Bring your BBQ to life and follow our quick guide to hot smoking in a BBQ. All you need is any BBQ, gas or charcoal with a lid and some ventilation, so most major brands will work from ceramic grills, to horizontal grills to kettle BBQs. You can even get a hot smoke wood flavour hit from an open BBQ.
PREPARE YOUR BBQ
First, bring your BBQ to a medium to low heat. Use only the purest charcoal or an ecological compressed briquette. You need to establish a long low burning fire to create a ‘low and slow’ cooking environment. Hot smoking is best achieved at half the temperature and twice the cooking time of a conventional oven and this will deliver the most succulent, flavourful results, well beyond a regular BBQ session.
LIGHTING YOUR COALS
We recommend you avoid using any chemical content in your BBQ fuelling, so only use natural firelighters or invest in an electric firelighter. A Charcoal Chimney Starter is an invaluable accessory accelerating the lighting process and creating top up batches for those longer cooking sessions.
ADD WOOD CHIPS
Choose a wood flavour to complement the food you are cooking (see our Guide to using wood flavour) and add a handful to a smoker box or create a foil pouch. Douse with water. This protects the wood from burning too quickly and promotes longer, mellower smoke production. Place the box of foil directly onto your heat source, or above your gas burners. As the steel or foil heats up, the wood will begin to smoulder releasing its smoky flavours.
SMOKE SLOWLY
Close your BBQ lid and cook gently. For an extra infusion of moisture and to help keep temperatures low fill a heat proof bowl with water and place to one side of your cooking area. Wood smoke flavour is most readily absorbed during the first part of cooking. Just a handful is all you need for a one hour cook for fish fillets, chicken and meat cuts, but you may need to add more for an epic slow cook such as brisket or pulled pork. Use a temperature probe to check your food is cooked through then allow to rest for 5 to 10 minutes to allow all the flavours to mingle and settle and the fibres to relax.
Using a BBQ to cold smoke? Read more here.
COLD SMOKING TIPSINSPIRATION
