can you grill by just putting woodchips in the grill an putting lighter fluid on them and then throw a match in? 
Well, kind of. You would have to burn the chips into charcoal then use the coal to cook.
Woodchips are usually used along with charcoal or gas to enhanse flavor, they are not really intended to cook with directly.
Directly, no, but they are used for smoking meats and fish. They can also be used to color in green text.
well can you grill cheese to make a sandwich?
I always use woodchips with my gas grill, in my opionion it gives better flavor than charcoal. You break the chips into small pieces, put them in a tuna can and soak them for 15 minutes. Then you dump off the water. The soaked chips then get set on the burner where they smolder and smoke like crazy to give lots of good flavor.
Use a hardwood, let it burn down to glowing coals and grill away.
By the way you probably will want to use something larger than chips so your fire don’t burn out very fast. And… don’t use a lighter fluid unless you like the taste of it, just start with kindling and add bigger pieces of wood as the fire burns hotter.
I use lump charcoal and some applewood chips (ah, I love my back yard, just trim some of those old trees once in a while). I soak the wood in water so it smokes and the flavor infuses the food.
if you want to do this, then why don’t you save yourself some problems and just cook over burning lighter fluid. :rolleyes:
Wood chips are used to add smoke flavor to foods during grilling. Lighting them and letting them burn to coals is actually almost like using charcoal made from that wood. Soaking them in water and then placing them in the grill to smolder produces a lot more smoke (and flavor)
Chips must be hardwood. Soft woods like pine give off a resiny smoke that is bleech.
Oak, hickory, apple and Cherry are among the more common.
The latest twist in wood chips are chips from Jack Daniels barrels and Tasbaco sauce barrels. Makes a wonderful smoke.