Use BBQ Wood Chips to Grill

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Use BBQ Wood Chips to Grill
By. Ashley King

Take a tip from the experts: use BBQ wood chips to spice up your grilling. Connoisseurs know that good barbeque takes a lot more than just slapping some meat on a grill. Renowned experts in the field such as Bobby Flay, Dave Foley, Butch Lupinetti and many others swear by BBQ wood chips. With the summer grilling season upon us, here are some tips on how to introduce BBQ wood chips into your grilling and start cooking like the pros.

Wood chips are used in your grill in addition to charcoal or gas. They may be sprinkled atop coals or placed within a small smoker box in a gas or electric grill, and the smoke they create lends a distinctive aroma and appealing taste to all of your grilled meats.

BBQ wood chips take your grilling to a whole new level. 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. Make sure you read the instructions for your grill before trying 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. Make sure you let the wood drip dry for a few minutes before you add it to the fire. You want the wood moist, not dripping wet.

When using a small smoker in your grill you don't necessarily have to soak your BBQ wood chips first. Although soaked wood chips burn longer, if you are cooking a steak you might not need them to burn for that long.

Wood chips are available in a large range of varieties that cater to all tastes; your local vendor should be able to advise you on pairing a wood chip with a particular meat.

In general, if your meat is lighter, you'll need a milder wood chip flavor. You can also try "heavier" flavors with lighter meats, though, such as using mesquite with chicken. If you're going to do this, try using a few wood chips instead of a lot to see what this does to your flavor.

If you use alder wood chips, these are great to use with pork or seafood. Fruit wood chips are a mild wood chip that you can use with veal, poultry or pork. These types of woods include cherry or apple.

Hickory or maple barbecue wood chips are strongly flavored and should be used with poultry, pork or beef. Lamb, duck and beef also are great meats to use with strong mesquite wood chips. Beef or ham go well with oak wood chips, which is another strong wood chip flavor.

When you barbecue, your first focus should be the meat. A substandard cut of meat is not going to be improved significantly by the wood chip you use. Make sure the meat you get is fresh and comes from a reputable supplier.

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.

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About The Author, Ashley King

Ashley King loves to barbecue, and is editor of the Home and Garden Section at i-KnowHow | Information for Life, where you'll also find ideas and tips on family, hobbies, personal finance, technology basics and much more.

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