I think I want to give this method a try for my birthday party this weekend. I figure I'll do a small batch of chicken breasts on Friday to see how it works so I'm not experimenting with my guests on Saturday. I've been searching the forum for the past couple days, and it seems like a lot of people are adding some charcoal briquettes to their wood pan to get the chips or chunks burning/smoking a little better. So here are my questions:
1. What type of charcoal do you use? I've read a post where someone mentioned Walmart/Sam's brand worked pretty well. Do I need to get the fancy wood stuff, or will briquettes work?
2. Do you break up the charcoal before adding it?
3. Do you light the charcoal before adding it?
4. Do you continue to add charcoal throughout the smoking process?
5. Do chunks work better than chips when using a little charcoal?
I'm really excited about my new smoker, but I need to get more smoke flavor in the meat. I don't think the element alone is enough to produce the kind of smoke flavor I want. Any advise from all you smoker pros would be greatly appreciated.
1. What type of charcoal do you use? I've read a post where someone mentioned Walmart/Sam's brand worked pretty well. Do I need to get the fancy wood stuff, or will briquettes work?
2. Do you break up the charcoal before adding it?
3. Do you light the charcoal before adding it?
4. Do you continue to add charcoal throughout the smoking process?
5. Do chunks work better than chips when using a little charcoal?
I'm really excited about my new smoker, but I need to get more smoke flavor in the meat. I don't think the element alone is enough to produce the kind of smoke flavor I want. Any advise from all you smoker pros would be greatly appreciated.