Rotisserie chicken is one of the best ways to cook a whole chicken. We love the way that the rotisserie grill makes a healthy meal that has super crispy skin and juicy meat. Almost every grocery store offers a pre-roasted, ready-to-eat chicken, so it's easy to buy one. The popularity of attachments for gas and charcoal grills has made it easy to cook one at home with your existing grill. So the question is: why buy a stand-alone rotisserie grill? These ovens are especially popular around the holiday season: they make it easy to put a whole bird on the table while keeping your oven free to cook other things. Even outside the holidays, a rotisserie can cook more than just chicken. They make delicious (and healthy) roasted vegetables and meat kabobs.
We took a look at four different rotisseries in a variety of price points (including one of those grill attachments we talked about). We measured and ranked each rotisserie on Capacity, Function Versatility, Features & Accessories, Time & Temperature Control, and Cleanup. Once we had all the scores, we rated each grill by its Overall Score to help you decide which grill is best for you.
Take a look at our summary review of each rotisserie grill below. If you want more information on each rotisserie’s full performance, click on the Read Our Full Review button.
Overall Rotisserie Review Scores
Brand | Capacity | Function Versatility | Features & Accessories | Timer & Temperature Control | Cleanup | Overall Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cuisinart | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
Cave Tools | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 4.5 |
Ronco | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 4.5 |
Weber | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 |
Cuisinart Vertical Rotisserie With Touchpad
This Cuisinart oven rotisserie isn’t the cheapest on the market by a long way, the price at the time of writing was over $400! It is quite a large unit, so make sure you measure the space marked out for it before you purchase.
Overall, this Cuisinart vertical rotisserie is an excellent product, full of features, has a large capacity, will look good in most kitchens, and is easy to use. When it comes to the cost and value for money, that depends very much on your budget and how much you think you’ll use it.
This Product Is Ranked as the #1 Pitmaster’s Choice In The Rotisserie CategoryCave Tools Vertical Charcoal Rotisserie Grill
This charcoal rotisserie BBQ is designed to be fully portable, so can be used for tailgating, camping, etc. It uses charcoal of course, and there’s a battery powered rotisserie motor available, giving true portability. The well designed flip-out legs give it a nice stable feel.
Overall, this Cave Tools charcoal rotisserie grill packs a big, concentrated punch of barbecuing power. It’s fully portable, flexible, and loses nothing at all because of it’s compact size. And if it isn’t large enough for you, just get two!
Showtime Ronco Rotisserie
If you’re one of those people who likes BBQ flavor but doesn’t want to go through all the BBQing process and clean up, this Ronco rotisserie oven might be the gadget you’re looking for. It’s a counter top unit, mains powered and surprisingly compact. The rotisserie rods can be removed from the unit, so loading it up with food is simple. You can cook a wide variety of food with it, anything you can BBQ. It will take, according to the manufacturer, a 15lb turkey, or a 10lb ham if you prefer. You can do smaller items of course, like sausages, burgers, fish, etc.
So, does the food cooked in this set it and forget it rotisserie taste as good as BBQ grilled food? Of course not. But it does taste better than oven cooked food, and the rotisserie action means the food isn’t cooking in its own fat, which is healthier as well as better tasting.
Weber Charcoal Kettle Rotisserie
You might wonder where all your money has gone when you get this charcoal kettle rotisserie, there really isn’t a lot to it. It is heavier than I expected, at around 7lbs, and the electric motor is sturdy enough. If you’ve seen the older model rotisseries, you might be wondering where the counterbalance is. This version of the Weber charcoal rotisserie doesn’t need one because of it’s improved design, at least according to the manufacturer. Although this grilling rotisserie is designed to fit on Weber kettles, it should fit on any similar 22” or 22.5” kettle style BBQ.
The Weber BBQ rotisserie obviously needs a power outlet nearby, so it’s not truly portable. And of course it takes up the whole grilling area, so you can’t really cook anything else while this is going. But once you’ve used it you’ll wonder why you didn’t buy one years ago.
