Help with 1st smoke on gas grill

hills said:

 
Hi there, I've got a 3 burner Broil King gas grill and I recently purchases one of those 12" pellet tubes with some apple pellets.  I would like to do up a rib roast low and slow, but first I'd like to test the smoke out on some chicken leg quarters so I can get comfortable with it.  Where in the grill should I place the pellet tube?  I don't want to ignite the pellets or make too much smoke.  Since my gas grill doesn't have any smoke vents, I am worried about over-smoking.  Any tips would be appreciated.  Thanks!

Click to expand...

Hope I'm not too late for the party. I started smoking pork spare ribs 15 years ago on an old Brinkmann gas grill with a burned-out soup can for wood chips placed on the lava-rock grate next to the burner...it can be done, indirect heat and all.

Put your AMNPTS away from the lit burner, closer to the meat on the off-side of the grill towards the front. Light a burner on the opposite side your meat is on. Don't worry about too much smoke, because your grill will ventilate quite a bit out the rear of the lid. If you have a temp probe for monitoring grate temps is best...place it through a small piece of wood (or a potato) with the bulk of the probe exposed with the tip. Locate the probe between the meat and the lit burner, right next to the meat...that gives a good representation of your grate temp for indirect cooking with a gas grill. Remember that your off-side grate temps (far side of the meat away from the lit burner) will be lower, so adjust temp accordingly. You can also rotate the meat 180* on the grate about 1/2 way through cooking to even things out more.

Keep the lid closed to maintain temps as much as possible. 250-325* for chicken...rib roast can go hot & fast (275-325*) or low & slow (225*)...doesn't really matter...hot & fast will give a bit more rainbow effect in the meat vs low & slow...that's about all I've noticed, other than a bit more rendered fat with low & slow.

Oh, if you use a drip pan under the meat, it will baffle heat a little bit getting across to the off-side, so if you use them, remove the lava-rocks, etc, and use a very shallow pan, if possible. A simple pan fashioned out of foil can do the job nicely.

A small load in the tube will be plenty for chicken or ribs...chicken pieces don't need much smoke time...they're small...30-45 minutes.

Eric

The only thing I will add is: Do not trust the temp gauge of your grill, get the chamber temp dialed in with an external probe, or if you don't have one and don't want to spend that money (or just have only one that you are going to probe in the meat), go to your hardware store and buy the Weber replacement temperature gauges for grills, and drill a small hole 3" or so above the grates in the face of your grill to mount it. Youll want to be able to monitor the temp accurately to get a good (and safe) result.

And to make another placement suggestion, for example: use only the far left burner, place the tube to the far left of the grill as far as you can get it to the right wall, then put the meat in between the two, close to the AMNTS without touching it.

As Travisty says.........do not trust the built in thermometer. I don't ever remember anyone saying the factory therm was anywhere close to right.