How to Add Smoke to a Gas Grill

Co-authored by wikiHow Staff

Last Updated: February 24, 2023

Part of what makes cooking on a charcoal grill distinctive is the smoky flavor that the coals impart to the food. A gas grill is much easier to use, but it doesn't allow for the natural smoky flavors of charcoal grilling. Luckily, adding a smoky flavor to food cooked on a gas grill is very easy! You can build a homemade smoker box suitable for any gas grill in only a few minutes.

Part 1

Part 1 of 3:

Prepping for Smoking

1
Practice using your grill. Before making any modification to your gas grill, be sure you’re comfortable using it. You should know how hot it gets, if it heats unevenly, and where your fire extinguisher is stored. If you’re new to grilling, try a few practice runs with small, quick meals like salmon before moving on to smoking.
2
Put your grill in an open area. If you usually grill in a covered area like under a gazebo or shade sail, move it out into the open before trying smoking. Smoke can discolor cloth and wood, and can make it difficult to breathe in an enclosed area.^{[1]
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3
Choose wood chips for flavor. You can buy wood chips at any store that sells barbecue supplies. Your local grocery store may even have them. Different woods impart different smoke flavors, so be sure to match your wood choice with the kind of food you want to cook.
- Oak and hickory are suitable for anything and are great starter woods if you’re new to smoking.
- Use apple for fish and vegetables.
- If you’re cooking poultry, try apple, pecan, or cherry.
- Mesquite is a very strong wood and is best for tough, larger cuts like beef brisket.
- You can buy larger wood chunks if you’re smoking a very large piece of meat--the process is still the same!
4
Check to make sure your wood chips are food-grade. Always buy food-grade wood chips. Don’t use scrap wood or construction-grade wood--it’s treated with chemicals that can poison you or make your food taste bad.^{[2]
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Part 2

Part 2 of 3:

Building a Smoker Box

1
Buy a foil baking pan. Buy a disposable foil baking pan at your local grocery store. This will be the base for your smoker box. The size of the foil pan depends on the size of your grill, but in general, the baking pan should be less than one quarter the size of your entire grill surface.^{[3]
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- If your grill is small, you can fold the pan in half or simply fold over heavy-duty aluminum foil to make a packet.
2
Measure out your wood chips. For most grills, 1 cup (240 ml) of wood chips per smoker box will be fine. You’ll need 1 cup (240 ml) for every half-hour of smoking you plan to do, so if you want to smoke something for several hours, prepare additional packets while the first set is smoking.^{[4]
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3
Soak your wood chips in water for an hour. Put your wood chips in a bowl of water and let them soak for an hour. This lets them get wet enough to produce lots of smoke. You can also soak them in wine, whiskey, or juice instead for a more flavorful effect.^{[5]
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- You can smoke with dry wood, but it’s much easier to get a flavorful effect with damp wood.
4
Put the wood chips in the pan. Drain the wood chips and put them in the foil pan. If you’re planning to use multiple sets of chips during cooking, keep the bowl of water handy for when you’re ready to prep the next set.^{[6]
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5
Cover the pan with heavy-duty foil. Make sure the top of your pan is sealed with aluminum foil. If you are making the entire smoker box out of foil, make sure all the edges are folded over securely.^{[7]
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6
Pierce a few small holes in the pan. Use a knife or a fork to pierce a few holes in the top of the pan. About one hole every 2 inches (5.1 cm) will be fine, but it’s okay to have more. Be careful not to tear the foil--you don’t want the wood chips to spill out in your grill.^{[8]
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Part 3

Part 3 of 3:

Smoking Your Food

1
Put the smoker box on one corner of the cooking grate. If one part of the grill cooks hotter than the rest of it, put the box there. If not, any corner is fine!^{[9]
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- You can also put the smoker box under the grate, but it is much harder to replace it during cooking.
2
Preheat your grill. Turn your grill to the temperature your recipe calls for and wait until it’s thoroughly heated. You can close the grill to gather as much smoke as possible, but you don’t have to close it yet.^{[10]
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3
Wait until the wood begins to smoke. Wet chips will give off steam before they start really smoking, so be sure the wood is actually smoking before you start cooking. Steam is white, odorless, and rises quickly; smoke is darker, has a smell, and rises more slowly.^{[11]
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4
Add your food to the grill. Avoid letting your food actually touch the smoker box. If it’s touching the box, it might not cook evenly all over. Space out your food evenly on the grill to let it get the full smoky effect.^{[12]
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- You can try putting the food on an unlit burner and letting the heat from the rest of the grill smoke it, but this isn’t a requirement.
5
Close your grill. Keep the grill closed for as long as possible. It’s okay if you need to turn the food or baste it, but resist the temptation to open the grill to check for smoke. Every time you open it, the smoke will get out!
6
Cook according to the recipe. Cook your food for as long as your recipe calls for. This will depend on what you’re cooking, but in general, fish and small cuts of boneless meat will cook much more quickly than large cuts or bone-in meat.^{[13]
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7
Replace the wood chips every half hour. If you’re going to be cooking for more than half an hour, you’ll need to replace the wood chips. You can prepare a second smoker box in advance and simply switch it out, or you can remove the box from the grill and add new wet chips before returning it.^{[14]
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- Be very careful removing and replacing the foil.
8
Remove the food from the grill. When your food is cooked, pull it off the grill. Remove any food debris on the cooking grate and let your meat sit for a few minutes before cutting and serving.
9
Take the smoker box off the grill after it’s cooled. Turn the grill off and let it cool completely. You can reuse the smoker box, so don't throw it out! When you remove the smoker box, avoid touching the wood chips--they might still be hot. Wood chips are a fire hazard, so be very careful disposing of them. Soak them in water and put them in a metal container before throwing them out.^{[15]
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