For Better Grilling, Try BBQ Wood Chips
There is nothing better then meat that has been cooked or smoked with BBQ 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. You can also buy a special smoker box to place in your gas or charcoal grill so that you can get that “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. If you soak wood chips in water for about 15 minutes before you use them, you’ll slow down their burn and make them smoke more. Make sure you let the wood drip dry for a few minutes before you add it to the fire. You want the wood moist, not dripping wet.
If you’re using a smoker in your grill, it’s probably not necessary to soak the wood chips before you use them. Although soaked wood chips burn longer, if you are cooking a steak you might not need them to burn for that long.
Wood smoking chips or BBQ wood chips are available in a wide variety of flavors. They go from mesquite and hickory all the way to cabernet. The stores that sell BBQ wood chips will have flavor guides to help you wade your way through the new age of wood chips.
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 a mild wood chip that you can use with veal, poultry or 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. A substandard cut of meat is not going to be improved significantly by the wood chip you use. Make sure you have a good cut that is fresh and well prepared.
So the next time you decide to grill a great piece of meat consider using some of these BBQ wood chips and savor the great flavor and aroma coming off your grill.
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