How To Make Smokey BBQ Meats On A Gas Grill

Nothing beats the flavor of a smoked brisket or some baby back ribs. Add some homemade barbecue sauce and the fixin’s and it is a meal made in heaven. The problem is that it seems like you need a dedicated drum smoker to be able to have the same effect at home.

 

It’s either that or travel to a BBQ shack which is not an option for everybody. If you have a gas grill it seems that you are out of luck. Well, the good news is that isn’t the case. You can make great BBQ with a gas grill including Blaze grills. This way you don’t need to have a grill for ordinary grilling and then another just for smoking meats and fish.

 

In this article, we will go over how you can use your regular old gas grill to make some mouth watering BBQ at home.

 

Cold vs hot smoking

 

First things first, you have to determine which kind of smoking system you want to do. There is cold smoking, usually for fish and there is hot smoking for things like brisket. Cold smoking can be tricky on a typical smoker but is actually easier to do in your gas grill.

 

When you want to cold smoke things like fish, cheese or even just some salt then a low temperature is essential as you are not trying to cook it. Typically, you’ll want to keep the temperature around 80°F so it doesn’t change the chemistry of the food, but gives it a delightful smoky flavor. You can set your temperature with a digital setting if your grill has that, otherwise use a regular thermometer.

 

For hot smoking, you actually want to cook the meat or fish so you use a higher temperature. It needs to be at a very low temperature to cook it slowly, however. Usually around 250°F for instance. It will take many hours to achieve the perfect balance between cooked and falling apart and the flavor of the smoke. Once again, the gas grill will give you superior temperature control.

 

Smoke source

 

You’ll need some wood to get the smoke which seems counterintuitive to use a gas grill to achieve. The nice thing is that there are pellets that can be used to create smoke. Along with the pellets there is a special cylinder that can be used to create the smoke.

 

Pick out your favorite type of hardwood like apple or hickory and get the pellets. Then they are inserted in the cylinder and placed in the grill. The heat from the grill will start to burn the pellets but in a slow smolder so they create a lot of smoke.

 

Have lots of pellets at the ready to recharge the cylinder if you are doing a long smoke for a big piece of meat. Typically a tube smoker can give you a few hours of smoke depending on how big it is and the type of pellets you use.

 

If you prefer wood chips then look for a smoker box in which you can put the chips and you get the same effect as you would with the pellet tube smoker.