Cooking with smoking chips provides a delicious smoke flavor for your favorite foods. Depending on the type of wood you choose to grill with, the flavor can be fruity, bold, nutty or sweet. But not everyone has a charcoal grill or smoker to use smoking chips. That’s why we want to show you how you can use smoking chips on your gas grill.
Using Smoking Chips in a Smoker Box
Some gas grills come with built-in smoker boxes that you can use for smoking chips. Simply add your favorite chips and let them smolder! If your grill doesn’t have a built in smoker box, you can (pretty inexpensively) purchase a smoker box at most hardware stores or in the grilling section at some grocery stores.
You can place the smoker box over the burners. Or if you’re like me and forget about the smoker box until after you’ve already preheated your grill and don’t want to move those hot grates, put the smoker box on the grates directly.
Make Your Own: Aluminum Smoker Bag
On the (unfortunately not so rare) occasion that I can’t find my smoker box, I simply use some aluminum foil to create a little packet of smoking chips. Make sure to poke some holes into the aluminum foil to let the smoke out. I normally just use a fork to do that.
However you use your smoking chips on your gas grill, here are some general tips:
- Leave the lid closed! Every time you open it, you lose heat and smoke.
- Mix different chip flavors for your unique flavor experience. I like to mix Hickory and Apple.