The best griddle plates for gas grills

The case for an insert instead of an appliance

If you own a gas grill, you already own the burners, the frame, the gas supply and the footprint. The only thing missing from a flat top is a flat top. A steel plate supplies it for a fraction of the cost of a dedicated griddle, and it occupies no additional patio space because it lives inside something you already have.

For a large share of the people searching for a griddle, this is the correct answer and nobody tells them. The outdoor cooking industry sells appliances; a plate is not an appliance.

Thickness is the specification that matters

A griddle plate has no burners of its own, so BTU and heat density do not apply. What applies is thermal mass — how much heat the plate holds, and therefore how far its surface temperature drops when cold food lands on it.

That is a function of thickness, and the plates available here are genuinely thick:

• Steelmade outdoor plate — 3/16 inch
• Steelmade PRO Junior — 5/16 inch
• Steelmade PRO Original — 3/8 inch

For comparison, a Blackstone 28’s cooktop is 10-gauge rolled steel and a Pit Boss Deluxe’s is 4.7 mm. A 3/8-inch plate is thicker than either. The maker states its standard plate is 50% thicker than most dedicated griddles, which is consistent with that comparison.

What you actually give up

• The grill, while the plate is on it. Swapping takes a couple of minutes and somewhere to put a hot, heavy steel plate.
• Burner layout designed for a solid surface. Your grill’s burners were spaced for grates with gas flowing between them. Under a solid plate, hot spots follow that layout more strongly than on a purpose-built griddle. Mapping them matters more here.
• Purpose-built grease management. A dedicated griddle has a drain and a cup; a plate has drain holes and you supply the catch. Steelmade’s outdoor plate uses half-inch drain holes along the front edge, which at least puts the grease where you can reach it — unlike rear-drain griddles.
• Weight. The PRO Original is around 62 lb. That is a serious lift, and on a range top it is a load you should confirm your range can take.

Outdoor plate or range plate

Two different products. The outdoor plate sits in a gas grill. The PRO Series plates sit across a 30-inch kitchen range — the Original fits gas or electric coil, the Junior is gas-only and eleven pounds lighter.

A range plate is the most capable indoor flat top there is, because it inherits your cooktop’s full output rather than being capped at an outlet’s 1500 watts. The real constraint indoors becomes ventilation, not power — covered in full here.

Seasoning a plate is the same job

These are bare steel. They need seasoning before first use and a thin oil coat after every cook, exactly like a Blackstone top. The first-time seasoning process applies unchanged. The one difference is storage: a plate often lives indoors or in a garage between uses, which is better for it than a patio but means it is easy to put away damp.