We have a Breville sandwich press that I used heaps, but never used the grill plates on (it sits flat, so grease does not drain away).
Now the kids have left home, we got a George Foreman (removable plates). It says it cooks for 5, but I think it would struggle with 3 of our home made 6oz burgers. Otherwise it is great - sausages, steaks, chicken, fish, prawns, mushrooms, bacon. The only thing is that my wife likes her bacon really crispy, and the Foreman takes a bit too long to get it there.
I’d be tempted to try a panini in it, but probably would go back to the sandwich press for that.
Ok, but whenever I use mine for hamburgers, it becomes difficult to clean because not all the grease drips into the collector. A lot of drippings stay on the grill plates and require manual scrubbing to remove. It just feels like pan cooking would be easier.
+3 for the Griddler. Looks like the price has come down on them quite a bit since I bought mine, and mine was worth every penny. It has a lot of grill “real estate” which allows you to cook a lot more items at a time. Also, with the way the hinges are designed, you can cook things of various sizes while keeping the grills parallel.
I don’t like the Foreman brand grill. I’ve had several (the first didn’t have removable plates, so I quickly learned the value of those). This latest Foreman doesn’t have a temperature setting or on/off switch. Plug it in to turn it on, unplug it to turn it off. It might’ve been $70-80.
In addition to the temp/on/off shortcomings, it doesn’t cook evenly.
I’ve also had a Food Network grill. It was better than the Foreman, but the non-stick surface came off too quickly (within a year).
Do you clean it while it is still hot? I unplug it and do a quick scrub right after using cold water to cool it down while I scrub. I then eat what I made and go back and finish the cleaning job after. If it’s hot the stuff comes off much easier.
Also I use the little black tool that came with it to push down the hamburger drippings-- a little flat device used to flip stuff which also looks somewhat like a fork to push stuff down into the collector.
Note however I have an old model from 2009 that doesn’t have plates or anything. I just put it over the edge of the sink and let the water drain there as I clean.
Either you’re doing it wrong or I am. I put chicken breast on for 5 minutes at about 350-375 (sometimes higher) then flip it for about 2 more minutes. Sometimes I leave it on a bit longer if I’m doing something else. Always enough juice that it’s running all over my plate and getting into other things. I do usually marinate my chicken in something all day (just a bottled marinade from the grocery store) if that makes a difference.
I use this one. Removable plates, timer and a temp setting.
Mine doesn’t have removable plates, so I usually saturate a couple of paper towels with water and close the grill on them while the plates are still hot. It pretty much steams the gunk off.
The adjustable hinge angle- really seems key to me. Up there with variable temp and removable plates.
If I want to explore the glories of pannini and crustini ( and lawdy do we. There’s a place nearby that sets the bar so freakin’ high on both of those that we want to explore making our own ), I need to know I can adjust the hinge and plate distance so I can apply even pressure and heat for thicker endeavors.
We also have an early model. No removable grills and not even an on/off switch! Plug it in, it’s on. Unplug it (and only when the light is off per the instructions or risk sparking the plug at the receptacle and tripping the circuit breaker) to turn it off.
We no longer use it. Even after reducing the cooking times, the meat was too dried out, and it was difficult to clean. Instead, we bought a cast iron grill that sits on our stove-top (a glass stove-top at that) covering two burners. Yes, it’s more hands-on cooking but more than worth it. Of course, we only do that when we’re too lazy to use the outdoor charcoal grill.
If you’re cooking something that will be really hard to clean up, use aluminum foil. Tear off a big sheet and fold it in half, put that inside the grill. (Make sure the foil doesn’t cover the drain.)
My favorite thing to make on mine is bacon wrapped shrimp. I cut the bacon in thirds, wrap, and put on the grill seam side down.
So glad I’m not the only one. I wouldn’t call it hard to clean, but definitely not easy either. I pretended to want it when my ex and I were dividing things up so he’d feel like he won but I was happy to have it gone. For everything I used to use it for I now use a cast iron grill pan (rectangular with a handle that folds in. I love my grill pan!) and am perfectly content.
We got the simple version (on/off thats it) years ago. I got pretty good at using it. And the recipes in the book were actually pretty good. I don’t think it will change your life but if you go into it with an open mind and reasonable expectations I think you won’t be dissappointed. And I say this as a person that when we got it thought “oh gawd, not that infomercial piece of shit”. Kudos for Forman, who appears to have chosen to not endorsed a product until he was satisfied it was actually not a piece of crap at least.
Foremans are exceedingly easy to use and handy, but they’re one of those things I avoid because they’re never quite the right tool for the job. They don’t replace a skillet or a nonstick pan and certainly don’t replace an actual grill.
A cast iron grill pan is cheaper and better if you just want to add grill marks to stuff.
I use mine constantly. One thing I like to do is grill chicken, and then grill up a bunch of sliced vegetables: zucchini, summer squash, mushrooms, onions. They cook very fast and get nice lines on them. I do marinate in a little olive oil beforehand.
Fish grills great on the George also. Sometimes you’ll get a fishy smell next time you use it, but it doesn’t seem to affect the taste of whatever food you cook next. Salmon is great grilled.
I also use it frequently for turkey burgers, beef or pork tenderloin (sliced lengthwise), chicken breasts and pork chops.
