If you don’t know, I am always open to new things. Just don’t try to trick me into an old thing I already hate, presented in a different way – that’s not a new thing buster! Anyway, a my friend Ted at work bought some grape wood and was nice enough to give me a few chunks to try. I thought I would try it out on chicken first because chicken is a smoke magnet! Chicken absorbs smoke like a sponge would absorb water in a full bucket.
I already had some boneless skinless thighs so I took them out of the freezer. I also bought some regular bone-in, skin-on thighs to add to the mix for good measure – and more food!
I smoked the chicken indirect on my Chargriller Smokin’ Pro and using Kingsford regular charcoal briquettes. I got the chicken on the grill and threw on two chunks of grape wood.
The smoke that the grape wood produced was like apple wood; in fact, if I didn’t know any better I would have thought it was apple wood. It smelled so good though! So, in about 3 hours at about 250* to 275* and my chicken was done. I glazed it with some Weber Grill Restaurant Hot Hickory BBQ sauce and gave it a little direct heat to crisp up the skin on the pieces that had it. Ok, so I tasted some before dinner time… Excellent, but not much different than apple wood flavor – at least to me. The smoke flavor was light and pleasant; I knew I had a smoked piece of chicken but it was not overpowering. As for the flavor; again, very much like apple wood.
So I chopped up some fresh green leaf lettuce, grated up some fresh sharp cheddar cheese, got out the EVOO and made a nice salad to go with my chicken. This is what it looked like…
I was extremely please with the cook overall. The chicken tasted great; even my youngest daughter the “Chicken Critic” said it was great – now that’s a score… believe me! So, I didn’t find any difference in the flavor of chicken smoked with the grape wood as compared to chicken smoked with apple wood – I don’t think I would be able to tell the difference. This 4th of July weekend I plan to try the other pieces on a small pork butt to see if there is any noticeable difference there.
Here are a few pictures of the grape wood, maybe you have some and don’t know it…












