Smoking BBQ on a Charcoal Grill or Gas Grill

I get asked all the time about how to make mouth watering BBQ at home using a small charcoal grill or even a gas grill.  When I am not catering events I do use a Weber 22 1/2 inch charcoal grill to cook meals for our family.  Although I would love to break out my 7 foot Lang Smoker and smoke a giant piece of meat for the family, my wife reminds me that can be a bit overkill for a family of four....Go figure...

Charcoal Grills - For those of you with a charcoal grill you will want to have your coals & wood chunks/chips burning on one side of your grill and your meat on the opposite side of the grill.  This allows you to cook indirect which slowly cooks the meat and allows the meat to stay very moist.  The  heat/smoke produced from the fire will surround the meat and produce great BBQ. The picture on the right shows the coals and wood chips on one side of the grill and the rack of ribs on the other side. 

When you place the lid on the grill make sure to have the lid air vents open and located on the side where you meat is located.  You can cook all kinds of meat this way including chicken pieces, whole chicken, ribeye roasts, sausage, etc.....  I would recommend starting with just chicken breasts, thighs, pork ribs, or wings to just get a hang of it.  Then work your way up to doing ribeye roasts, whole chickens, pork loins and other larger cuts that will take a bit longer to cook.  Invest in a meat thermometer for checking the temps on your meat and also document your cooking times so you will be able to repeat your success each time. 

Gas Grills - I have to tell you there are BBQ enthusiasts across the world that will not use the word BBQ and Gas together.  The argument between gas vs. charcoal/wood is similar to the battle between the Hatfield's and McCoy's or better yet Rocky & Clubber Lang in Rocky 111 ... Hands down in my opinion charcoal and/or wood cooked BBQ is the best tasting when done properly.  But there are so many people out there with gas grills that I wanted to discuss how to produce a great quality BBQ on a gas grill. 

You will basically follow the same Indirect Cooking procedure as with the charcoal grill.  Light only one side/panel of your gas grill.  Place your meat on the opposite end of the grill over the unlit panel.  Make a tinfoil pouch and fill it up with a couple of  hand-fulls  of wood chips.  Close up the chips in the foil and then put them over the lit panel on your grill (place pouch on the burner itself and not the grill grate). Poke a few holes in the foil on top and that will allow the smoke to release.  You can soak the wood chips in water before adding but dry chips will work fine as well.  Most gas grills come with a temperature gauge mounted in the top so try to keep your temp at 250-325 degrees while cooking.  Also, use a meat thermometer to determine when your meat is done on larger cuts and chicken.

Wood Chips/Chunks - Go to your local BBQ store or grill section of WalMart, Home Depot, etc...department store and buy some wood chips or chunks.  I recommend peach, cherry, pecan, or hickory for pork butts, pork loins, ribs, chicken, Turkey, and lamb.  For ribeye roasts I suggest pecan or hickory chips.  In Birmingham, the  The Smoke & Fire Place in Vestavia Hills on Highway 31 across from Mark's Outdoors carries the largest supply of wood chips in the area.   You can also buy a cast iron or steel smoker box as well that will hold the chips instead of using a self made tinfoil pouch.

FYI - the larger the grill or smoker doesn't mean that it will produce a better BBQ.  You can cook great bbq on a charcoal grill or a gas grill.  Steaks are great for grilling but when it comes to chicken, roasts, leg of lamb, pork butts, ribs, turkeys, other large cuts, go with the indirect cooking method and you and your guests will be knocked out by the flavor and moisture.  Give yourself some extra time to get the food done on the first couple tries because you will probably end up checking on the meat a bit more than once you get this method down.  Once you start to master this indirect cooking method you will be amazed by the taste and flavor of the food. 

Comments

[gas grill ratings]

Cooking on a charcoal grill with your family high at the mountains with cool breeze is really a wonderful joy and fun. If the weather is good then BBQ taste like heaven