Expert: John Langenfelder - 2/15/2009

Question
John,
I've asked a question about this in the past, but have a follow up.

Ok, so, I bought hikory (and also mesquite) chips.  The Charmglow grill I have has a special smoker "tray" (no lava rocks or anything) that fits into a sliding compartment w/ it's own burner (a separate knob than the main burners).  The tray itself is metal and rectangular (about 2" wide and 12" long). When I pull the tray out from the front by its handle, it seems to be divided into 3 parts.  First is a dish/box open at the top that has holes on the sides and bottom that extends about 2", then comes an open area extending another 3", then a rectangular dish that is solid metal and open on top extending about 7". (this is a bit hard to explain, hopefully you can visualize it).  So, I'm wondering where the chips go.  Do they go only in the holed box?  Or both the solid and holed box?  Also, how long will one handful of chips smoke for?  Wow, this question is even making ME dizzy! Sorry in advance!  Hope it's not too complicated!!!

Answer
Greg,

Put the chips in the entire tray.  The design of the tray allows the smoke to exit the holes while the entire tray heats up the wood and causes it to burn and smoke.  The wood in the compartment with the holes will smoke much quicker than the closed off compartment.  A good handful or two of damp chips will probably smoke like this for an hour or so. That should be more than enough time for anything you do. For steaks, chops, chicken, burgers (small items), put the chips as you are heating the grill, to get the tray hot to start smoldering the chips.  It's nice to get them to start smoking before cooking smaller items.  For roasts and such that is not as critical because the time it takes to cook a roast is much longer.

Stop spending so much time thinking so hard about it and just do it.  You won't screw it up and you'll learn in the process.