Use BBQ Wood Chips to Intensify Your Grilling

You might not know that barbecue can take on a whole new dimension if you use BBQ wood chips. If you are an avid griller then you already know the reason for using barbecue wood chips. However, lots of people don't have a clue why this product is so popular.

Wood chips are very small pieces of wood that are added to your BBQ to create smoke. 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 use a charcoal, gas or electric grill, wood chips will give you 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. Read the instructions for your particular grill before you try doing this.

The key to using wood chips is to not let them burn too quickly. This creates intense bursts of smoke that can make food bitter. By soaking wood chips in water for about 15 minutes you can slow down the combustion and lengthen the time in which the smoke is created. Make sure you let the wood drip dry for a few minutes before you add it to the fire. The wood chips should be moist rather than truly wet.

If you're using a smoker in your grill, it's probably not necessary to soak the wood chips before you use them. Soaked wood chips will burn longer, but if you're cooking a steak, you probably don't want a long, slow grilling.

You can get BBQ wood chips in a variety of flavors. You can try cabernet, hickory or mesquite. 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, the lighter the meat, the milder the wood chip you need to use. 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. Fruit woods include apple and cherry.

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.

When you barbecue, your first focus should be the meat. A substandard cut of meat is not going to be improved significantly by the wood chip you use. Make sure the meat you get is fresh and comes from a reputable supplier.

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.