Flavored Wood Chips

Flavored Wood Chips – Add that great smoky taste to any food simply by using flavored wood chips in your grill.

Flavored wood chips are a great way to add that smoky taste you are looking for and they come in a wide variety of flavors. The traditional method of smoking meat is by building a fire with hardwoods, letting the fire burn down to hot coals and then cooking the food by indirect heat. This can take 12 to 14 hours or more depending on the amount of food you are cooking and you have to add wood to the fire every three or four hours.

By using flavored wood chips you can shorten the cooking time and still add some sweet smoky taste. You start a few hours ahead of time by soaking the flavored wood chips in water. This will saturate them and prevent them from burning up too fast in the grill. Next, drain the excess water, wrap the flavored wood chips in aluminum foil or put them in a smoker box (see my page about smoker boxes) in either case, leave some openings so the smoke can escape. Now just place them close enough to the fire so they will smolder but not so close that they burn up too fast. This will take a little trial and error. Last, place your food on the grill and shut the lid to hold that smoke in.

You will want to experiment with the type of flavored wood chips you like best. Here is a list of the most popular kinds.

Apple - Apple has a light, fruity, slightly sweet aroma and is commonly used with Pork and Poultry.

Cherry – Has a subtle sweet fruity flavor.

Hickory – This is probably one of the most popular flavored wood chips. The flavor is strong so you may want to mix some Oak with it.

Mesquite – This is another very popular flavored wood chips that was made famous in Texas style BBQ. It has a medium to strong flavor.

Oak – This has a flavor that is in between the others; I would call it a medium flavor. It is a good one to have on hand because it mixes well with the other flavored wood chips.

Get yourself some flavored wood chips and start sampling all the different varieties that are available. Your family and friends will be asking for the secret to your great tasting food.