Smoking with just charcoal


 
J

J Weinstein

New member
Hi everyone, this is my first post to the forum and I wanted to ask something about smoking food with just charcoal.

Last weekend, I was grilling some bone-in chicken over indirect heat and had too much meat to fit on the grill. So I did the first round of chicken, and then when it was time for the next round, the charcoal was pretty burned down, so I added some new charcoal on top. The new charcoal started to smoke, I put the raw chicken on the grill and put the cover on.

Of course, when I went to turn the meat later, the chicken had been smoked from the smoke of the newly lit charcoal. It had a smokey look and flavor, but I wasn't using any wood chips.

My question is - is this a common way of smoking food? Does anyone else smoke food this way, and if so, are there any tricks to doing it well?

Thanks,
Joe
 
Joe....In my opinion charcoal will add some smoke flavor to your food, you didn't mention if you like it or not. Adding wood chunks will add a better smoke flavor. Sounds like you were cooking a ton of chicken, I can usually get about a dozen thighs on indirect on my 22.5 kettle. What type/size of grill do you have? If you didn't like the flavor that the charcoal left on your second batch of chicken, the best thing to do would be to add more charcoal and let it burn for about 15 minutes. Or....you could start with more charcoal and then cooking at the right temp I would think it should get you through two batches of chicken. Just keep trying and you'll master it soon. Check out the Cornell Recipe on this site for chicken and also roadside chicken, those are my two favorite flavor profiles for chicken.
 
Add lit briquettes to a grill fire, otherwise you have to wait for the heat and might get flavor you don't want. Lump is different. Since it's just wood and catches fire as soon as it's added, you add it fresh from the bag.
 
I use KBB for everything. Last butt I did I added no smoking wood yet I ended up with a very good tsste plus I had a very nice smoke ring for the appearance. I use the charcoal snake method on my 22.5 OTS.
 
Joe, One final comment, when you are cooking indirect, put some foil down on the surface that doesn't have charcoal on it (on the charcoal grate), this will force all of the air through your fire and should conserve on your fuel so that it will last longer.
 
I'm not exclusively charcoal, but I only add a couple small pieces of wood at the very beginning. I like just a hint of smoke flavoring. I get a good smoke ring
 
kind of like adding fuel to a long smoke on the wsm.... I have no problems with it, I'm also one who believes charcoal adds flavor. Ease into added smoke woods slowly, and avoid mesquite for the first couple of years..
 
When I'm grilling, I add a couple of wood chunks to a chimney of charcoal. Since the meat is on the grill for a short time (compared to smoking L&S), I think that adding wood just before the meat sometimes results in a bitter over-smoked flavor. I notice this mainly with poultry. By adding it to the top of the chimney, it flames up and then just smolders when the food is on.
 
Clint said:
Ease into added smoke woods slowly, and avoid mesquite for the first couple of years..
Click to expand...

I very much agree with this. I have a fairly large bag of mesquite wood chunks, that is approaching ten years old. I've only just started using it again, after a very bad experience with the first go at it. I believe we call it the ashtray effect. :) After all this time, I think I finally appreciate mesquite, and can now use it effectively.
 
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