Smoker Box For Gas Grills

It Adds Smoke, Not Smoking Capability

A gas grill cannot hold the low temperatures that long smoking requires, and a smoker box does nothing to change that.

What it does is produce genuine wood smoke during a normal grilling session, which adds flavour to food cooked in the usual way.

Expecting a smoker box to make a gas grill into a smoker produces disappointment, and expecting smoke flavour on grilled food does not.

It Must Sit Directly On The Heat

Wood needs to reach smouldering temperature, which means placing the box directly over a lit burner rather than on the cooking grate.

Under the grate and against the burner cover is where it works, and on top of the grate it rarely gets hot enough to produce smoke at all.

A box that produces no smoke is almost always a box that is not hot enough rather than one with damp chips.

Soaking Chips Is Unnecessary

Soaked chips produce steam first and smoke afterwards, which delays smoke production and does not extend it meaningfully.

Dry chips begin smoking sooner and burn out faster, which suits a grilling session where smoke is wanted early.

Chunks last longer than chips and need more heat to ignite, which suits a box sitting on a burner for a longer cook.

Keep The Lid Down

Smoke only flavours food that is enclosed with it, and a grill cooked with the lid up loses all of it to the air immediately.

That means smoking on a gas grill requires lid-down cooking, which also changes how food cooks and needs allowing for.

A grill with poor lid sealing loses smoke quickly, which is why some grills take smoke flavour better than others.

Restraint Produces Better Results

A small amount of smoke over a short cook adds flavour, and a box producing heavy smoke for an hour makes food acrid and bitter.

That applies more on a gas grill than a smoker, since food cooked hot and fast takes on surface smoke quickly.

Starting with a small quantity of wood and increasing next time is considerably better than the reverse.

Foil packets are the free alternative and work adequately, since a sealed packet of chips with holes punched in the top produces smoke in the same way and costs nothing. A dedicated box lasts indefinitely and holds more, which for anybody smoking regularly is worth the small cost. Either way the placement rule is identical and is what determines whether smoke is produced at all.

Cast iron boxes hold heat and get wood smoking faster than thin stainless ones, which matters on a grill where the box sits slightly away from the burner.

Pellet tubes are the other option and sit on the grate producing smoke for several hours, which suits lower temperature cooking where a box on a burner is not practical.

The Verdict

A cheap way to add real smoke to gas grilling, where placement and restraint determine whether it works.

It cannot make a gas grill into a smoker, a box on the grate never gets hot enough, and too much smoke turns food bitter.

Put it under the grate on the burner. On top of the grate it never gets hot enough to smoke at all.