For Better Grilling, Try BBQ Wood Chips
Tuesday, November 4th, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed
Terrific New eBook On How To Broil Delicious Foods 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. However, lots of people don’t have a clue why this product is so popular. Wood chips are used in your grill in addition to charcoal or gas. If you’re not already using wood to cook your food, the only way you’re going to get true smoke flavor is to add wood to your grill fire. 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. When you use wood chips, take care to keep them burning quite slowly. The resulting heavy smoke will spoil your food with an acrid taste. 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 chips are available in a large range of varieties that cater to all tastes. They go from mesquite and hickory all the way to cabernet. The stores that sell these chips will have flavor guidelines so that you can choose the one that will give you the taste you want. In general, if your meat is lighter, you’ll need a milder wood chip flavor. But it also doesn’t hurt to experiment and try mesquite with chicken, just begin with fewer wood chips then you would normally use. If you choose alder wood chips, these are great to use with pork or seafood. Fruit wood chips are also mild and are best used with poultry, veal and pork. These types of woods include cherry or apple. Hickory or maple 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 mesquite wood chips, while beef or ham go well with oak wood chips, which is another strong flavor. Just remember that BBQ wood chips are a flavor enhancer and not the meal itself, so don’t skimp on your meats. If you don’t have a good piece of meat, there is no wood chip in existence that will make your meat taste any better. Make sure your meat or chicken is fresh and from a reputable butcher. Don’t settle for just a plain old grilled steak or bland chicken breast cooked on bare coals – cook like a pro and enjoy the vibrant aromas and flavors that come from cooking with BBQ wood chips.
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August 26th, 2008 at 11:09 am
Great tips! Fits well into the gas-coals debate in The Backyard community: https://backyard.netshops.com/#l=topic&i=495
Regardless of your personal preference, wood chips can improve ANY grilling experience!