There are 3 methods that people use:
1. The Minion Method is the Easiest Method to do
The concept behind the minion method is fairly simple:
You bank unlit charcoal to one side and add lit charcoal to the other. The lit charcoal will passively self-ignite the unlit charcoal.
You then put hardwood on top of the lit charcoal.
Typically around 10-15 briquettes or a quarter chimney of lit charcoal is enough to smoke at 225-250F.
The minion method works best for short cooks like:
- Ribs
- Whole chicken
- Chicken thigh
- Turkey Breast
- etc.
If you need a longer cook time, a strategic fire arrangement like the Snake method is better.
2. The Charcoal Snake Method for Longer Smoke Time
The charcoal snake method is also referred to as the S or C-shape method or “fuse” method.
The snake method works by strategically arranging charcoal briquettes along the perimeter of the grill.
The most common setup is 2:1.
2 rows on the bottom and 1 row on the top. However, a 2:2 arrangement will add to the cook time.
After you’ve arranged all of your charcoal, you remove 10-15 briquettes, light them, and then return them back to the snake to “light” the fuse.
Along the unlit perimeter you place your wood chips or chunks.
As the lit charcoal ignites the unlit charcoal, it will also light the wood.
3. The Slow N’ Sear or Other Devices
If anything, you can think of the Slow N’ Sear as a way to apply the minion method without the need for a strategic charcoal arrangement, like the snake method.
Due to the basket shape and the ventilated bottom plate, it makes adding unlit charcoal easier.
While I don’t own Weber Char-baskets (my Friend does – pictured below) or the Smokenator, the premise behind the devices is much the same.
You can strategically place charcoal in order to apply the minion method and to make smoking easier.
Do You Need to Soak the Wood for Smoking?
No.
To prove this, I took a hickory wood chunk as well as hickory wood chips and submerged them in water for 24 hours.
After 24 hours, I took the wood chunk and wood chips out of the water and then split the wood chunk – there was very little, if any water penetration.
The wood chips weren’t even worth splitting as they already have very little surface area.
Note: I even dyed the water blue for demonstration purposes.
The reason people say to soak the wood is to prevent the wood from combusting. However, all this does is cools the fire down.
Just take your wood chips or chunks and throw them on your coals to smolder.
Using Charcoal Briquettes or Lump Charcoal for Smoking?
Either work – I use whatever is cheapest.
Regardless of fuel type, charcoal is fueled by oxygen.
Briquettes are manufactured to be uniform in size and shape meaning you get a consistent, repeatable temperature; It’s also usually cheaper than lump charcoal.
Lump charcoal comes in all shapes and sizes and is typically more expensive than briquettes but still works perfectly fine for smoking.
The temperature of your kettle grill is regulated by opening and closing intake and exhaust vents – meaning the fuel source doesn’t matter as much.
