like

• Non-stick grilling surface.
• Fast heat-up and use.
• Smokeless cooking really works, if you follow directions.

What needs to be improved

• I find it to be great, for what it is. Nothing to change for me.

Final thoughts

This will not replace a “real” grill if you’re someone who loves to release your inner hunter-gatherer. There will still be a need to fill the grill for a group, cook multiple courses for an afternoon or evening of many items, or to put on a large roast or pig butt. But as Punxsutawney Phil’s lies have become more apparent this February, I’ve enjoyed having a grilled steak in the evening without having to endure the cold, dark drizzle of a 35º “Early Spring” evening on the deck. And I’m sure there will be hot, miserable Dog Days of summer that I’ll want a steak or a grilled burger without the misery of standing outside with the humidity and the bugs. And for these occasions, Tenergy has provided a well-designed tech fix.

It’s not a small unit, but I don’t think it could really be made any smaller and be effective. We keep it in a lower shelf in the hall linen closet, where it’s just a few steps from the kitchen.

Price: $179.00
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided by Tenergy.

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: Cooking, Food, Grilling

Tenergy Indoor Grill review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on February 26, 2019 at 10:00 am.

Note: If you are subscribed to this feed through FeedBurner, please switch to our native feed URL http://the-gadgeteer.com/feed/ in order to ensure continuous delivery.