How to Use a BBQ Smoker

Barbecue smokers allow you to cook your meat using indirect heat. The interior of the smoker fills with smoke from wood chips that impart different flavors to your meat depending on the type of wood you choose. This type of cooking is a lower temperature than regular grilling or even cooking in your oven, so the meat tenderizes as it cooks.

1. Select your wood chips carefully. You can use a wide variety of wood types in your barbecue smoker, but make sure you purchase chips that are designed specifically for cooking in barbecue smokers. Other types of chips can impart unsavory flavors into the meat.


2. Soak the wood chips in clean water. This keeps the wood from burning, instead causing it to smoke. Make sure you soak the wood for at least 1/2 hour to ensure it is fully dampened.


3. Place charcoal in the bottom of the barbecue smoker. The coals heat the wood chips and keep them smoking while your meat is cooking.


4. Light the charcoal and allow it to burn until it turns gray. Layer the wet wood chips over the smoking charcoal and close the barbecue smoker.


5. Let the wood smoke for at least 15 minutes. Once you begin to see smoke curling out of the smoker, you can add the meat.


6. Add wood chips every three hours or as needed. Add charcoal as well as it burns away, because that is the source of heat for the wood chips. The temperature on your barbecue smoker should stay consistently above 200 degrees F.


7. Remove your meat after it is fully cooked. Cooking times depend on the type and size of the meat. Use a meat thermometer to test the meat before removing it from the smoker.