BBQ Smoker

Here is a quick tip on how to build a smoke pouch to turn your grill into a BBQ smoker (sort of):

Materials:

• Wood Chips (get them at any box store)
• Heavy Duty Aluminum Foil
• Bowl to soak the wood
• Knife

Directions:

1. 1. Soak the wood chips in a bowl of water for about 30 minutes.
   2. Put a handful (or several, depending on how long you will be grilling) onto the middle of a sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil.  About a cup of wood chips should be good for most grilling.  For meats requiring longer grilling times, like beer can chicken, go ahead and make two smoke pouches so you can throw the other one on the grill when the first stops smoking.
   3. Fold all ends of the aluminum foil together to make a burrito-looking pouch.

4. Turn the pouch over and poke about 10 holes in the bottom of the pouch with a knife or fork.

5. Lift the grate of your gas grill and insert the pouch over a burner shield.

6. If you don’t want to lift the grill grate (or don’t have the room), you can try this alternative that I have been using a lot lately.  It doesn’t look good, but it gets the job done.  Use 2 bricks to suspend a small rack (like a small oven rack) a few inches off of the grill.  The point is to get the meat above the smoke so that it circulates around the meat.  Here’s a picture of my new preferred method (shown here with a delicious grilled pork loin roast:

7. Light your grill and turn it to high heat.

8. When the pouch starts to smoke, you are ready to grill!

Remember, it doesn’t take much exposure to smoke to give your grilled food a nice hint of smoke flavor!  Just grill your food like you normally would, only keep the lid closed as much as possible to allow for the smoke to circulate around the meat.

Got more time and want to get into more authentic barbeque?  Why not make your own bbq smoker?  Jump over to this link to learn how to build a smoker.  You will be smoking whole chickens “slow and low” before you know it!