ah a topic that is almost more divisive than one of the banned ones....
For the longest time the Lazy person that lives inside me (and makes all the decisions) said that Gas was the way to go...little to no clean up, starts up pretty quick (most of the time), suppossedly even cooking etc....
Then on one of those weekends with the boys we dug a pit, filled it with charcoal threw a grate over it and had the best steaks I'd ever had.
Since that day(or actually the Monday after) it has been a small 18 inch circular Weber grill. I have the Chimney stack charcoal starter, which is a must. I don't get flavored brickettes because I don't trust them to flavor the meat, but I do soak wood chips (mesquite and hickory mostly) and get a little smoke action on occassion.
I think if done properly Charcoal will cook more evenly than Gas, doesn't inject that Natural Gas taste into it and the smoke infuses into the fatty portions of a Ribeye that makes it taste awesome.
The problem is...last summer my Dad bought one of those Smokers (the Cadillac of Bar B Que grills) it smokes, grills and all that...the first few things he did were simply awful (the dogs loved it though), but now after practice, a book and some tips from various "experts", he is able to cook stuff better than all but one of my favorite Steak Joints. I've decided that I'll probably need to have a smoker some time soon.
As far as the side burners on the gas ones....I've never cooked anything on the one that was on my gas grill, it just seemed pointless to cook something on them when the range in the kitchen works just fine....
Chicken Breasts are done best if cooked while frozen for sure. But why eat Chicken when there is red meat....