Using Wood Chips to Add Smoke Flavor in a Gas Grill

[RichPB (richlife)]

This is the recent thread I saw that summarizes earlier info. Mostly shows you should be safe, but I'll hold on tomy suspicious nature -- and smell my meat.

So you screwed up..........

Okay I've read a lot of posts before about people who screwed up. Not necessarily on this site. They left meat out too long before cooking it. Greater than the 2-hour limit..... In some case they left it in a car overnight..... Or they let their food cool off accidentally because their...

tvwbb.com

 

[Darren Lebner]

I, too, always smell the protein.

Thanks for the link. I wonder why I never opened up that conversation. Perhaps I thought it was about screwing up when grilling food.

So I feel overall safe with my method. I almost always defrost in the fridge and my handling and prepping of produce on the counter is of minimal time. And nowadays I always monitor foods internal temp to make sure it's properly cooked.

 

[Darren Lebner]

Did it again. Cold smoked chicken for an hour before cooking on my old Weber 310. Having gotten used to a Genesis 435 in our other house, I forgot what a difference in real estate there is between the 2 grills. I had to find niches for some of the veggies.

The response from our guests for the smoky taste of the chicken was 2 greasy thumbs up. I am really enjoying this method of flavoring. However, anyone joining in here late needs to read all the health warnings which have been posted until now in this conversation.

 

[Jim Weber]

I've been having really good results with a smoke tube..... I picked one up thinking I'd be able to use it on the WSM18, but I found it was useless for it --- the tube would just be smothered with all the charcoal smoke.... But I found it works great on the gassers for certain things 'with in reason'.... You have to recalibrate and 'think' like a smoker.... you need to try and get away from the direct heat of a grill and work with indirect heat - and KNOW what the GRATE temp is where the food is --- just looking at the lid temp doesn't cut it.

I've got it dialed in on my two burner Spirit (front controls) --- one burner on very lowest setting, other off - it gives 220-250 on the grate thats NOT on - where as the grate temp for the one that is on is 325 (grilling temp) - smoke tube on the lit side - full 12" of pellets give ~3 hours of smoke - I let chicken ride for ~2.5 hours and then turn on the second burner to low to finish it off and glaze. Works really well and is VERY hands off. Sure, its running for 3 hours.... but its with ONE burner on the lowest setting --- pretty minimal gas usage - tanks last a really long time.

You have to pick the right cuts to use too --- boneless/skinless is easy - legs and wings work really well - but for some reason thighs are a bit more difficult... I've resorted to slitting the skin to try and get more smoke in - sometimes it work, sometimes not - its still always better with SOME smoke. Prep make a HUGE difference too - chicken dried in the fridge for 4+ hours before hitting the grill. NO wet meat.

I went fully down the rabbit hole with the smoke tube - I now have 8 flavors of pellets for the tube - luckily my neighbor split a couple of those with me. I went crazy and was cooking 5-6 chicken legs every 3 days with each flavor/mix of two/mix of three ---- it was pretty cool to taste the differences between each flavor and mix - although at three it tends to get washed out, but still discernable.

I'm thinking there really isn't a reason for a pellet smoker when I have a smoke tube and a gasser. The real beauty of this set up is that you can get the meat temp up to 1/2 - 3/4 temp/done and turn the heat OFF while it STILL sits in smoke! Works good for reverse searing a steak or smoking a meatloaf. Let it ride til the smoke runs out is my motto! And propane with a smoke tube is the cheapest for of smoke compared to a WSM or a pellet smoker --- figure pellet smokers are 1lb/hr minimum - 20# bag at $15-20 isn't all that cheap -- and I figure 4-5 # coals for the WSM minimum ---- just not worth it for 5-6 legs or thighs, but cheap on the gasser.

 

[Jim Weber]

I've been trying to figure out a good and cheap way to force more separation between the burners and the grates - that last pic is my best solution so far for the two burner, but I want to get my three burner set up for it too. I'm thinking another grate placed on top of V8 or tomato paste cans to start with. I just wish I knew how to weld ---- I would make a killer 'raised grate' setup for the 3 burner that would let the tube sit low in the box... And I would figure out a way to make an effective heat diffuser to try and make the temps more uniform.....

That said, I did run into a kettle Performa earlier this spring that I 'thought' would be more frugal with coals..... I haven't gotten many cooks on it yet to prove that it is a cost effective way to smoke small bathes of chicken. But I have been impressed with how close the kettle comes to the WSM for smoke flavor --- especially in chicken thighs --- that I have struggled with on the gasser.

 

[JSaus]

I've been trying to figure out a good and cheap way to force more separation between the burners and the grates - that last pic is my best solution so far for the two burner, but I want to get my three burner set up for it too. I'm thinking another grate placed on top of V8 or tomato paste cans to start with. I just wish I knew how to weld ---- I would make a killer 'raised grate' setup for the 3 burner that would let the tube sit low in the box... And I would figure out a way to make an effective heat diffuser to try and make the temps more uniform.....

That said, I did run into a kettle Performa earlier this spring that I 'thought' would be more frugal with coals..... I haven't gotten many cooks on it yet to prove that it is a cost effective way to smoke small bathes of chicken. But I have been impressed with how close the kettle comes to the WSM for smoke flavor --- especially in chicken thighs --- that I have struggled with on the gasser.

You could make legs with proper size lag bolts and washers.