How to Smoke With a Charcoal Grill

You can smoke food on your charcoal grill.

You can achieve a deliciously smoked meat on your own charcoal grill without buying a professional smoker. The technique for smoking is "low and slow," or cooking at a low heat for a long time. The way to smoke meat on your charcoal grill is to use indirect heat, which means you don't cook directly over a flame. Smoking meat will take longer than grilling, but the authentic barbecue and smoked flavor is worth it in the end.

Things You'll Need

• Charcoal
• Match or lighter
• Wood chips
• Drip pan
• Water
• Thermometer

Instructions

1. Soak a few cups of wood chips in water for about an hour. Soaking the wood chips ensures they won't ignite when you put them on the charcoal later. You can choose just about any type of wood chip for flavoring, but hickory, apple or maple add the best smoke flavor, according to the USDA. You can buy wood chips at most hardware stores.

2. Pile about 50 charcoal briquettes in the center of your grill. Light them and let them burn until they are covered with gray ash.

3. Push the charcoal briquettes into two even piles at the sides of the grill.

4. Fill a foil drip pan with water and place it in the middle of the two piles of briquettes. The water helps prevent flare-ups from fat and meat liquids dropping on the coals.

5. Drain the wood chips you soaked earlier and sprinkle about a cup on each pile of charcoal and put the grate back on the grill.

6. Place your meat in the center of the grill over the drip pan between the two piles of charcoal. Put the grill lid back on. Add about 10 charcoal briquettes each hour to maintain the temperature and another cup of wood chips as desired for flavor.

7. Check the temperature of the grill periodically. You want to maintain a temperature between 250 and 275 degrees for smoking. Close the vents a little if you need to lower the heat and open them a little to raise the heat.

8. Take the meat off the grill once it reaches the desired temperature. The length of time you will have to smoke the meat depends on the type of meat, the size of the meat, the weather and the temperature you want, but the USDA states that it can take anywhere from four to eight hours.

Tips & Warnings

• You can add another drip pan of hot water on top of the barbecue grate if you have room. This adds more moisture to your cooking process and the meat. You can also help control the temperature if it gets too high by adding more hot water to the drip pan on top.

References

• Barbecue University: Show 101, Up in Smoke
• Amazingribs.com: Here's the best set up for a charcoal grill for indirect heat smoke roasting of ribs, pork butt and beef brisket
• USDA, Food Safety and Inspection Service: Smoking Meat and Poultry