Hasty Bake is an American company manufacturing grills and smokers in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and in today’s tariff landscape, that matters now more than ever. Today we’re putting the Hasty Bake 357 Pro charcoal grill to the test to see if it’s the cooker you’ve been waiting for.
Quick Links to the products mentioned in this Hasty Bake 357 Pro Review:
- Save 10% on your Hasty Bake order with code BBQLAB10
- Hasty Bake 357 Pro
- Hasty Bake Legacy 131
- Hasty Bake charcoal
- Hasty Bake Firestarter gel
- Essential Equation
- Feathered Formula
- Pork Protocol
- Thermapen One
- Thermoworks RFX starter kit
- “On Food & Cooking,” by Harold McGee
Here at The Barbecue Lab, we test the gear you’re thinking about buying, to show you how it actually functions in the real world. We bypass all of the brand marketing notes, fire it up, and show you how it is really built and how it functions.
In this article, we’re going to test low & slow cooking with some ribs, reverse sear a ribeye, grill some burgers, bake some chicken quarters hot and fast, and more, but first, let’s take a walk around the 357 Pro to see what we’re working with.
Hasty Bake 357 Pro walk-through
When Hasty Bake asked if we wanted to get hands-on with their 357 Pro, my first question was “How does it differ from the Legacy model 131 that we’ve previously tested on the channel?” For the 357 Pro, there’s no better place to start than the cooking chamber door.
Truly Unique Ergonomic Hood
If Ferrari or Lamborghini made a grill, I’m pretty sure the lid would open like this. It’s unlike any other grill I’ve seen, and I like it. On 99% of the grills on the market, the door has a huge arc when you pull it open, and the handle can be hard to reach since it’s up above the door. Individuals who are vertically challenged will love the way this door works. It’s pretty much a straight lift, and it’s not heavy. It stays in place without inching down while you’re working inside. There are two locking latches, so it will stay down when moving it around or just want to keep the raccoons out at night.
Cooking Grates
There are two grates: the main cooking grid measuring 522 sq. inches (just about 28 by 19 inches) and the upper rack measuring 280 sq. inches (about 27 x 12 inches). That’s a total of 802 square inches of cooking space. The cooking grates are made of 1/4 inch stainless steel rod, and they’re slanted towards the middle so grease runs down this drain rod while you cook. Grease runs into a disposable aluminum pan on the side of the grill.
Water Pan
Under the grates, there is a water pan that rides on the side rails and can be moved to either side of the grill. This pan sits just above the charcoal tray if you want to keep moisture in the grill during a cook.
Charcoal Grate
The internal fire grate holds your charcoal, and it can be cranked up or down depending on how you want to use it. There’s a dial on the front that shows where the charcoal grate is positioned. As low as it can go is smoke, the mid-point is bake and the highest is set to sear. In the smoke setting, you still need to allow for some air to get underneath the coals, so you can’t just jam it down against the ash tray, so keep an eye on that when adjusting.
When searing, if you take the drip channel out, you can get the charcoal directly underneath the grate, and your drippings will go into the charcoal. If you leave the drip channel in, you won’t be able to get as close, but you can still get this grill incredibly hot where it barely makes a difference. I’ll show you that in a few minutes.
Ash Pan
The ash pan pulls all the way out to make cleanup easy. This tray is also where we squirt the Hasty Bake lighter gel to light fires. In a minute I’ll show you how they suggest you light this grill using the lighter gel. Spoiler alert, it’s very effective.
You can pull out the charcoal grate to make it easier to load it up with charcoal, and the ash tray can slide out with it to catch any of the dust and debris and keep it off the patio.
Heat Deflector
The 357 Pro comes with a heat deflector insert, and we’ll show that in use during our rib cook.
Charcoal Door
The charcoal door has two locking handles, so the door won’t open unless you want it to.
Air Vents
There are air intake vents in the bottom of the double-walled door, and they can be set to any degree of open or closed. When I used the door, they didn’t change position for me, so there’s enough resistance that they stay put. The exhaust vents are set to grate level on the opposite side of the fire door, and they operate in the same way as the intake vents.
Stainless Steel Shelves
The slide on side-shelf is included, as well as the folding front shelf. Both are very sturdy, and I love that they’re not optional add-ons.
Stainless steel Exterior
The grill is made with 304 stainless steel. The inner shell is 18-gauge, and the outer shell is 20-gauge.
Cooking on the Hasty Bake 357 Pro
Smoked Loin Back Ribs
I love pork loin back ribs cooked over a charcoal fire, so we fired up the grill to 275 degrees with the charcoal grate set to the smoke level. I seasoned a couple of racks with our Pork Protocol seasoning, which puts (in my opinion,) the finest looking color on ribs that you can get. I put the deflector over the charcoal fire after we got it going to make sure the ribs weren’t getting blasted by the fire.
About an hour into cooking, the ribs looked great, and after about 3 hours in the smoke, the racks were ready to go in the wrap to soften up for dinner. The rub was tacky and bubbly, and the ribs were nearly finished. I really just needed a few more minutes in the heat, and then a rest on the way home in a cooler, and dinner was served.
Chicken Quarters
I wanted to test the hot, fast, and indirect capabilities of the 357 Pro, so I lit a grate full of charcoal and slid the deflector into place, running around 350 degrees. I seasoned about 10 pounds of chicken quarters with our Feathered Formula chicken seasoning, and placed them on the grill to see how this grill does with chicken that’s more baked than grilled.
Around the half-hour mark, the color was looking good, but I could tell we weren’t ready yet, and about 15 minutes later, the Thermapen One told me I was running about 150 degrees in the thigh. After another 15 minutes, I was getting between 165 and 175 in the thigh, and I knew it was time to flip the chicken over and raise the charcoal rack to crisp up the top side. No complaints on indirect bone-in chicken on the 357 Pro from me.
Question of the Day
For the question of the day, I want to ask, “Does American Made Matter In Your Buying Decision? or are you happy to stop by a big box store and grab an import grill. I’m curious your thoughts on this, so let us know down in the comments below and let’s keep the conversation going.
Grilled Hamburgers
Burgers are a lunch staple here at The Lab when we’re testing, and having the kids here for the summer means we don’t have to panhandle burgers to the neighbors when we’re done with a test. I keep a sleeve of 1/3 pound burgers in the freezer, and I lit a grate full of charcoal using the lighter gel, and was ready to grill in about 15 minutes.
It was so hot I had to lower the charcoal grate to keep them from burning, but no problem with that in this design. The frozen patties went on, I seasoned each with our Essential Equation SPG seasoning, and closed the lid for about 3 minutes.
At the flip, I successfully kept the frozen patties from burning, which I was worried about, having the charcoal so hot to begin with. We got complicated with the cheese order, but in the end, everyone got what they wanted, and burgers over charcoal makes an incredible lunch. No complaints direct grilling on the 357 Pro. I used too much charcoal, got it too hot, and the crank-down charcoal grate saved me.
Pork Tenderloins
Another day during testing, I grabbed a two-pack of pork tenderloins at the store, seasoned them with Pork Protocol, and planned a two-zone cook. I lit the fire on the left side of the grill, leaving the right grate without any charcoal underneath. I started with the pork on the right side and let them come up to temperature slowly while they absorbed some smoke flavor.
When we got within 20 degrees of our finish temperature, I flipped the roasts over the coals to get some color on the outside before they finished. Two-zone cooking is easy on the 357 Pro, and having the crank-up charcoal grid makes searing simple. There’s a little getting to know your grill, though, since the charcoal grate arcs a bit during transit. It just takes a few cooks to dial in where the charcoal will be when the grate is all the way up or down due to the arc design.
Ribeye Steaks
Ribeye steaks were the first cook we did on this grill, and I thought I was going to be doing a reverse sear, but Kroger had other plans. I couldn’t get a one-and-a-half- or two-inch-thick ribeye when I needed it, so this 1-inch cut meant we were grilling direct over charcoal.
I inserted the RFX Meat probe into each steak, and used my Thermoworks app to monitor internal temperatures. Since I still had the probe rings on each probe to tell them apart, and they’re only rated to 600° Fahrenheit, I tried to keep the rings towards the outside of the charcoal grate while using the never-stop-flipping method of cooking.
I was talking with Harold McGee a few weeks ago about this method of grilling, and the science behind it truly is fascinating. If you haven’t read “On Food and Cooking”, and you’re a cooking nerd like I am, this is a must-read. The steaks hit 125 internal, and carryover took them to 133, right where Melissa likes her steak, so a direct grilling win on the 357 Pro.
Closing Thoughts
Here are some things I’ve learned during our testing.
- If you roll the grill around, make sure you check the grease rail and grease tray before. If it’s full and you roll it around, grease can slosh out of the tray and mess up the patio.
- This grill has gaskets everywhere. The lid has them all around. The firebox door has them on all 4 sides. It’s designed to be a smoker as much as it’s designed to be a grill, but if you’re looking for zero smoke leaking out, this isn’t it. Smoke still finds a way out of the unit when grilling at higher heat. At lower temperatures, I didn’t notice it much if at all, but grilling it was evident.
- I love the stainless build on the 357 Pro. It’s a heavy grill, weighing in 245 pounds, and that much 304 stainless is impressive.
- I really like the pull-out ashtray. Just take it out and dump it, not like a kamado where you’re raking ash out a small hole in the bottom. This is far superior.
- The crank-it-up charcoal grate is a winner. It’s very similar to the Legacy 131 we’ve tested, and when set to sear, it can get HOT.
- The fold-down front shelf is sturdy, the slide-on side shelf is sturdy as well when you put weight on it, but when you go to move it more than a couple of feet, just take that off and pull it around with the handle since the shelf makes it more difficult in my opinion.
- The way that the lid opens is cool, but it doesn’t change the way that I cook on the grill. It for sure changes the way people look at the grill, which is a lot of fun when people are over.
- The grill comes with a water pan or basting pan, and I’ll have to work with that in a future video. It’s part of the ride-on-rails system, and it’s quite handy when you need to add a deflector, water pan or anything else to the 357 Pro.
- The grill comes with a 10-year warranty, and in case you can’t tell by the outside, it’s set up for a rotisserie, but it’s an add-on instead of included.
- Lighting a fire using the Hasty Bake Gel is really easy. I’ll spread around the charcoal that’s left from my last cook and then add the new charcoal I need. After that’s set, I’ll pull out the ash tray and dump the ash, prepping for the gel to go down. I make little gel circles depending on how much charcoal I want to light, ignite them with a click lighter, and lower the charcoal grate so it’s about 1 inch above the gel. I leave the firebox door and the lid open, walk away for about 10 minutes, and you’ll have a roaring bed of charcoal ready to go.
If you’re thinking about a purchase, we would appreciate if you would click the links below. The code “BBQLAB10” will save you 10% at checkout, and your purchase keeps the testing videos, articles and roundups coming. I’m David from The Barbecue Lab, behind the camera is Melissa, Addy, Ethan and Uno. Thanks for reading, and we can’t wait to see you on the next one.
Quick Links to the products mentioned in this Hasty Bake 357 Pro Review:
- Save 10% on your Hasty Bake order with code BBQLAB10
- Hasty Bake 357 Pro
- Hasty Bake Legacy 131
- Hasty Bake charcoal
- Hasty Bake Firestarter gel
- Essential Equation
- Feathered Formula
- Pork Protocol
- Thermapen One
- Thermoworks RFX starter kit
- “On Food & Cooking,” by Harold McGee
