One thing that many gas grill owners do not realise is the fact that their existing gas grills can be easily used as barbecue smokers with a little ingenuity and a few dollars. Smoking food adds a greater range of flavour.
These days, many of us have switched to the cleaner, ergonomic gas grills, and you may be surprised to find that the Weber gas grill can be used as an excellent smoker thanks in part to their superb build quality and large internal cooking area.
The most important thing is to put the wood chips on when the grill is cool, you want to avoid adding your wood-chips while the grill is too warm or else your wood-chips will smoulder and be ineffective for cooking with.
You should prepare your wood-chips in enough water, allowing them to soak for around 30-60 minutes prior to cooking. This will ensure that they are properly moistened and will deliver smoke correctly to your food.
When choosing wood-chips to smoke your food, avoid using liquid smoke that is commonly available as this usually does not impart flavour as well as good quality wood-chips. Green wood-chips are undesirable as they refuse to burn properly, instead select good quality aged chips as they produce a far more pleasing taste.
You should avoid the temptation of continually adding them to the smoking tray during the course of cooking as not only will this drain the heat and increase cooking time but it will also add a bitter taste to your food.
Now lift out the cooking grates from your Weber gas grill, and place your prepared wood-chips in a suitable metal or disposable aluminium tray and place this "smoking tray" to the far lower left side of the grill away from the burners, ensuring that they are not too close to the flame.
Once you have positioned your smoking tray in the correct position, replace the grates on your Weber grill, and now you should preheat the grill for smoking. Turn all of your grill burners on to full, and allow all them to run for around 20 minutes or so until the wood-chips produce smoke and the internal temperature of the grill has been raised enough ready to start cooking your food.
Now that your wood-chips are smoking well, turn off the middle burners, replace the grills using mitts for safety, and add your food to the grill over the central area so that your food cooks using indirect heat. Close the grill as quickly as possible once you have added all of your food and leave it alone until your food is properly cooked.
If you are using a BBQ sauce on your meats, only add it to your food during the last 20 or 30 minutes of cooking time, as the sugar content will lead to caremelisation and will result in a burnt coating on your food, so pay attention to the temperature and remaining cooking time.
It is recommended that you should use a separate BBQ thermometer to measure the temperature of your food to ensure that your food is properly cooked, and you should avoid pushing the temperature probe into any fat pockets or too close to any large bones in the meat as this will produce inaccurate readings.
At the end of the smoking process, your barbecue food will be smoked and cooked to perfection in your Weber gas grill. To obtain the best results, and it should go without saying, avoid boiling any of your meat prior to barbecuing as this drains the flavour from your food.
It is well worth experimenting with different wood-chip combinations and meats as you will discover personal flavour combinations that suit your palette.
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