Blackstone 28" Griddle AirFryer Combo review: bringing versatile diner-style cooking to your patio

When it comes to outdoor cooking versatility, absolutely nothing competes with a flat-top griddle. This classic diner-style cooking system can cook up anything you throw on it, whether it’s searing a steak or a piece of fish, making smash burgers or whipping up a full breakfast of bacon, fried eggs, hash browns and pancakes. In fact the list of possibilities is endless. And perhaps best of all, you can do all this without smoking out the kitchen.

Given that Blackstone is one of the world’s most popular manufacturers of outdoor griddles, we thought we’d call in one of its latest 28-inch beasts – the Blackstone 28" Griddle AirFryer Combo – and give it the full lowdown to see if it deserves a spot in T3’s guides to the best barbecues and the best gas barbecues.

So, taking a leaf from both the American and Spanish books of outdoor cooking, let’s see how well the Blackstone performs and find out whether it’s the best type of outdoor cooking system for you.

The pros and cons of a griddle

The modern flat top griddle, like the gas-powered Blackstone, began taking shape in the 19th century, particularly with the rise of diners and commercial kitchens in the USA. While spacious and outrageously versatile, the humble griddle comes with both benefits and drawbacks.

Pros

Most modern gas griddles offer a large, flat cooking surface that's perfect for feeding a family or hosting a crowd. Griddles are seriously versatile and can handle literally anything you throw on them, including most liquid ingredients and small tricky items like prawns, fish and halloumi. In fact, the list of suitable ingredients is nigh on endless.

Fancy a big breakfast of fried eggs, pancakes, hash browns and sausages? Tick. Want to indulge in the latest craze for smash burgers with some fried onions on a lightly toasted brioche bun? Tick. How about a Thai-style stir-fry, a Mexican fajita or a simple cheese toastie? Tick those too. As for seared steak and fish… few cooking methods are as successful at creating the Maillard reaction where the surface of the steak or fish caramelises to produce a deeply browned or blackened appearance and off-the-scale steakhouse flavour.

Cons

While griddles offer amazing versatility and smooth, predictable heat control, there are a few downsides that might put you off, namely a lack of true charcoal-fuelled BBQ flavour, overly greasy food, a need for regular griddle plate seasoning and the slightly messy task of cleaning.

Let’s start with flavour. Since griddled food is cooked on a sealed steel plate and not a grill grate over a bed of hot coals where the juices and fats from the food drip down and catch fire resulting in flavoursome smoke, griddle-cooked food won’t impart the same level of smokey outdoor flavour since all the fats and juices remain on the cooking plate. There’s a good argument that the griddle method keeps food moist but the counterpart to this is that some foods like meats with higher fat content can be generally more greasy and not especially healthy.

One of the first things you need to do when you first unpack your griddle is to season it by rubbing vegetable oil over the entire cooking plate while it's piping hot. This process seals the griddle plate with a burnt-on coating that will inevitably turn the whole plate black. While the griddle plate is still hot, you will also need to scrape any food and grease towards the rear-mounted grease catcher and, if you can be bothered, spritz some water onto the plate before wiping it down and giving it another oil. This may seem like a palaver but once the plate is seasoned, the cleaning-up process is relatively straightforward.

Blackstone 28" Griddle AirFryer Combo review: price and availability

Although Blackstone griddles are available from many mainstream UK stores like Argos, Robert Dyas and B&Q, this particular model may be harder to track down so your best bet at this point is BBQ World (£669), ProSmoke (£679.99) and Stoves Are Us (£829.99).

If you live in the US, you have the opportunity to go bigger with a 36-inch model because, well, everything is bigger in the USA. Try Blackstone direct where the 36" Griddle Airfryer Combo Bundle is selling for $1,398.

Blackstone 28" Griddle AirFryer Combo review: design and features

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It's imperative that you season the plate before your first cook

Handy magnetic tool holder

This is where all the grease goes

The Blackstone 28" Griddle AirFryer Combo comes in a large box but most of it is thankfully pre-assembled so all you need to do is spend about an hour to fit the legs, their four smooth-running and lockable castor wheels, the bottom tray, the lid and two foldable side shelves. Oh, and you don’t get a hose or gas regulator with this model so make sure you order one at the same time or pop down to your nearest B&Q.

Once you’ve manhandled the heavy duty cold rolled steel griddle plate into position above the two gas burners (it simply rests on top using four short guide legs), your first task is to fire it up using both burners and wait until the plate is sizzling hot so you can season it using vegetable oil and a piece of paper towel or dishcloth. I would advise using a pair of tongs for this process because the plate will be hot with a capital H. As the oil burns off it creates a seal across the plate and you can see it working because the plate turns black. Fear not if the entire plate fails to turn black when seasoning because the more you cook on it the darker the rest of the plate will go.

This model comes with a huge, heavy-gauge steel griddle plate that measures 73cm in width and 46cm in depth. That’s enough meal estate for about 72 sausages, a massive full English breakfast or 9 wide smash burgers with plenty of space on the other side for frying onions and toasting some brioche buns. The cutaway at the rear is where you scrape all the detritus and fats into the grease catcher that hangs off the rear, greasy spoon café-style.

Meanwhile, the huge lid not only protects the griddle itself from inclement weather, it also helps speed up the heating process and keeps the griddle plate at optimum temperature while you’re prepping food. Nevertheless, I would recommend investing in a cover for the whole unit because steel griddle plates can easily rust if not kept seasoned.

Unusually, this particular model also ships with a single air fryer and a warming drawer. Now I know what you’re thinking, and I thought that too. Why would you need an air fryer built into an outdoor cooking tool when the kitchen and all its cooking tools are just a stone’s throw away? I’m still not convinced, although I can see the practicalities of being able to make French fries while you’re griddling and, perhaps more importantly, the wherewithal to make the crispiest and juiciest of chicken legs and drumsticks – both types of ingredients that are not suitable for a griddle because of their shape.

I can also see how a warming drawer could be useful if cooking en masse and you need somewhere to keep the food warm without cooking it further. However, both the warming drawer and the air fryer require an outdoor power supply to function and they draw more power than most portable power stations can handle. I know this because I tried using them with my 1.8kW Anker Solix C1000 and the Anker refused to function.

Both the Blackstone’s air fryer and warming drawer have four litres of capacity each and that’s about the same as a small indoor model. However, I just wish that Blackstone had labelled the two drawers because, a) some people might think this model has two air fryers and b) there’s no telling which side the air fryer’s on. As it happens, it’s on the left. Also, neither of the drawers lock into place with a reassuring click. Instead, they just push in and I’ve noticed that the air dryer drawer occasionally pops out by a few millimetres allowing hot air to escape. Mind, this seems to have no effect on its air-frying ability.

This model is equipped with two gas burners are they both fire up instantaneously using an AA battery-powered igniter. The gas control dials are very well calibrated to provide a wide range of flame heights for individual heat control on either side of the plate. Hence, if cooking smash burgers you could have the onions gently simmering on one side and the other side at full heat for creating a nice crispy finish on the burger patties.

Heading to the ancillaries, the Blackstone comes with two foldable side shelves that provide plenty of space for food and condiments, a floor-level shelf below for crockery and anything else you want to put on it, and a handy magnetic strip for holding the spatulas. Oh, and a special shout-out to Blackstone’s designers for equipping this unit with two sets of skateboard-quality lockable castors that make moving the griddle around a veritable cinch.

Blackstone 28" Griddle AirFryer Combo review: cooking performance

My first test on this griddle was to try some chicken wings in the air fryer section which I performed indoors immediately after assembling it. However, I was so chuffed with the crispy and succulent results that I completely scoffed the lot and forgot to photograph the results.

My second test took place outdoors using a combination of the griddle and the air fryer to cook some smash burgers and frozen French fries. I started off by slowly frying some salted onions in butter and a spritz of oil on the right while the left burner continued at full pelt. I’d say it took about five minutes for the righthand side to reach light frying temperature and a further 10 minutes or so for the left side to become sizzling hot. After the onions showed signs of browning, I moved over to the left and smashed down two burger patties using my handy griddle press.

I then reached for Blackstone’s Professional Griddle Toolkit comprising two spatulas, two squeeze bottles and a griddle scrapper and, after the burgers had been on the griddle for a couple of minutes, used one of the spatulas to carefully turn the burgers. I say carefully because some foods tend to stick to the griddle plate if not pre oiled and you really need to dig in deep to free it. Needless to say, the cooked side of the burger looked crispy and delicious. At this point I smeared the brioche buns face down in some of the juices and placed them on the right with the onions until they’d fried to a light brown texture. While not remotely healthy, the results were exquisite – eat your heart out, Five Guys.

While the burgers were griddling away, I also shoved some frozen Fries into the air fryer and I’ve got to say that the results surprised me. The fries weren’t mismatched in colour and the skins remained wafer thin and crispy, as if I’d done them in a deep fat fryer. Best of all, they weren’t at all greasy so a high-five in this respect.

The next thing I plan to do is take this griddle up to our village hall for our next BBQ day because last year we used my smaller 22-inch Blackstone and it was a resounding success – much more productive than using two standard gas barbecues when cooking for a crowd. With this model we should be able to handle enough food for a small army. And that’s the beauty of a griddle like this – it’s just so easy, so predictable and so amazingly versatile.

Blackstone 28" Griddle AirFryer Combo review: verdict

This griddle and air fryer combo is perfect for a multitude of different ingredients, including crispy wings and fries. With its two powerful burners, spacious flat top and integrated air fryer, it’s built for feeding a crowd with ease. Granted, the jury’s out on whether you’ll ever use the air fryer and you’ll need a power source to run it, but for sheer versatility this griddle’s still a winner.