Smokinlicious® Smoking Wood Tips

Grilling our Smoked Beef Shanks on the Gas grill with Double filet wood chunks in our smoker box!

OVER THE TOP GRILLED & SMOKED BEEF SHANKS

I’m going to make a confession. I rarely select steak to grill anymore. The reason – there are just too many other options that I simply prefer. Like beef riblets, short ribs, and shank. Oh, the bone-in shank! That is my favorite.

I’m going to give you a wet rub recipe and a grilling technique you can do on the grill of your choice, though I’ll be picking the easy gas grill. Get to the butcher and select some premium bone-in beef shanks then visit SmokinLicious® online for some wood chunks. Then get ready for the best grilled & smoked beef shanks you’ve ever had!

Smoked Beef Shanks- A Great Wet Rub

I tend to lean toward some Asian-inspired ingredients for my rubs, especially those that are a wet rub. While working on the rub, be sure you’ve started your grill so it will be ready to go when the meat is rubbed. Remember, we are using a two-zone set up for the grill so burners lit only on one side of the gas grill with the wood chunks placed on the heat shield or in a smoker box placed over the lit burners like I’ve done. Or, for the charcoal/wood grill, hot coals banked to one side of the grill.

For this wet rub, you’ll need equal parts of the following ingredients:

• Ground ginger
• Whole allspice – about 30
• Garlic powder
• Cinnamon
• Cocoa powder
• Sesame oil
• Worcestershire sauce
• Hoisin sauce
• Honey

Start by combining the dry ingredients, followed by the wet and combine with mortar and pestle until a paste is made. Then coat the beef shanks on both sides and the edges with the wet rub. I line a disposable foil pan with a roasting rack, then place the shanks on the rack.

Tasting Notes: don’t be afraid to use a store-bought rub and simply add oil and/or garlic/spice pastes. There is nothing off limits when it comes to producing a rub.

Smoking

Time to open the pre-heated grill and start the cooking of the shanks. The wood chunks should be smoking well at this point so add the shank pan to the unlit side of the grill. Leave untouched for at least 40 minutes. Return to check the internal temperature. Flip the shanks and rotate the foil pan. Leave until the meat registers 140-145° F.

Tasting Notes: select the hardwood you like or use a combination of hardwoods like I did with my shanks – maple, hickory and white oak.

Smoked Beef Shanks- Serve ’em Up

When done, I simply slice against the grain for beautiful, flavorful beef that has a controlled infusion of smoke. Here’s a tip: be sure you enjoy the marrow in the bones! It is very rich so if you elect not to eat it when the meat is done, use it with onions and shallots to make a confit, or use it with a rich pasta dish to make the flavor of the richness even more stunning. Or, combine the marrow with an acidic dish like an arugula salad with lemon and capers. And don’t forget to save the bones to make our smoked beef broth. Two zone cooking makes it so easy to control the smoke infusion and produce perfection in any item grilled.

What’s your favorite beef cut to grill and smoke? Bringing innovation to wood-fired cooking with recipes, techniques and the science behind the fire, smoke, and flavor. That’s SmokinLicious®.

finished beef shanks sliced

Purchase products:

Wood Chunks- Double and Single Filet

More Related reading on “What Wood for Smoking” and other great smoking and grilling tips and techniques

Additional reading:

-SMOKED BEEF SHORT RIBS

-WHY IS MY BARBECUE MEAT DRY??

-GIVE ME THAT BEEF BRISKET!

DR smoke OVER THE TOP GRILLED & SMOKED BEEF SHANKS ON THE GAS GRILL

Smoker Box for gas grill Available at Retail Locations

BOOST UP THE FLAVOR OF YOUR SMOKER BOX! Click To Tweet

BOOST UP THE FLAVOR OF YOUR SMOKER BOX!- People are always in search of that great flavor to food that only comes from hardwood. In fact, it is common for discussions around outdoor cooking to use the terms grilling and barbecuing interchangeably as if they mean exactly the same thing. Let’s be clear – cooking with just LP/Gas is grilling. Barbecue is outdoor cooking over hot coals or wood, whether in lump charcoal form or straight hardwood pieces.

Barbecue vs. Grilling

In an effort for grilling equipment manufacturers to compete with charcoal grills and smokers, many began integrating a wood chip drawer in their units to imply that “barbecue” was possible on a gas grill. If you ever tried these, you likely were disappointed in finding that the intensity of flavor just didn’t compare to charcoal equipment. Then the smoker box was developed with a wide variety of design options from rectangular in shape, V-shaped at the base to fit between grill grates, and venting hole configurations that made claim to more intense smoke penetration. Here’s the thing – no one ever discussed what should go in the smoker box. The assumption was to always use wood chips but I am going to take you on a flavor journey using that box that will open your eyes to understanding cooking with hardwood.

One of the key complaints I hear is that when using wood chips in a smoking box or drawer, the chips don’t seem to give off enough smoke and have a very short burn life. In fact, refilling the box or drawer is often needed to finish a simple food item like chicken pieces or ½ slabs of pork ribs. Wood chunks or uniformed sized pieces of hardwood lend to a much longer burn/smolder rate and give off great flavor infusion.

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