Noodling around Amazon, I found myself wondering what size pan (with handles) would still fit under a 22.5" kettle's lid. I wasn't necessarily seeking a paella pan but nor did I have something else in mind ...
So there's this, "MageFesa Carbon Steel Paella Pan, 15 Inch" which looks like a zillion others out there:
http://www.amazon.com/MageFesa-Carbon-Steel-Paella-Inch/dp/B007XTRHXE/ref=pd_sbs_k_48?ie=UTF8&refRID=1HQ8YBW5RB462MF82VSBUnlike some others, it's
not aluminum, it's carbon steel, but
not "coated" carbon steel (say, with Teflon) so ... ya season it. Grill-friendly. Pan + handles is about 19", so it fits under a 22's lid. Goodie.
I'll quote Amazon member "Ray Gray" here. He talks about how he uses it:
If you want a paella use review, move on to another review. This review is about using the pan on a meat smoker.
Once when using aluminum roasting pans to transfer meat to the smoker, I dumped three racks of spare ribs on the ground when the pan twisted and collapsed. I immediately went looking for an alternative that would prevent it from happening again. I found it in the Magefesa 15" Carbon Steel Paella Pan. I now have two of these 15" pans I use on my 22.5" Weber Kettle and my 22.5" Weber Smoky Mountain smoker. The heavy pan and handles can handle anything I want to load in the smoker.
I added a 13.25" Nordicware round cooling rack to the paella pan and now use the paella pan IN the smoker. The cooling rack fits perfectly inside the 15" pan, allowing complete circulation of heat and smoke. The paella pan catches all the drippings and keeps my smoker and Weber Kettle grease free.
I smoke meat once a week every week, sometimes more. The paella pan/cooling rack pays for itself in about 30 smokes compared to the price of heavy duty, disposable aluminum roasters.
BTW, 15" is the diameter of the pan. The handles add another 4" of diameter. The 15" pan fits perfectly in the 22.5" diameter Webers and allows great heat circulation.
Note that he's using it to carry the food
and to cook the food on. The round cooling rack serves as the actual looking rack. Perhaps you already do this, but I'm still barely past the stage of knowing how to make toast. Mmm ... toast ...
I can see some positives and negatives to that approach.
* Less cleanup of grill or smoker grates, but you lose preheating the grate and the Nordicware is "non stick" ... meh.
http://www.amazon.com/Nordic-Round-Cooling-13-25-Diameter/dp/B00DNVI5QO If I were to do this I'd measure the inside of the pan and search for a round SS rack,
https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=13.25+round+cooling+pan+stainless+steel&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8#rls=en&q=stainless+steel+round+cooling+racks* By using two pans, drippings from the top food don't hit the food on the lower tier when isolation is a goal.
* No more needing to foil the water pan (hell, forget the water pan altogether ...) to keep from having to clean it later.
What do you think?