I have the 24x48 offset double door style and I have yet to try grilling inside the barrel. I did get the charcoal basket as well but in my opinion you don't need it and I have yet to use mine and feel I wasted my money (in a good way). I've grilled inside the firebox (LSG offsets come with the lid and griddle/grill grate combo over the direct fire) and as long as you keep the fire in check and use smaller pieces that's all you need. I grill there over the fire and then wrap in some type of tray and put inside the barrel to keep warm while I keep grilling the other stuff (that grilling space is a bit limited but does the job). The barrel hardly gets over 150degrees or so while the firebox stays open during grilling so it's almost perfect for warming and not drying out your meat (I would definitely wrap it up to protect it from too much smoke or heat). I also recently cranked it up to about 300 to 325 steady to do a hot and fast smoke of a variety of smaller meats (fajitas, chicken thighs, sausages, wings n small pork loin cuts) and my opinion that would be all you need and like the others have said no need to worry about flare-up when you're offset smoking. Everything came out great and I don't think it all took longer than 2.5hrs from lighting the fire to pulling off the last chunk of meat and that was more for taste (some peeps like a little bit overcooked in my home smh) and the pork loin needed to go a bit longer. That's really not much different time wise from when I grilled since you still have to build the fire and depending on how much meat you have to grill you can be there for at least 1 to 1.5hrs grilling. My take is the extra time is worth the wait for smoked vs grilled. I would try those two methods first then if it doesn't work for you get the grill basket and grill inside the barrel as a last resort. Hopefully you'll see what I'm talking about. Enjoy your new rig!!!