How to Smoke Food on a Gas Grill

If you love the taste of smoked food, you may think a charcoal grill is the best way to achieve it. Actually, though, unless you have an especially high grade of charcoal, the smoke flavor you generally get from charcoal is just the smoke from the food's grease. Because of this, a gas grill can give you a delicious smoked flavor that's much more pure than a charcoal grill----and all you need to achieve it are wood chips and aluminum foil.

Things You'll Need

• Wood Chips
• Water
• Bowl
• Aluminum Foil
• Spray Bottle

Instructions

1. Soak a couple of handfuls of your choice of wood chips, such as hickory, apple or mesquite, in a bowl of water until they're saturated. An hour or so should be enough, though you can soak them overnight. Soaking the chips will allow them to last much longer on the grill.

2. Tear off a sheet of heavy-duty aluminum foil big enough to fold over the wood chips. Arrange the wood chips on the foil. Fold the edges of the sheet together so you have a fully enclosed packet of wood chips.

3. Poke a few holes in the top of the packet, which will let the smoke out to flavor your food.

4. Put the pouch either over one of the burners or under the grill's grate while the grill is cool.

5. Preheat the grill to high and watch for smoke. As soon as the chips are smoking, reduce heat to the proper temperature for cooking whatever you're grilling.

6. Spray the wood chip packet with water if the smoke starts getting too intense during the cooking process, which may mean that your wood chips are getting too hot.

Tips & Warnings

• If you don't have heavy-duty foil, use two layers of regular foil for your packet. Using a single layer of regular foil can lead to the wood chips burning. Some gas grills come with smoker boxes. If yours has a smoker box, you simply need to add wood chips to the box and light the burner under it. Slow cooking on low heat will make the most of your smoke and infuse your food with a distinct smoke flavor.