Use BBQ Wood Chips to Intensify Your Grilling

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Use BBQ Wood Chips to Intensify Your Grilling

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009    Subscribe To Our Feed

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There is nothing better then BBQ meat that has been cooked or smoked with wood chips. If you’re a master BBQ chef, then you probably know the fine benefits of BBQ wood chips. But many people have no idea what the big deal is about this product.

Wood chips are used in your grill in addition to charcoal or gas. If you are not using a wood fire to cook your food, then the only way you are going to get a true smoke flavor is by adding wood to your fire.

Using BBQ wood chips can send your grilling into the stratosphere. Whether you have an electric, gas or charcoal BBQ you can add wood chips to get authentic barbecue flavor. There are special smoker boxes that can be placed in your gas and charcoal grills to add that special wood smoke flavor. Read the instructions for your particular grill before you try doing this.

The key to using wood chips is to not let them burn too quickly. This creates intense bursts of smoke that can make food bitter. By soaking wood chips in water for about 15 minutes you can slow down the combustion and lengthen the time in which the smoke is created. Before you use them, though, let the wood chips “drip dry” for a few minutes before you add them to your fire. Ideally, your wood chips will be damp but not saturated.

If you’re using a smoker in your grill, it’s probably not necessary to soak the wood chips before you use them. Soaked wood chips will burn longer, but if you’re cooking a steak, you probably don’t want a long, slow grilling.

Wood smoking chips or BBQ wood chips are available in a wide variety of flavors. They go from mesquite and hickory all the way to cabernet. The stores that sell BBQ wood chips will have flavor guides to help you wade your way through the new age of wood chips.

In general, the lighter the meat, the milder the wood chip you need to use. You can also try “heavier” flavors with lighter meats, though, such as using mesquite with chicken, but start with fewer wood chips.

Alder wood chips have a mild flavor and are recommended for use with seafood and pork. The flavorful fruitwoods go best with veal, poultry and pork. These types of woods include cherry or apple.

Maple and hickory BBQ wood chips have a strong flavor and are best used with beef, pork and poultry. Lamb, duck and beef also are great meats to use with mesquite wood chips, while beef or ham go well with oak wood chips, which is another strong flavor.

But remember that barbecuing is all about the meat. Your fancy wood chips will just be going to waste on an inferior piece of meat that no amount of grilling expertise can retrieve. Make sure your meat or chicken is fresh and from a reputable butcher.

So the next time you decide to grill a great piece of meat consider using some of these BBQ wood chips and savor the great flavor and aroma coming off your grill.

One Response to “Use BBQ Wood Chips to Intensify Your Grilling”

1. Tony Says:
   August 28th, 2008 at 11:32 am

   Thanks for the advice! Very relevant to a discussion I came across in The Backyard community: https://backyard.netshops.com/#l=topic&i=493

   Using wood chips is a great way to enhance your grilling regardless of your charcoal-gas preference!

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