Can You Use an Offset Smoker as A Grill

The offset smoker has revolutionized how meals are being prepared in modern times. More and more people today prefer smoked foods more than stews. 

However, many have known the offset smoker as only capable of grilling food indirectly. But, can you use an offset smoker as a grill to cook your food directly?

Instead of the slow cook commonly used in indirect smoking, you can choose to grill your meat on the offset firebox directly. So, how do you achieve this?

Below, I will introduce you to the offset smoker, two grilling methods, and some essential offsite smoker maintenance tips. So, let's get into the details!

What is an Offset Smoker?

An offset smoker is a horizontal-shaped cooking chamber linked to a firebox on one of its sides and a chimney vent on another side. This popular smoker is designed to cook with indirect heat, but some more incoming models can cook directly.

Grilling Directly on the Offset Smoker

To start with, you will need to place hot coals or wood splits in the charcoal basket. You will then place a cooking grate on top of the fire. When the fire is well lit and the cooking space well heated up, you can now place your foods on the rack to cook.

Ensure that hot coals don't go beyond the grill grate. However, the flames of wood splits can slightly be allowed to go beyond the grate. This principle ensures that food is evenly cooked.

Keep turning your meat or whichever food you are cooking to ensure it's well-cooked on all sides. You can taste the food to see if it's well cooked and remove it from the cooker.

In addition, grilling on an offset smoker takes less time than cooking indirectly with the smoker. Well, it's that simple!

Direct grilling tips

● Use thin or tender cuts of meat

● Direct grilling is perfect for seafood and vegetables

● Cooks food within a short period but can also burn food if left unmonitored

● To have an even cook, you will need to turn the food only once

Indirect Grilling Using the Offset Smoker

Cooking in the charcoal grill can be intimidating, especially for a beginner. But don't allow this to scare you; with little practice, you will perfect your smoking skills soon. Let's see the process of cooking food with great smoke flavor on the offset:

Start fire

This is the first step as you are preparing to smoke your meat. Fire management and internal temperature control are usually the most challenging areas for some people. Sometimes these challenges result from using substandard cheap offsets instead of a heavy-duty offset smoker.

So, put your favorite wood chips or charcoal in the smoker box. Ensure the charcoal is well lit, doesn't have a blue smoke, and has an ash-like coating before beginning to cook. This will ensure that you don't have dirty smoke going into the cooking chamber.

Open the air intake vent and the lid to allow air to freely flow in the cooker as you begin the smoking process. Also, ensure that the air intake vent is clean and free from any debris affecting airflow controls.

I know you don't want to take eternity lighting your charcoal base, but again, don't use toxic chemicals to light your fire faster. The toxic fumes might tamper with the taste of your smoked food. So, seek to use better ways to light your fire faster and naturally.

Once your fire is well lit in the charcoal basket, you can now adjust the air vents. The charcoal shouldn't be in flames due to a lot of oxygen inflow.

Our desire here is to get a healthy fire for smoking food. We can now move to the next step of setting up the cooking chamber.

Setting-up the cooking chamber of the barbeque smoker

The cooking chamber is where all the magic takes place. You will need to spend some time preparing your cook chamber for an excellent smoking experience.

Offset smokers have a large cooking space, the cook chamber. This means that you can cook large cuts of food in it.

You already have some good fire flowing, and you are ready to smoke your meat. Set the grate at the right level before the fire gets too hot. I have seen people adjust the grates while cooking, and I have also seen meat chunks on the floor.

Preheat the smoker

Now that you have set up the cook chamber and it's about to receive parts of that animal that lost its life for you, you will need to preheat the smoker. This is the point at which you will increase the internal temperature.

Put the lid back in its place and leave the cooker to 300 to 350 degrees. You can then close the air vents to reduce fire and bring the cook chamber to the right internal temperature.

Insert cold water pan

Put your water pan in the smoker when the internal temperature is low. Placing the cold water in the smoker during the preheating stage can damage the pan or boil all the water.

Set benchmark temperature

Now that we have a healthy fire, preheat the smoker, and place the water pan there, it's time to set the internal temperature. We are setting the ideal temperature that needs to be maintained within the cooker for hours.

Close the lid and keep adjusting the air vents until you achieve a consistent temperature. You can now add the smoking splits of wood. With several smoking practices, you will be able to perfect your fire management skills.

Smoke the meat

Now that the internal temperature is set, you can open the cooking chamber lid and place your cold meat on the grate to get that rich smoke flavor. You can grab a beverage or a book as you wait on your smoked meat to kick boredom.

Indirect Grilling Tips

● Use more fatty or thicker chunks of meat

● Perfect for large steaks, brisket, and ribs

● Slow cook, and hence you will need to keep it moisturized using beer or apple juice

● Put cold water in the drip pan under your meat to prevent the drippings from burning

● Avoid opening the lid for better flavor 

● Ensure the well lit ashy coals before beginning to cook

How to Clean an Offset Smoker?

Whether you were grilling on an offset smoker or you smoked your food indirectly, it's essential to clean your offset cooks after using them.

The barbeque smoker served you with well-smoked delicacy; it is now your turn to give it a refreshing bath. The following steps are essential in cleaning your smoker:

Empty the bed of charcoal

Emptying the charcoal basket is usually the first step in cleaning your smoker. So, start by removing the cooking grates. You can then remove all wood chips, charcoal, and ash from the charcoal basket.

Cleaning the smoker chamber

After you have cleaned the firebox, you can now proceed to clean the cooking cabinet. Start by removing the cooking grates and heat deflection plates to enable you to get accessibility to every space in the chamber.

Use a kitchen tissue to rub the solid brisket fat at the bottom of the cooker. Make sure you don't use a rough towel since it can damage the coating done by the manufacturer on the horizontal smoker. It's advisable to clean the cooker after every use to prevent the accumulation of brisket fat.

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Cleaning the heat deflection plates

The deflection plates are easy to clean. Use a paper towel on the plates or a spatula if there are stubborn traces of dirt. But you don't have to be perfect at cleaning the deflection plates since your food doesn't come into contact with them.

Cleaning the cooking grates

Now, here you will need to do a perfect cleaning job. This is because cooking grates come into contact with food, and cooking in dirty grates can lead to food contamination.

So, you can either choose to clean the cooking rack immediately after cooking when it's still hot or soak it in warm water or soapy water. You can use a wire brush on the metal rack for thorough cleaning.

Finishing off

Now that you have cleaned every part of your barbeque smoker, you can put back its parts in place, ready for the next cook. You can cover your cooker with an offset cover to keep it clean and protect it from extreme weather conditions.

FAQs

1.  What should you not smoke with?

Some of the wood splits that you should never use to smoke your food include eucalyptus, eastern cedar, elm, cypress, liquid amber, sassafras, redwood, pine, etc. sycamore, fir, and spruce.

2. Which dry wood is ideal for smoking meat?

Here are the best wood logs for smoking meat: oak, hickory, maple, mesquite, apple, pecan, cherry, and alder.

3. Can you smoke pizza in an offset grill?

Yes, you can use the smoker for cooking pizza, among other foods.

4.  Are there indoor smokers?

Conclusion

Grilling food has been widely embraced for decades. Research published by C. Simionato in January 2022 indicated that half of the American consumers had planned to grill ground beef during the summer holidays. This means that grilling is inseparable from human living.

I know that you desire to join the league of food smokers and prepare delicious and well-smoked food for yourself, friends or family. But your question has always been, "can you use an offset smoker as a grill?" Well, we just said "yes" to your question and provided you with more tips on the same.