Perhaps the defining food trend of 2020, the restaurant home kit became synonymous with endless days inside. While many have outlasted lockdown mania and became a staple of elevated home dining, one that remains as exciting ever is the BBQ box. Perhaps because there’s less fiddly plastic sachets of sauce required, or maybe it’s simply the pure joy of cooking outside, but the BBQ box feels like a necessary continuation from the depths of Covid.
Whether you’re whacking Dishooms lamb chops on the grill for a DIY feast without tackling the 40-minute-plus queues, or simply ploughing your way through Swaledale’s frankly enormous selection of prime-cut meat and chicken, these BBQ boxes will have you prepped for the remainder of this fiery British summer, where turning on any hob inside has seemed like a masochistic activity.
The best BBQ meat and fish boxes
Home By Simon Rogan BBQ Box
The meal-kit craze may have largely gone the way of Zoom quizzes when the pandemic ended, but there are a handful of chefs whose at-home offerings are still a sure thing for a weekend barbecue or dinner party. With his superb supply chain in the Lake District, including beef from local farmers and veg from the group's own farm, Simon Rogan is one of those, and his deceptively simple barbecue box combines a series of monthly changing prime meat cuts – featuring anything from braised beef short ribs to Tomahawk pork chops – that come with Rogan's BBQ rub, all for cooking or finishing on a hot grill – plus a series of seasonal veg sides. An absolute winner.
£110, serves 4-6; simonrogan.co.uk
Swaledale BBQ Meat Box
We always say, if you're not sure what to throw on the barbecue, ask your butcher. But if you don't have one near you to ask, one of the UK's best online butchers is a great place to start, and many have a curated selection especially for the grill. Swaledale's is a doozy: the ultra-sustainable, Yorkshire-based butcher has put together a box filled with knockout cuts, from tried-and-tested skin-on chicken breasts and delicious rib-eye steaks to juicy burgers and house-made beef kofte kebabs. Our pick, though, is the short ribs – cut super thin in the Korea-by-way-of-California style of LA galbi, they're perfect for marinating in a sweet and spicy sauce and cooking one-by-one on a tabletop grill, Korean-barbecue style.
From £93.85; swaledale.co.uk
Dishoom BBQ Kit
Let’s face it, if you hear the words “Dishoom BBQ kit” and the sun’s shining, you’re basically already at the checkout. The Indian restaurant group’s at-home offerings are wildly popular, and the barbecue version is a doozy: marinated lamb chops, seekh kebabs and chicken tikka. You’ll even get a packet of Kabab Masala for your own cooking, plus each sale raises money for NGOs in India.
£55, serves four; dishoom.com
HG Walter BBQ Boxes
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HG Walter have a few BBQ boxes on offer – there’s the classic box with a range of steaks, ribs, burgers, chicken and sausages, or if you feeling a bit more specific opt for the BBQ beef steak box, with seven different steaks spread over five different cuts, alongside two bone marrow troughs (bone marrow butter anyone?!), or the BBQ banger box which quite literally does what it says on the tin in more ways than one – featuring 42 sausages, you’ll be loaded up on bangers which is a sure fire way to ensure a bangin’ meal.
From £31.80; hgwalter.com
Rick Stein BBQ Box
While you might associate a BBQ box with hearty chunks of meat, Rick Stein proves the pescetarian approach can be just as impressive. Feeding up to six people, it includes some of the best seafood from around the British Isles, including Cornish monkfish, scallops, prawns, mackerel and cockles alongside the necessary sauces to form a finger lickin' feast. I’m not sure whether Rick Stein can ship the views over the Camel Estuary to your door as well, but this is probably the closest you’ll get to Padstow’s salty shores from your concrete-fringed London backyard.
Serves 4-6. £129; shop.rickstein.com
Daylesford Organic Home Grilling Box
The Daylesford Organic BBQ box
Daylesford are an industry leader in organic meat and produce, selling some of the best sustainably reared meat in the country. Their medium BBQ box is no exception, bringing flavoursome peri peri chicken wings, Cumberland sausages and burger patties to your front door, alongside all the necessary accoutrement to create a whopper of a meal. Got a few more friends to feed? Opt for the large box which adds smokey paprika chicken breasts, beef rump steaks and chicken drumsticks into the mix.
From £38; daylesford.com
Rockfish BBQ Box
Some of the seafood available in the Rockfish BBQ box
As written about in our deep dive into sustainable seafood, Mitch Tonks has been steadily working away at providing sustainable and delicious fish and seafood at his restaurants, and followed it up with Rockfish at Home, which allows that same supply chain to become available to consumers. The service allows you to order selections from each day's catch, but also offers pre-selected boxes. The summer BBQ box is a doozy, too – at the time of writing it includes plump fresh prawns, delicate scallops, butterflied sardine fillets (our box had some beautiful squid and sea bream), all with the guarantee of provenance that's unmatched in British seafood. Throw them on the grill with the accompanying garlic butter and you've got one hell of a late-summer feast.
Serves 4, from £29.95; therockfish.co.uk
