You must be thinking that smoking in a gas grill might not give you the authentic results of a smoker but that is not necessarily true. You can get an additional smoker box and then use it to smoke the different kinds of food on the gas grill. How you need to do this? Well, that is exactly why we are here. We are going to tell you all about the use of a smoker box on a gas grill. Take a look at the article here to know more about it.
Preheat Your Gas Grill
First thing that you need to do is to preheat the gas grill. You should crank up the gas burners to high. This will allow the gas grill to heat up very much. You have to wait for 10 to 15 minutes so that the grill can heat up. You do have a wait a bit so that it can reach the temperature that it needs to be when you are going to start with the cooking process. The high heat is going to let the wood chips ignite faster too. If you are worried about the grill getting too hot then you can turn the burners to medium after some time too. This is going to let the temperature even out after the use of the heat.
Getting The Box Ready
The smoker box is something that you need to buy because not all has grills come with a made up smoker box. You can get a wide variety of options if you go to the Internet and look at it. It is almost amazing that the different options can turn out to be very good. The first thing that we would personally recommend is the Weber smoker box because it is so good. Maybe we are a little more keen on the Weber goods but we do know that they have been dominating the grilling market with the amazing product range.
There are also similar smoker box from other brands that you can find. The best thing to do in such a situation is to take your time and look through the different options you have on the list. You can also make a smoker box yourself if you are going for a temporary trial run with the smoking in a gas grill. You will just need some aluminum foil and a pan. Load the wood chips in the pan and then cover it with the aluminum foil. You need to poke holes in the foil to make sure that you get that smoker box function done. This is not going to be perfect but it can work when you need it urgently.
Set Up Your Grill
Now that you have filled the smoker box with wood pellets and preheated the grill, you need to set it up for cooking. Now you can turn off the burners that are under the good food so that direct cooking does not take place. We need the indirect method to work when you are cooking food in a gas grill through the process of smoking.
The indirect method of cooking is very easy and it helps to get that perfect smoky flavor in the food that you are cooking. You might need to wait a bit so that the temperature of the grill comes down to 225 to 250 degrees Fahrenheit. Then you can add the food.
Cooking It Up
When you have reached the recommended temperature on the grill, you need to place the food in the grill. Place the food over the unlit burners to achieve the indirect method of cooking. At this point you might need to cook the food for some time. Smoking is a slow process so you need to have the patience. However, it is important to keep an eye on the grill to make sure that you are enjoying the process and making sure that everything is going well at the same time.
You might need to add in more wood pellets to the smoker box when you are cooking. This is going to be a long process so the wood pellets can go down and you might need to refill it. Keep an eye on this to make sure that the desired temperature does not fluctuate. That will end up ruining the good food and no one wants that.
Finishing Up
You need to check the internal temperature of the food to make sure that the good food is done. There are different methods that you might come across the internet which will claim that this is a good way of checking the doneness of the meat but do not fall for them. The only way to make sure that your meat is done cooking is to eat it. If you do not want to eat it then the safest bet is to check the internal temperature of the meat. We are sure that you are going to understand the reasoning behind this.
Different food items are obviously going to be cooked till different temperatures to make sure that you get the best results. The red meats needs to be cooked until the internal temperature reaches at least 200 degrees Fahrenheit. This is very important to take a note of. We are just putting out estimates on the general experience. If you are going for poultry then you are going to need to cook it till the internal temperature of 150 degrees Fahrenheit.
Wood Chips To Use
There are a lot of different flavor of wood chips that you can use. These are the chips that is going to give the flavor to the food. So you need to think about the kind of wood chips you are using because the distinct flavor goes well with some food items while the others do not go so well with certain good food. This is why it is very important to search about the different combinations that you can do. You can experiment it yourself if you want but you can also take the help of the guide that we have here.
Hickory
- This is good with all kinds of red meat that you can find in the market. This is especially pairing well with pork.
- The wood is strong and pungent so it is going to add the strong and sweet flavor to the food that you are cooking.
- It is powerful so a little can go a long way. No need to use too much of it.
Mesquite
- It is good with red meat. However, do not use it with fish. This is not a good match for fish or seafood.
- It has a very strong flavor so it is recommended to be used in moderation. You should always be careful with the amount because it is very easy to use too much of the food.
Apple
- It goes well with pork, poultry and seafood.
- It is a mild flavoring wood pellet so you do not have to worry about using too much of it and ruining the taste of the food.
- It is sweet and subtle.
- You can add it to the mixture of wood pellets because it can blend in very nicely with the other flavors.
Cherry
- This is a good all purpose wood that you can use for anything.
- It has a mild sweet flavor.
- It can be used properly with any kind of other wood pellets too.
- It gives a mahogany color to the meat that you cook it in.
Alder
- This one is perfect for pairing with fish.
- You can use it with poultry too.
- It is mild so it can be used with delicate meat so as to make sure that you are not overpowering the actual flavor of the meat.
Frequently Asked Questions
There are a lot of people who ask certain questions regarding the smoking method on a gas grill and we are here to answer them for you. Take note that these are just general questions that we have seen on the internet. Take a look.
Q1. How long do the wood chips take to smoke?
A) Generally, it takes around 15 to 20 minutes in order for the wood chips to smoke. The amount of time depends on the heat that your burner is producing and also on the temperature settings that you have set for the grill
Q2. How to stop wood chips from catching fire?
A) The best thing to do is to make sure that your good wood chips are not getting any kind of oxygen. This is why they are put together in a firefox or a pan to make sure that they do not catch on fire. This is a good way to ensure the safety of the cooker as well as the people around you.
Q3. Should be soak the wood chips?
A) There has been a lot of debate on this one. Many people say that soaking the wood chips in water before using them is essential and that they can help with the cooking process but many people say that it makes no difference at all. So what is the real answer? We have tried to do it both ways and let us tell you that it makes no real difference in the cooking process. It seems to be a pointless thing to do and a waste of your time and energy. It is better to just start cooking without the soaking process because you are doing yourself a favor in this manner.
Conclusion
Thank you so much for giving this article here a read. We are sure that you understand the importance of the grilling method and the smoker box that is needed to turn the gas grill into a smoker after reading the article. The good thing is that you are not going to need much more than a few tries to get the smoking done properly. The technical know how can be a bit different than the others to take a grasp of but once you do so, you will be making smoked meat in a jiffy with your eyes closed. We are sure that you are dying to try out this new process you learned. Thank you so much for reading till the very end. Take care of yourself and happy smoking!