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Take a tip from the experts: use BBQ wood chips to spice up your grilling. If you’re a master BBQ chef, then you probably know the fine benefits of BBQ wood chips. However, lots of people don’t have a clue why this product is so popular.

Wood chips are very small pieces of wood that are added to your BBQ to create smoke. If you are not using a wood fire to cook your food, then the only way you are going to get a true smoke flavor is by adding wood to your fire.

BBQ wood chips take your grilling to a whole new level. Whether you use a charcoal, gas or electric grill, wood chips will give you authentic barbecue flavor. There are special smoker boxes that can be placed in your gas and charcoal grills to add that special wood smoke flavor. Make sure you read the instructions for your grill before trying this.

When you use wood chips, take care to keep them burning quite slowly. This will cause strong bursts of smoke which will simply make your meat bitter. If you soak wood chips in water for about 15 minutes before you use them, you’ll slow down their burn and make them smoke more. Before you use them, though, let the wood chips “drip dry” for a few minutes before you add them to your fire. You want the wood moist, not dripping wet.

When using a small smoker in your grill you don’t necessarily have to soak your BBQ wood chips first. Soaked wood chips will burn longer, but if you’re cooking a steak, you probably don’t want a long, slow grilling.

Wood chips are available in a large range of varieties that cater to all tastes. You can try cabernet, hickory or mesquite. The stores that sell these chips will have flavor guidelines so that you can choose the one that will give you the taste you want.

In general, the lighter the meat, the milder the wood chip you need to use. But it also doesn’t hurt to experiment and try mesquite with chicken, just begin with fewer wood chips then you would normally use.

Alder wood chips have a mild flavor and are recommended for use with seafood and pork. Fruit wood chips are also mild and are best used with poultry, veal and pork. Fruit woods include apple and cherry.

Hickory or maple wood chips are strongly flavored and should be used with poultry, pork or beef. Beef, duck and lamb go well with the strong mesquite wood chips, and oak, another strong flavor, is good with beef and ham.

Just remember that BBQ wood chips are a flavor enhancer and not the meal itself, so don’t skimp on your meats. A substandard cut of meat is not going to be improved significantly by the wood chip you use. Make sure you have a good cut that is fresh and well prepared.

If you want to grill a great piece of meat, then try using barbecue wood chips to enhance the flavor and aroma you already get when you grill out.