Bought a new grill. It’s a Brinkman 5 burner with a small smoker in it. The smoker is too small for something like a turkey, which is OK. I see the smoker as a possible bonus to the grill.
So, I would like to try it out. I’ve deep fried turkeys, and cook quite a bit. I’m not afraid of a challenge.
Looking for ideas to just test it out. Could I just smoke some thick pork chops? Do I marinate them first?
No one’s home here in IMHO, they’re all grilling out over at Cafe Society. Moved.
samclem Moderator
Smoker on a gas grill?
Odd.
I wouldn’t know the first thing about using a non-charcoal smoker, but try smoking some natural casing hot dogs for an hour at about 225. Holy God, it turns the pedestrian into the sublime. Just make sure you get the ones with the natural casing.
It is kinda odd, I admit. It’s underneath the grill. Thought that if nothing else, it would work as a warming drawer sort of thing for parties. Keep burgers warm and maybe even smoke them a bit after they are cooked.
Interesting.
I smoke chickens on the gas grill on occasion. Tried a turkey breast last week and that took nearly 12 hours, so I don’t know that I’ll be doing that again. And of course the technique with your grill would be different from what I did, since my gas grill doesn’t have any smoker attachment.
Steps which are different on mine from how you’ll do it:
It’s easy to do this on my grill actually: I soak wood chips in water for a bit, then wrap them up into several packets with heavy duty aluminum foil. You can buy dedicated smoker boxes which are cast iron, to hold the chips, but honestly I think the aluminum foil is easier!
Then you remove one grate (typically one off to the side; mine only has two grates). You place a foil pan under the other side, under the grate (this catches drippings, keeping you from having semi-raw animal juices on the floor / patio under the grill, or inside the grill).
You place the foil packets, or smoker box, directly on the flavorizer bars or lava stones, poke a few holes in the foil (the box comes pre-perforated), and then turn the grill on to a low temp - but JUST on that side. Not on the other side.
Then you put the meat on the side without the chips / heat.
Steps which will be the same:
Insert a remote thermometer if you have one (I HIGHLY recommend this) into the meat and set the readout portion of it on the shelf beside the grill. You close the grill lid, and watch for a bit to make sure that the temp is getting into the right range (225-250 or thereabouts).
Then you wait for a few hours. I’ve had a whole chicken (6+ pounds) take 5-6 hours. Open the grill as seldom as possible - I do typically every 2 hours or so to replace the woodchip packets.
Recipes: Well, there are TONS of dry-rub recipes out there. Marinating / brining is also a very tasty thing to do to the meat before you plunk it on the grill/smoker. So I don’t have anything specific for ya.
I smoked a pork shoulder on my Weber charcoal grill today. This is something I’ve done maybe 6 times now, from a little hand-written recipe I wrote down as my friend from Georgia told it to me.
But, every time I do it I want to make sure I do it right (the cooking is the finesse part, not the recipe) so I looked for some guidance online and this page was quite helpful. They include instructions for using a smoker box on a gas grill.
I didn’t look at the other pages on the site but I assume they also include instructions for a smoker box.
One thing I would add to their instructions (for pulled pork) is to put in your drip pan 1/2 c. of Frank’s Red Hot, 1 bulb of garlic broken into cloves and about 1-2 c. of water. I don’t put anything on my pulled pork but salt & pepper, but I smoke it with that in the drip pan and it’s marvelous.
Pork loins are good for smoking. A nice side of salmon would be good too.
Brining is a good prep.
I avoid the commercial rubs as most of them have a bitter chemical taste to me. You can make your own from a lot of things a well-stocked pantry has at hand.
Some styles of BBQ use three methods - the brine, the mop (while you are smoking) and the sauce. This is high maintenance cookin’ but simple is also nice.
Thanks all. I’ll check out those sites.
I’m really looking for something easy to start with. I haven’t been able to get the grill completely put together yet. Getting rain and snow.
Ooh, forgot this one, which is nice and easy…
Tell all your friends you’re going to smoke a fattie.
A fattie is a recipe for one of those tubes of pork breakfast sausage you get in the grocery store. Unwrap it, keeping its tube shape. Cover it in your favorite dry rub (I like one with a bit of heat to it for this one) and smoke it to 160 internal. You can, if you choose, first flatten it out and stuff it with cheese and peppers, then roll it back up again, rub and smoke. I never bother. I like mine sliced thinly, then fried with cheese and put on a biscuit. Yum!
Another I forgot, Atomic Buffalo Turds, are great for parties. Take jalapeno peppers, cut them lengthwise and remove stems, seeds, and membranes. Fill them with cream cheese, then put the halves back together, wrap each stuffed pepper with a half-piece of bacon and seal them with two toothpicks. Cover them with dry rub and smoke them until the bacon’s crispy.
Otherwise known as Armadillo Eggs.
Sure, you can do pork chops. I would probably brine a lean cut of meat like that to ensure a moist chop. Other than pork loin and perhaps chicken breast, I don’t like to brine anything else. Brined meat has a different texture than meat that hasn’t been brined, and it’s a matter of taste as to which you prefer.
Personally, I would go with a couple racks of ribs. Smoke them at anywhere from 225 - 275 for three to six hours (depending on temp and cut of ribs. Loin/baby-back ribs tend to be easier and more forgiving.) One popular fool-proof method is the 3-2-1 method. Smoke for 3 hours (with salt & pepper or dry rub), foil and continue cooking for another 2 hours, take the foil off and finish/crisp them up for an hour or throw them over the grill. I personally do not like this method (it makes the meat too tender and fall-off-the-bone), but a lot of people love it, and it is pretty much foolproof.
Thanks again all. I still have not been able to get the grill outside. It snowed again today. We are both working and my Wife is still getting over her bike accident. The grill still needs to have some easy parts put on. I’m trying to keep it light so I can move the grill. It weighs 165 lbs.
We will be having a large party for my Wife’s 50th b-day in August. Large for us, 20-40 people. And kids. I have some time to experiment. I will do shish-kabob and burgers, and I think smoke some ribs. And we have some vegetarians and vegans coming too. So I have to plan for that.
I haven’t been able to find any pics of the innards of that beast. Could you post some?
I can’t tell how big that is. One of my favorites for a vertical smoker though, is the wood chips as per Mama above, then take a good, fatty pork tenderloin, butterfly it, stuff it with some baby spinach and feta cheese, then roll it back up.
Next, roll the whole loin in cracked pepper, rosemary, and sage. Put that on the top rack.
Get some decent turkey breasts (or a small bird / large chicken), put that on the rack immediately below the pork loin. Walk away, and let it cook (don’t peek often, the remote thermometer is handy).
In a couple hours, you have a wonderfully flavored pork loin, and as a bonus, the dripping spiced juices from the pork keep the turkey basted, moist, and adds a great flavor.