You know I was just thinking while writing this how important our wood chips are in making a great barbecue. Wood is the real thing-there is artificial sweet smoke, and liquid smoke to add to food but that is not a real barbecue and you can taste the difference!
Getting the best smoke taste in your food requires the right kind of wood chips. Without the proper wood chips, your food will never acquire the signature ‘high street‘ restaurant taste that you have grown to love so much.
In order to help you get the best taste, we have selected 5 wood chips that are extremely popular among seasoned smokers. Whether you use an electric or propane smoker, these will definitely add the desired taste to your food.
1. Traeger Hickory BBQ Pellets – Best for Beginner
Traeger is amongst the most known brands of wood chips for smokers. They have ten flavors of wood chips (Alder, Apple, Cherry, Hickory, Maple, Mesquite, Oak, Pecan, Texas Beef Blend and Turkey) for smoking. According to Traeger, their wood pellets are made from 100% natural hardwood which means no fillers, binding agents, bark material or artificial additives.
Applewood chips create less dense smoke and are best for pork and poultry. Cherry wood chips are mild and create fruity smoke and are good for fish, pork and poultry.
The Pecan wood chips are designed to add a pungent and sweet flavor to your food. It is highly recommended to use Weber Pecan Wood Chips when cooking poultry or ham.
Whiskey is Best for large cuts like Brisket and pork.
The wood pellets come in a 20 lbs pack which gives you plenty of pellets to cook just about anything you want in any quantity.
2. Western Wood Chips
When cooking poultry, ham, pork, sausages or beef, the number one choice has always been hickory wood chips. The Hickory BBQ smoked chips by Western are very popular amongst seasoned smokers. These chips can be used with an electric or propane smoker or even with charcoal grills.
Adding hickory BBQ chips to your smoker will yield a very heavy and strong bacon flavor on just about anything you decide to cook.
Beside hickory Western have six more flavor wood chips: Cherry, Maple, Mesquite, Peach, Pecan and Post Oak
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3. Jack Daniel’s Wood BBQ Smoking Chips
If you love the signature taste of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey then look no further than the Jack Daniel’s Wood BBQ Smoking Chips.
The chips are made from white oak aging barrels that contain the signature whiskey. Over the aging period, the Tennessee Whiskey is stored in the barrels and often taken out and put back in. During this process, the oak barrels absorb a lot of whiskeys.
When the barrels become very aged, Jack Daniel’s converts them into wood chips for smoking your food.
This means when you are smoking beef, poultry, pork, ham or just about anything, your food will acquire a smoked taste of the famous branded whiskey.
This is a perfect way to enjoy Jack Daniel’s on your food. The Jack Daniel’s Wood BBQ Smoking Chips are available in 1.6 lbs bags which are enough for one big meal.
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4. Weber Wood Chips
Weber BBQ Smoking Chips are another popular apple BBQ chips. They have four varieties of wood chips (Apple, Cherry, Pecan and Whiskey) for smoking.
Over the past years, Apple has become a fan favorite smoke flavor for many smokers. These chips add a very delicate hint of sweetness in your meat when smoked.
Experimenting with adding flavored wood chips to the recipe makes grilling even more intriguing and delicious.
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5. Wood Smoking Chips Variety Gift
If you aren’t sure which chips to get or if you are giving a gift of chips to a very seasoned smoker, consider getting this Stovetop Smoker wood chips gift pack.
The gift pack contains a set of 8 different flavors including:
- Apple
- Oak
- Cherry
- Pecan
- Maple
- Hickory
- Mesquite
- Bourbon
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The gift pack is ideal for anyone who frequently smokes their food. It is also ideal if you want to use a combination of smoked flavors to add to your food.
Which Type of Wood Chips Should You Use for Smoking Meat?
The question that beginners of barbecues asked me many times was what’s the big deal about different woods?
Well, each different tree is made different chemically. When the wood is burdened the burning wood releases different chemicals that coat the meat giving the meat a great flavor as well as helping to preserve the food.
That’s how smoking meat started before there were refrigerators to help preserve the meat. And the side benefit was that the meat tasted great also!
Types of Wood Chips
There are 6 popular trees that are used for smoking and making of wood-chips.
Let’s review them now
Number 1 is hickory wood.T his tree grows in the South and produces a very smoky flavor. It is used to smoke ribs, brisket, Turkey, chicken as well as sausage. This would have a very strong presence on the meat
Number 2 mesquite wood is a tree that grows in the Southwest United States. I prefer hickory wood chips to Mesquite even though I have four Mesquite trees growing in my backyard. I am sure they don’t mind that I don’t chop pieces of them to use in my smoker! The mesquite wood also gives a very strong flavor to the meat
Number 3 pecan wood these wood chips are used mainly for smoking ribs. Its flavor is not too strong.
Number 4 Maple wood Just like the maple sure that we put on pancakes. It leaves a sweet flavor to the meat its good on Chicken and hogs.
Number 5 Alder Wood this wood is used mainly on salmon for smoking and for other fish. It has a sweet flavor which is just right for seafood but can also be used on the meet.
Number 6 Cherry wood just like the cherries this would have some mild and sweet flavor. President George Washington got in trouble when he was a boy for chopping down the cherry tree for making some barbecue!
Smoking wood chart
How to Use Wood Chips or Chunks
It’s very simple you don’t need a lot of chips to smoke your meat. 5 of 6 chips on top of the coals in the vertical smoker is all that I usually use.
Again it’s important to soak your chips for at least 3 hours before you grill because if you put dry wood on the hot coals they will burn to give the meat a bitter taste and turn meat black-You’ll end up throwing the meat up take it from me it happened to me in the beginning. Read How To Use Electric Smoker Wood Chips.
It’s not a difficult task to find out the best smoker wood chips. In this article, you already learn about 5 best smoker wood chips. So chose your flavor and grab that one. Have a great BBQ experience.
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