5 Easy Steps to Using a Smoker Box
Step 1: Clean and Preheat
Using a clean grill brush, clean your grill grates to help your barbecue meals cook and taste better.
Preheat your grill for 10-20 minutes with the burners set to high. This will help shorten the time needed to reach your normal grill temperature.
Step 2: Fill Smoker Box with Smoking Chips
Fill up slightly more than half the smoker box with your choice of flavoured smoker chips.
You can use smoker wood chunks instead if you want them to burn slower and more consistently.
Step 3: Place Smoker Box In Grill
Close the box and place your smoker box on top of a burner to keep it as close to the heat source as possible. For a charcoal grill, place the smoker box on top of your coals. Do not place too much charcoal around or on top of your smoker box to avoid embers entering the smoker box and setting your wood chips on fire.
Step 4: Turn Down Burners Once Box is Smoking
When your smoker box starts to smoke, turn down your burners to your regular cooking temperature of 225 to 250 degrees Fahrenheit (110 to 120 degrees Celsius). Leave the burner under the smoker box on a higher temperature setting than your other burners to continue producing smoke while cooking. You want to keep your wood chips burning between 550 and 750 degrees Fahrenheit (290 to 400 degrees Celsius).
Step 5: Place Food on Grill and Close Lid
Place your meats and veggies directly on the grill over unlit burners and close the lid. Depending on what you are barbecuing, the cooking time can vary. Cooking slowly allows the food to properly absorb that smokey flavour, so allow up to 1.5 hours of cooking time per pound of meat.
For poultry, your cooking temperature should range between 160 to 175 degrees Fahrenheit (70 to 80 degrees Celsius), and for red meats, cooking temperature should go up to 190 to 200 degrees Fahrenheit (87 to 93 degrees Celsius).
If you discover that your smoking chips have burned through while cooking, you can always replenish the smoker box during the process, just be careful to use fully heat-resistent tongs when moving your smoker box on and off the grill.
Other Easy Ways to Enjoy Smoked Meals
Grilling Planks
Grilling planks are a great way to infuse your barbecued meats and vegetables with extra flavour. Simple and traditional, the planks are made of a type of wood that adds rich flavour without overwhelming lighter meats.
Maple is well-suited to use with chicken and pork, and cedar works wonders on seafood. The planks are cut into practical rectangles, giving you plenty of space to spread your raw ingredients out. View Grilling Planks.
Smoker Bags
Easily infuse your meats and vegetables with a natural wood flavour. The wood chip flavouring is already inside, sealed between the bottom two layers of foil and held in place by natural wood syrups, so preparation of your meal is a snap. The fish, poultry, meat, tofu or vegetables can be placed in the bag with seasonings to your taste - no fats, oils or salt need to be added.
Fold the opening end three or four times to seal and press firmly. Place on the medium-high barbeque grill for the times given. The bag will balloon while cooking. Remove and cut the top open with sharp knife for your moist and tasty smoked meal. Serve food from the foil bag and then toss away the bag. Check out our Alder smoker bag here.
