Offset/Horizontal Smoker Modifications

Do you have a grill like the one above? These are commonly called Horizontal or Offset Smokers. These types of grills have some advantages over the vertical smokers in that they can be used as a large standard grill by just using the large cooking chamber to grill food over coals. So if you want a smoker that will allow you to also grill burgers and brats for 20 an Offset is the way to go. Vertical smokers have an advantage in that they hold the temp much more constant and thus make them easier to use when smoking for long periods of time.

Would you like the best of both worlds? Would you like an offset that will keep the temp more constant and even rival the consistency of the vertical smokers as well as have that large cooking area if needed? Would you like the temp on one side not be as much as 100 degrees different than the temp on the other side? Would you like the thermometer in the middle of the grill be at least somewhat accurate which is impossible when the thing is assembled out of the box due to the temperature fluctuations from left to right.

With less than $30 in materials you can do all of that. Click below to see how I did it.


The first mod I did to my grill was for the rotisserie attachment that is available for the Chargriller Smoker pro that I have and is in the picture at the top of this post. While the website does not say that the rotisserie really isn't designed for a grill with a fireside box, a couple of quick modifications solved this problem. One thing, you will need a Dremel or some other device that will grind metal. Dremels are not all that expensive and are extremely handy around the house so go get one.

The main problem with the rotisserie and the firebox is that the bracket that holds the rotisserie motor is supposed to go on the side with the firebox. With the firebox attachment there the bracket must go over to the side with the shelf. But the shelf does not leave enough room for the bracket. The shelf has three slats. Removing the slat closest to the grill makes room for the bracket. Makes the shelf a little smaller but you will survive. Here is a shot of my two slat shelf and the bracket in place:

The next problem is that the bracket props the lid up quite a bit. Doesn't allow the lid to close all the way. The handy dandy Dremel made quick work of this problem by grinding the bracket down a bit to make room for the lid to sit down completely. Make sure to wear eye gear and take all necessary precautions when grinding metal. Sparks will fly:

Here is the lid now sitting flush:

OK now on to the first modification to get the temp stabilized and evenly distribute the smoke. The problem with the firebox design is all the heat is concentrated right next to the firebox. Temp gauge on the grill might read 200, but it could be close to 250 next to the box and close to 150 on the other side. That heat cooks the meat on the right much faster than that on the left. Constant jostling of meat location will help offset that but that requires opening the lid numerous times and thus allows that great smoke to escape as well as the heat. Frequently opening the lid on the cook chamber will make cause the meat to take much longer to cook.

Time to install a baffle between the firebox and the main chamber. The baffle performs two tasks. First it shields the meat closest to the firebox from the direct heat from the fire. Aluminum is not a great conductor of heat and thus it acts as a heat sink between the fire and the meat. To do this I bought a disposable aluminum high sided pan that can be found at any grocery store. The sides are about 4 inches tall. I cut the pan essentially in half at a 45 degree angle. The angle of the cut goes along the bottom of the grill. The sides of the pan cover the hole between the firebox and the main chamber. This does not look pretty, but the inside of a BBQ rarely does if it has been used at all:

Here is a shot of the baffle from inside the firebox. You can see the small gap along the bottom which forces the fire down to the bottom of the chamber which is the second task the baffle performs:

Why is it a good idea to push the smoke down along the bottom of the chamber? Simple. Without the baffle the smoke rises out of the firebox, heads straight up and then travels the length of the chamber along the roof and exits the chimney. Everything right next to the firebox cooks faster and gets more smoke but requires constant jostling of the meat to get everything done at the same time. Two disposable aluminum cookie sheets, along with the baffle resolve this problem.

Take the two sheets and poke holes in them with a sharp. pointy knife. Here is the underside of one of my cookie sheets. As you can see the smoker gets a lot of work since the cookie sheet has a smoke ring!?!?!

Place the two cookie sheets sideways across the bottom of the chamber side by side with the edge of one being over part of the baffle:

The smoke is forced down by the baffle and under the cookie sheets. The smoke escapes from under the cookie sheets evenly throughout the chamber rather than just on the side with the firebox and along the roof. This is a pic of my first smoke after I made this mod and I was blown away by the results:

The smoke/heat baffle made the temp much more consistent throughout the chamber as well as the smoke distribution but it came with one downside. While the built in thermometer is much more accurate now that I made this modification, the temp is much lower. I was forced to start using lump charcoal to get the temp in the cooking chamber hot enough to smoke ribs for say 6 hours. And I was going through a ton of charcoal.

The firebox on this grill does not do a good job of keeping the main chamber hot. See the charcoal essentially sits in it's own ash and chokes the fire out the longer the session. I tried a couple of things that did not work or were dangerous. Finally I bought this at Lowe's:

How does one use a veggie grill basket in an offset smoker to increase the temp in the main chamber? Well this mod requires some mods to the basket before it will modify the grill. See, even without the handle (which detaches easily) the basket is too big for the firebox:

On the right it is being held up by the metal lip over the ash drawer:

And on the left side the other end of the basket is being propped up inside the cooking chamber:

So out comes the Dremel again:

In a matter of a couple of minutes, the wire metal arc is no longer attached to the basket:

And a few more minutes later the metal wire arc on the other side is gone too:

Now I have a metal basket but I need to elevate it off the bottom of the chamber to eliminate the problem with ash build up squelching the heat of the fire. Four 1.25 inch screws, some hex nuts and some washers solves that problem:

Place the screws, washers and nuts at the four corners of the basket near the bottom and now the grill basket is suspended over the ash drawer:

Here is a shot of from where the ash drawer would normally be showing how much space I now have between the bottom of the basket and the firebox. The coals will now be safely elevated above the ash:

If the ash does build up and gets close to the bottom of the basket with this grill I can simply slide out the ash drawer, dump the ashes, and reinsert the ash drawer.

Now one final mod. In order to keep the smoke from escaping out of the chimney too quickly I have extended the bottom of the chimney down to close to the top of the grill grates/cooking surface. This way the smoke cannot simply rise up and evacuate the chamber. The smoke needs to come back down to find the exit through the chimney and consequently pass over the meat a second time. With this model all I needed was a three inch diameter flexible aluminum duct that cost all of about $8:

Since the bottom of the chimney is nearly exactly 3 inches I broke out the Dremel yet again (See how handy this thing is) and cut a slit straight down at the top of the duct in order to get the duct around the chimney base:

Then I attached the end with the slit around the base of the chimney at the roof of my cooking chamber:


I stretched and bent the piece of duct around the raised shelf in the back of the cooking chamber on this model and cut off the the rest of the duct leaving the bottom just about an inch above the top of the grill grates:

Here is the grill lid being propped open by the Dremel to get a shot of how close the chimney comes to the top of the grill grates when the lid closed:


Next up: Covering the holes created for the rotiserrie with some sort of flange to seal them when not using the rotisserie:


Also, I may look at going reverse flow and actually moving the chimney to the side closest to the firebox and forcing the smoke to travel the length of the chamber along the bottom and then up and back across the meat. But that is an entirely different animal as it requires a cutting torch and some welding skills two things I do not have. That is for another post if my $30 mods are not enough.


Click here for the rest of the process

How to tell when a steak is done?

Many people have asked me to be more quantitative in the posts I put on this site. I've been asked to give more exact times, temps and amounts. My Dad and Cousin are much better at this than I am. This is a hard thing for me. I don't cook with recipes generally. I use a recipe once and then it's sort of committed to memory. I don't use meat thermometers. I decide when a piece of meat is done based on feel and practice. I don't measure things out when I am making a rub or a marinade. And therein lies a problem - How do I teach feel to someone else?

For the most part I can't. So I need to be more diligent in my prep work. I need to actually find the measuring cups and spoons that I'm pretty sure are in my kitchen somewhere and measure out my ingredients to be relayed to you through this site in a more quantitative manner.

While for the most part I cannot teach feel there is something I can teach in terms of feel and that is how to tell a steak is done without a meat thermometer or slicing into it. It is said that there are only two ways to tell if a snake is poisonous in the United States - if it's got a rattle or if it's got fangs. Finding out if a snake is poisonous using the latter method is akin to slicing into a steak on the grill to see if it's cooked properly. By the time you know it's too late!!!

So if you are cooking steaks for 6 people and only have one meat thermometer how can you tell how all six steaks are cooked to the proper doneness? Simple. Just use the thumb method:

Click below to see the thumb method in action...



What is the thumb method? The thumb method is so simple you will wonder how you had never heard of it before. Simply touch the tip of your forefinger to the tip of your thumb to make the OK sign.

Now pinch the meaty part of the thumb close to the palm and wrist:

See how spongy that is? Take your tongs and push on the top of the steak in the middle (do not squeeze the steak as it will not give the same results). When a steak is as spongy as this it is rare.

Now touch the tip of your middle finger to the tip of your thumb:

Again, squeeze the meaty part of the thumb by the palm and wrist:

The meaty part of the thumb is a little more firm that it was when you were touching your forefinger to your thumb right? A steak that is about as firm as the meaty part of your thumb here is medium rare.

Now touch the tip of your ring finger to the tip of your thumb and squeeze the meaty part of the thumb:

The meaty part of the thumb is a bit firmer yet again, right? That is the equivalent of a steak that is medium.

Now touch the pinky to the thumb and squeeze the meaty part of the thumb:

That is the equivalent to a medium well steak.

Since the vast majority of us are out of fingers at this point how do you tell if a steak is well done? For that just squeeze the sole of your shoe. When it is that consistency it is well done!?!?

So take your tongs and give the steak a little push to see how spongy or firm it is. The firmer it is the more done it is. It's just that easy.

Click here for the rest of the process

A Taste of Jamaica ~ Jerk Chicken, Rice and Beans, Braised Kale with a Jamaican Rum Dessert

This is the first contribution from the newest Grillin Fool, Tom. Tom has been getting a boatload of use out of the mother of all grills - The Big Green Egg - and it seemed only fitting that he join the Grillin Fools family. So click below to see how this island adventure can be captured no matter where you are...


For the first time in more than a decade my wife and I did not take our annual February vacation in the Caribbean. So to help overcome the winter blues we decided to create a meal with the flavors of our favorite destination ~ Negril, Jamaica. Jerk Chicken with all the trimmings including rice & beans alongside some braised kale. And of course some good Appleton Jamaican Rum.

The first step is the marinade for the chicken. This is best marinated overnight, but if you are not the type to plan ahead no worries mon. This will still be good if you marinate for at least three hours.

Jerk Chicken - The Marinade
1 large onion
2 cloves garlic
2 Scotch Bonnet Pepper (if you can't find this at your grocery use a fresh jalapeño)**
1 Tbs allspice
1 1/2 tsp ginger
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp dried thyme
1 Tbs brown sugar
1/2 cup white wine vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup dark rum
juice from one fresh lime
juice from one fresh orange

One chicken butterflied or chicken pieces

**Note well: For a spicy recipe keep some or all of the ribs and seeds from the scotch bonnet or jalapeño, otherwise remove all the ribs and seeds. Also, the spice combination might sound a little strange, but trust me when this hits the grill you won't believe how amazing it smells!

Combine all of the above ingredients (except for the chicken) in a food processor or blender and pulse until smooth. Rub marinade into chicken pieces and place into ziploc bags. Marinate in refrigerator at least three hours (overnight is best).

The last time I made this I butterflied the chicken, but this time we had some leg and thigh quarters and that is what we used. Either the butterflied chicken or pieces will work, just use real bone-in chicken.

As Scott mentioned in a previous post - "I am the Egg-man" and like to cook on my Big Green Egg so that is how I cooked this chicken. However any grill can be used, you just want to cook it low and slow. I recommend approximately 300 - 325 degrees for approximately 60 to 90 minutes. I am a fan of natural charcoal, not the perfectly square pressed stuff you typically find in stores. **Editor's Note - Regular charcoal briquettes are perfectly fine for this recipe. Tom has become a fan of the natural or lump charcoal once he got a BGE that recommends against using standard charcoal briquettes in the BGE. Regular briquettes may actually lend themselves more to slow and low process like this as lump charcoal tends to burn faster and hotter than regular briquettes**

And I use the charcoal chimney to start my fire as I am not a fan of the taste of lighter fluid.

**Editor's note - most Jerk recipes have some sugar involved which burns rather easily so some blackening of the chicken is to be expected and in fact adds to the flavor. But if you are turned off by the blackening you can remove the brown sugar and replace it with Turbinado Sugar or Sugar in the Raw**

My lovely wife prepared the braised kale and the rice & peas - this is her spin on a Jamaican staple.

Rice & Peas
1 cup white rice (not the fast cooking kind)
1 can kidney beans, drained (fresh red peas are used on the island)
2 cloves garlic
1 uncut Scotch Bonnet Pepper (again use fresh jalapeño if you can't find Scotch Bonnet)
1/4 cup sliced leeks
3/4 cup coconut milk
1 1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp dried thyme (or 2 sprigs fresh)

If you have not cooked with leeks before, give them a try. They are milder and smoother than onions. However, they come with a little sand / dirt embedded. So cut off the ends of the leek (discard the ends) and cut into thin slices. Pull the rings apart and place into a bowl of water and swoosh it around in order to remove any sand or grit from the leeks. Then remove the leeks and drain on paper towels.

The coconut milk is a little different too. We buy it in a can and it is somewhat solid when opened. Pour the coconut milk into a bowl and stir until the solids and watery portions are smooth before measuring out for this recipe. The coconut milk adds a nice creaminess to the recipe so I really encourage you to try it.

Crush garlic and add to boiling chicken broth. Add coconut milk, salt, pepper, thyme, leeks, beans, rice and uncut pepper to the chicken broth. Cover and reduce to a simmer for approximately 30 minutes (depending on the rice you use). Because the pepper is uncut, the rice will have the flavor of the pepper without being overly spicy.


Braised Kale
Okay, so this may not be a caribbean recipe. But we needed something green so went to this hearty, southern soul-food.

1 Tbs olive oil
2 slices bacon
1 pound kale
1/4 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup leeks
fresh nutmeg (just two swipes over the microplane)
salt & pepper to taste

Saute the bacon in olive oil until almost crisp, then add leeks and cook a few more minutes until they are tender:

While the bacon and leeks are cooking the kale needs to be prepped. The thick rib that runs through each leaf needs to be removed from the kale (fold the leaf and remove the rib by pulling it out or cut it out with a knife):

Then roll the kale and slice into ribbons. This is not difficult and the prep of the kale takes approximately 5 minutes:

Add the kale and chicken broth to the pot, cover and cook for approximately 30 minutes. Kale is a very hearty green and takes a while to become tender. The volume will reduce by more than half when fully cooked.


Now it's time to combine the three. Here we have the chicken fresh off the BGE:

The rice and beans in the pot ready for the plate:

And all three plated:
And what Jamaican meal would be complete without some Appleton Rum?


And a bonus. To complete the meal, how about a traditional Jamaican dessert **Editors Note - Pictures to be added soon**

Rum Raisin Ice Cream with Sauteed Bananas
2 Tbs raisins
3 Tbs rum**
3 Tbs butter
3 Tbs brown sugar
1 banana sliced in half lengthwise
vanilla ice cream

Soak the raisins in rum for fifteen minutes.

Using a skillet over medium heat melt the butter, then stir in the brown sugar. When this is combined add the banana slices and cook until nicely caramelized (this takes approximately 3 - 4 minutes):

Add the raisins and rum and stir until combined:

Spoon hot mixture over vanilla ice cream, top with whipped cream and enjoy!

**Not a desert for children!


**Editor's note - glad to have you aboard Tom...as well as your lovely wife!!!

Click here for the rest of the process