For Better Grilling, Try BBQ Wood Chips

There is nothing better then BBQ meat that has been cooked or smoked with wood chips. If you're a master BBQ chef, then you probably know the fine benefits of BBQ 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 have an electric, gas or charcoal BBQ you can add wood chips to get authentic barbecue flavor. There are special smoker boxes that can be placed in your gas and charcoal grills to add that special 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 will cause strong bursts of smoke which will simply make your meat 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. Before you use them, though, let the wood chips "drip dry" for a few minutes before you add them to your fire. You want the wood moist, not dripping wet.

If you're using a smoker in your grill, it's probably not necessary to soak the wood chips before you use them. Although soaked wood chips burn longer, if you are cooking a steak you might not need them to burn for that long.

You can get BBQ wood chips in a variety of flavors. They go from mesquite and hickory all the way to cabernet. The stores that sell these chips will have flavor guidelines so that you can choose the one that will give you the taste you want.

In general, if your meat is lighter, you'll need a milder wood chip flavor. You can also try "heavier" flavors with lighter meats, though, such as using mesquite with chicken, but start with fewer wood chips.

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. These types of woods include cherry or apple.

Maple and hickory BBQ wood chips have a strong flavor and are best used with beef, pork and poultry. Beef, duck and lamb go well with the strong mesquite wood chips, and oak, another strong flavor, is good with beef and ham.

But remember that barbecuing is all about the meat. Your fancy wood chips will just be going to waste on an inferior piece of meat that no amount of grilling expertise can retrieve. 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.