If you are a die-hard charcoal grill user, you may not know that with just a few simple steps, the gas grill can be used as a barbeque smoker. And if you are a gas grill user, you may not have known this either. But why smoke your food you may ask. Well, once you smoke your food on a barbeque grill you will never ask that question again.
It used to be way back when, we humans had more time on our hands than we knew what to do with. It was back then that we didn't think twice about loading up the charcoal grill with briquettes and waiting the half hour or so for our coals to be ready. Then after our food was cooked, setting aside the time required to scoop out and dispose of our used charcoal. I'm up to about 45 extra minutes, how about you?
That was then. Today most of us don't have that kind of time so we have opted for the propane gas grill for its ease of use, convenience and time savings. What we have given up though in my estimation, is the range of flavors that smoking food on the barbeque grill afforded. What you will find though is that the Weber gas grill can do an excellent job smoking your food while retaining the convenience of the gas grill.
Smoking your food on the barbeque grill requires wood chips. Wood chips are soaked in water for about 45 - 60 minutes then placed in your grill inside a "smoking tray" which can be nothing more than a disposable aluminum tray that you can make with some aluminum foil. The important things to remember are to place the wood chips in your grill BEFORE you heat your grill and to make sure that your wood chips are not seeing any direct heat - that is do not put them on your burners. Tuck them into a corner of your grill away from the direct flame of your burner. Make sure that you purchase good quality wood chips that have been aged and make sure that you resist the temptation to continually add to the chips once your grill gets going.
After you have positioned your wood chips, replace your grate and preheat your grill by turning the burners full on. Allow your grill to come up to temperature for about 10 - 20 minutes until the wood chips begin to smoke.
At this point you are going to use a cooking method called the indirect cooking method. What this entails is turning off your middle burner and placing the food you will be cooking over the middle burner that is now unlit. Close the lid of your grill and keep your lid closed until all your food is cooked.
Feeling the need to apply barbeque sauce? Well make sure you don't apply it too soon. Do this and you risk burning the barbeque sauce and having it caramelize leaving a burned coating on your food that you probably won't like. Apply your barbeque sauce about 10 minutes before your food is ready to be pulled out of the grill. Be certain that you have a meat thermometer on hand to determine that your foods, especially your poultries and pork, are thoroughly cooked throughout.
Try experimenting with the different wood chips that you will find at any hardware store that sells grills. And see what you can come up with in the way of different barbeque sauces. You will find a slew of recipes online that you can whip up yourself.
Your question a bit earlier was why smoke your food. Try it once and you'll never go back.
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