Testing Out My New George Foreman Grill

My new George Foreman grillThe company that makes George Foreman Grills sent me a new grill recently to check out and instructed me to use it to create and write about some healthy meals for the summer season. If there’s one thing I’m terrible at though it’s making healthy food, so instead I decided to test out just how many uses the grill really has.

I mean, we all know that George Foreman Grills are great for burgers and chicken, but what about things like chocolate chip cookies, bacon and grilled cheese sandwiches? Well, thanks to the few hours I spent experimenting with mine you now have some answers!

Bacon on the George Foreman grillThe first thing I cooked with my new grill once it was out of the box and all nice and warm was some bacon. Think about it for a second, what’s the worst part about cooking bacon? The grease and having to flip it over half way through the process. With the George Foreman Grill’s drip tray and the fact that the top and bottom of the grill heat up you don’t really need to worry about either of those things, which is great.

It was also much faster than cooking bacon in a pan or in the oven. It only took me about eight minutes to cook some nice thick cut bacon, and I like my bacon fairly crispy The only real bummer is that it’s only able to cook four slices of bacon at a time and seeing as how I usually eat far more than that at once it’s not quite ideal for me. For the average bacon loving individual though I’m guessing it would be just fine.

Grilled Cheese on the George Foreman grillNext I decided to try making a grilled cheese sandwich on it. I had pretty high hopes for my sandwich and expected the grill to act as sort of a panini press, but unfortunately the grills top lid was a little too heavy and just sort of flattened it, which caused tons of cheese to spill out the sides.

On the plus side, even though it looked like a total mess when I opened the lid after two minutes none of the cheese actually stuck to the grill plates, which was nice. And, on top of that, once I used a knife to cut off all of the cheese that escaped the sandwich it actually didn’t turn out all that bad. I’m guessing that if I had used a harder cheese or some thicker bread I would have had a much better experience.

Eggs on the George Foreman grillAfter that I decided to fry a couple eggs on the grill. I’m not sure why I thought this would be a good idea, but I really wanted something to go with my bacon I had just made. I mean, it’s pretty obvious that if you crack an egg onto something that’s built on a slant like this grill is they’re just going to slide off, but I thought that maybe, just maybe if the grill was got enough though that they wouldn’t. Amazingly enough one of the eggs actually stayed on the grill and managed to cook pretty evenly. The other? Straight into the drip tray….

The burnt egg on the grill plate was also no where near as easy to clean as the cheese from the grilled cheese sandwich was, but overall the cleanup was still a lot easier than I expected.

Cookies on the George Foreman grillFor my final test I decided to try making some chocolate chip cookies on the grill. Now, there’s nothing wrong with making cookies in the oven, but I figured that since the George Foreman Grill heats on the top and bottom that maybe they would cook even faster. Well, I think it cooked them too fast….

My cookies ended up suffering the same fate as my grilled cheese sandwich in that the grill just completely flattened them. I cooked them for four and a half minutes, which night have been a little much because they ended up a bit overdone, but once I slid them off the grill and let them cool they actually didn’t taste too bad at all.

Since they were so flat though there was really no softness at all to them, so I missed out on the best part of making my own cookies. It’s like they went from freshly baked to tasting like they were about five days old in a matter of minutes. Looks wise they weren’t super appealing either. As far as cookies go, I’ll probably stick to using the oven from now on.

So what did I learn from all of this? Using the George Foreman Grill to make bacon is great, and it could probably substitute for a panini press as well depending on the type of sandwich you were making. When it comes to cookies and eggs though, you’ll probably want to shy away from it.

I also haven’t used a George Foreman grill since college so I was sort of psyched to see that they come with removable plates now, because the thing I always hated about mine back then was cleaning it. It’s way easier to just pop the plates out and run them under some water in your sink. For all I know though this might not even be a new feature but hey, it’s new to me!

If I was still in college I’m sure I’d be using this new grill a ton, but now that I have a house I’m more of a hang out in my back yard and drink beers while grilling kind of guy, so I don’t really anticipate my George Foreman Grill getting a ton of use, Who knows though, if we keep having 45 degree days where it’s drizzling outside even though we’re already three weeks into May I just might end up using it more than I expect!

14 Comments on Testing Out My New George Foreman Grill

  1. Thistle
    May 21, 2014 at 2:27 pm (10 years ago)

    Oh, it’s good to know about the plates. I got rid of mine a long time ago because it was so hard to clean (same with my waffle iron, sadly), but I’d be willing to get another (of either!) with removable plates.

    Reply
    • Shari
      July 10, 2017 at 8:53 pm (7 years ago)

      The price has come way down. Now the removable tray style is only 24$ at Wal-Mart ((7/17)).

      Reply
  2. Jeff Peters
    May 23, 2014 at 7:02 am (10 years ago)

    Love your site Dude. I guess we think a lot the same when it comes to food, cause I did the same thing with eggs and my Foreman. Two comments. You gotta use eggs as extra large as you can find and two, put a 3/4 of an inch hunk o’ stick under the front legs of the Foreman to level ‘er out. No slope, no drainage. You can leave the lid open if you are looking for runny, closed if not or, again, propped with more stick to adjust the lid. Works like a some bitch. Oh yeah, and spray the surfaces with cooking oil to get around the other kind o’ “stick”. Keep up the great work!

    Reply
    • Nick Chipman
      May 23, 2014 at 7:08 am (10 years ago)

      Good call! I’m not sure why I didn’t think of that!

      Reply
    • Kim
      April 10, 2017 at 12:27 pm (7 years ago)

      I don’t know if all George Foreman grills have this or not, but mine has a lever on the right at the back that changes it from the forward slant to level if you don’t want things sliding off! 🙂

      Reply
    • Stevie
      February 5, 2020 at 2:00 pm (4 years ago)

      You can also just flip the dip tray upside down and use that to prop up the grill and make it level. I’ve made some pretty good scrambled eggs this way!

      Reply
  3. Stranger
    May 23, 2014 at 8:02 pm (10 years ago)

    Never tried one of these, but I remember the infomercials running almost round the clock on some channels when I was a kid. Also, did you know Hulk Hogan was originally approached to be the spokesman for these? But he turned it down for some crappy drink mixer instead.

    Reply
  4. Teresa
    May 27, 2014 at 8:44 am (10 years ago)

    Loved how you went your own way when writing this product review. It made this post so much fun to read through!

    My George does not have changeable plates either. One tip to help make grill cleaning a breeze is to wipe it down with a water-soaked sponge or paper towel while it is still hot (after unplugging). Just take care not burn fingers because the sponge/paper heats up during the process.

    Reply
  5. ingrid
    June 1, 2014 at 8:27 pm (10 years ago)

    Hello Nick, I don’t know why the GF grill is so popular. I’m in México and you can see George Foreman grills in every store. I was tempted to buy one but after your review, I think I’m gonna pass because I don’t want to make healthy meals. Byee!

    Reply
    • Dingo
      September 28, 2014 at 1:42 pm (10 years ago)

      HUH???

      Reply
  6. Andrew
    June 11, 2014 at 1:39 am (10 years ago)

    We have had one for years, actually several in various shapes an sizes, if my wife would stay away from the non stick surface with metal tools they would undoubtedly last lots longer. Usually hotdogs burgers an steaks are routine as it is so much better than a frying pan on the hot stove top or kicking off that oven broiler for just the two of us.

    Reply
  7. John
    December 11, 2014 at 12:05 pm (9 years ago)

    I’ve had the original Foreman for a decade plus, until a visitor broke it. Never found out how. Anyways, bought a new one in 2014 and have bought several as gifts (under $20US!)
    When I go to a restaurant and assume some of the grease ends up on the bun, I look at the grease dripping away not going into my gut! Aside, this (the grease) isn’t going all over the stove, floor.

    Clean up hint: put a wet paper towel between top/bottom and let towel soak grease later on. Works great!

    Reply
  8. Jennifer
    July 17, 2019 at 11:55 am (5 years ago)

    Flip the grill upside down to make eggs.

    Reply
  9. Gerald
    May 3, 2021 at 5:51 pm (3 years ago)

    I would love to see a recipe book for this George Foreman grill. So I can use mine more

    Reply

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