Is a Side Burner Worth It in an Outdoor Kitchen?

A side burner can seem like an obvious addition when designing an outdoor kitchen. It gives you another cooking surface, keeps more of the meal outdoors, and makes it possible to prepare foods that aren’t particularly convenient to cook directly on a grill.

But outdoor kitchen space is valuable. Every burner takes up countertop space and usually occupies some of the cabinet area underneath it. If you rarely use it, that space could have been dedicated to food preparation, storage, or another appliance.

For homeowners who regularly cook complete meals outdoors, a side burner can absolutely be worth it. For someone who primarily grills steaks, burgers, and vegetables, it may be an upgrade that sounds more useful than it actually is.

What Does an Outdoor Kitchen Side Burner Do?

A side burner works much like a burner on an indoor gas cooktop. Instead of cooking directly over grill grates, you can use pots, pans, skillets, and other cookware.

That opens up considerably more cooking options.

You might use one for:

• Boiling corn or pasta
• Heating sauces
• Cooking beans
• Sautéing vegetables
• Making side dishes
• Frying foods
• Heating a skillet
• Keeping another dish warm while grilling

The biggest benefit isn’t necessarily that a side burner allows you to cook something impossible on a grill. It’s that you don’t have to repeatedly walk between your indoor kitchen and backyard while preparing a meal.

If you’re entertaining frequently, that convenience can become much more valuable.

Single vs. Double Side Burners

Once you’ve decided a burner would be useful, the next question is whether you need one or two.

Single Burner

A single burner provides enough space for one pot or pan.

It’s usually the better choice when you primarily want a burner for occasional tasks such as heating sauce, boiling water, or preparing one side dish.

Its biggest advantage is efficiency: you gain another cooking method without sacrificing as much countertop space.

Double Burner

A double burner essentially creates a small outdoor cooktop.

It makes more sense when you regularly prepare entire meals outside and expect to have multiple pots or pans cooking alongside whatever is on the grill.

The trade-off is space.

Two burners require a larger cutout and more room within the kitchen. If you rarely use both simultaneously, the additional burner may be less valuable than the countertop space it replaces.

When Is a Side Burner Actually Useful?

A side burner becomes valuable when your outdoor kitchen is used for more than grilling a single main course.

Consider what happens when you’re preparing dinner indoors. The grill may handle the protein, but sauces, vegetables, pasta, rice, and other sides often require separate cookware.

Without an outdoor burner, those dishes still send you back inside.

A side burner is particularly useful if you:

• Regularly prepare complete meals outdoors
• Entertain larger groups
• Cook sauces or side dishes alongside grilled foods
• Frequently boil water outdoors
• Want to minimize trips between the indoor and outdoor kitchens
• Use skillets, saucepans, or stockpots while grilling

On the other hand, if almost everything you cook outdoors goes directly onto the grill, you may barely use one.

A good test is to think about your last five cookouts. If you repeatedly had something cooking on the indoor stove while using the grill outside, a side burner would probably improve your setup.

Side Burner vs. Power Burner

These appliances look similar, but they’re intended for different jobs.

A standard side burner works much like a conventional stovetop burner. It’s well suited for sauces, smaller pots, sautéing, and everyday cooking.

A power burner produces substantially more heat and is designed to accommodate larger cookware and demanding cooking methods.

Power burners are particularly useful for:

• Large stockpots
• Seafood boils
• Frying
• Wok cooking
• Large-batch meals
• Quickly boiling significant amounts of water

More power isn’t automatically better.

Someone who only wants to warm barbecue sauce doesn’t need to sacrifice additional space and money for a high-output burner. Conversely, someone who regularly hosts crab boils or cooks with a large wok may find a standard burner frustratingly limited.

Choose based on what you’ll actually cook rather than the maximum BTU number available.

When Should You Skip the Side Burner?

Not every outdoor kitchen needs one.

Consider skipping it when:

Counter space is limited.
Preparation space is useful during virtually every cookout. A burner you use twice per year shouldn’t replace countertop space you would use every weekend.

Your grill already provides what you need.
Some grills include integrated burners or other cooking surfaces that make a separate built-in burner redundant.

Your indoor kitchen is immediately accessible.
If the outdoor kitchen sits a few steps from your indoor stove, duplicating cooking equipment may provide little practical benefit.

You primarily grill simple meals.
For burgers, steaks, chicken, vegetables, and similar foods, the grill itself may already handle nearly everything you cook.

Outdoor kitchens don’t become better simply by adding more appliances. Thoughtful restraint often creates a more functional space.

Think About Workflow Before Placement

If you decide to add a burner, placement matters.

You generally want enough separation between the grill and burner to provide usable workspace rather than placing every hot appliance directly beside another.

Think about the sequence of preparing a meal:

Storage → preparation → cooking → serving

You should have somewhere to place ingredients before they reach the grill or burner and somewhere to set finished food afterward.

This is one reason appliance selection should happen during the design stage rather than after the kitchen layout has already been determined. Fire & Metal’s outdoor kitchen design and installation can account for cooking equipment, storage, utilities, and usable preparation space as parts of one overall layout.

Bottom Line: Is a Side Burner Worth It?

A side burner is worth adding when you regularly prepare complete meals outdoors and would otherwise need to use your indoor stove at the same time.

For occasional grilling, it may simply consume valuable space.

Choose a single side burner for sauces, smaller dishes, and occasional stovetop cooking. Consider a double burner if you routinely use multiple pots and pans. Choose a power burner when large cookware or high-heat cooking is genuinely part of how you entertain.

The best outdoor kitchen isn’t necessarily the one with the most appliances. It’s the one where every appliance earns the space it occupies.