How To Smoke Your Steaks Using A Grill

If you don't own a smoker, you can easily turn your standard grill with a lid into one with a few simple tools and tricks. If you have a charcoal grill, pack your coals on one side of the grill and get them burning, while soaking some wood chips in water for 30 minutes to prevent them from burning too quickly. When your grill has reached between 225 and 250 degrees Fahrenheit, throw a handful of the wood chips onto the coals. 

Pop your steaks onto the side of the grill that's opposite to where your coals are burning (the side with indirect heat). You also have the option of placing an aluminum foil pan of water beneath them, which will distribute heat more evenly although it doesn't actually make the meat more moist – it's up to you if you use this method; some folks swear by it. Now shut the lid. Smoking your steaks can take up to an hour. Open your grill at 30 to 45 minutes and allow a little smoke to escape. Test the internal temperature of your meat, and depending on how you like your steaks done, aim for the following temperatures: An internal meat temperature of 120 to 125 degrees Fahrenheit for rare steaks, 125 to 135 degrees for medium done, and 140 degrees for well done.

A gas grill will work pretty much the same way. Get your gas burners going on one side of the grill, preheating it to between 225 and 250 degrees Fahrenheit. Pop your soaked wood chips into a small aluminum foil container with holes poked into the bottom (or a smoker box if you have one), directly over one of the lit burners. Then lay your steaks on the indirect-heat side and allow to slow cook.

Start by getting good cuts of meat and prepping them in advance. The best cuts for smoking include tri-tip, top sirloin, and flank steaks, which are relatively lean cuts enabling them to pick up smoky flavors more quickly. If you want an added flavor punch, look for steaks with a higher fat content and marbling, like brisket, ribeye, T-bone, or porterhouse. Keep your seasonings simple — a good rub all over the steak with olive oil, then a few generous grinds of salt and pepper. Let your steaks marinate for 30 minutes or so before cooking.

Choosing the right wood chips is also important, as they impart different flavors into your steaks. Great wood chips for smoking steaks include mesquite, oak, hickory, or pecan chips. Mesquite has a lovely, strong earthy flavor that works well with the robust beef flavor of steaks. It does, however, tend to spark, so be careful if using it on a gas grill. Hickory smoke gives meat a solid and sweet, bacon-backed flavor, with pecan being a bit more mild and with a nutty note, but similar flavors to hickory. Oak is probably the most commonly used wood for smoking, delivering a robust fruitiness.

Lastly, don't open and close the lid every 20 seconds to check the doneness of the meat, as this releases much of the smoke you're trying to capture in your meat, and also lets some of the heat out. Give it at least 15 minutes before checking the internal temperature of the meat with a meat thermometer.