We'd like to recommend you the best products! We may get a small share of the sale should you buy something through our recommendation links.

How to Make an Electric Grill Taste like Charcoal?

How to make electric grill taste like charcoal

Electric grills are immensely convenient. You can use them indoors and you get to control every aspect of your food conveniently. But of course, you won’t get much flavor if you are used to eating classic charred food that a charcoal grill can produce.

Of course, using a charcoal grill is no layman’s job. You have to be very precise with the temperature controls that you have to do manually. There is a great chance of an over or undercooked outcome if you don’t know what you are doing.

If you own an electric grill and want charred flavors, here is the guide that will list down some important points on how to make an electric grill taste like charcoal.

How does an electric grill work?

Your electric grill is not useless just because it can’t deliver the taste that you cherish. You should know your way around it. These electric gills run on electricity so you just have to plug them in, turn them on, place your food, set the temperature, allow it to cook, and devour it. It’s that simple.

Electric grills are all about convenience and cooking indoors. You are not dealing with any smoke or embers so using them is completely safe. There are control knobs on these grills so that you can control temperatures precisely. Any guesswork is out of the question.

If it is portable, you can even move it outdoors whenever you want. The food that you cook on these grills is perfectly fine for your health. You don’t have to be experienced to cook food on them. Plus, the maintenance of these grills is pretty simple. There are different types of electric grills designed for different households.

As there is no involvement of charcoal, therefore, you can’t create that charred flavor. But some of these grills do come with such additional features.

Electric grill with wood chips

There are several models of electric grills available on the market that come with a separate space to place wood chips. If you don’t want to use them, you can place charcoal instead. Using different flavored wood chips is also a good option to experience different flavors.

How to make electric grill taste like charcoal

There is a range of different wood chip flavors available and you can try them to bring a change. From cedar to apple, there are so many flavors and your meat and vegetables will come out with a taste that you might have never imagined.

Using charcoal inside your electric grill

The good thing is; there are different ways to put charcoal in your electric grill to cook indoors and none of them is too messy or difficult. The easiest of them all is wrapping a piece of charcoal inside a foil. You can also toss them in your grill if it is made of ceramic or use a separate pan of wood chip to place it inside your electric grill during the cooking process.

If you still can’t figure out how to use charcoal inside your electric grill, here are some steps to follow.

  • Place your wood chips or charcoal briquettes in a small can and put it right inside your electric grill in the middle of its coils. Make sure you are doing this with the help of tongs to avoid any accidents.
  • The already heated coils will cause the wood chips or charcoal briquettes to start smoking and ignite.
  • After a while, the wood chips will start producing smoke and will give the meat that typical flavor which you are looking for.
  • In the case of briquettes, when you see they are red hot, pour some olive oil on them, and shut the lid. The smoke will form and get infused into your food.
How to make electric grill taste like charcoal
  • Even if there is no lid, you don’t have to worry at all because the food surrounding the briquettes will infuse a good amount of it.

Electric and charcoal grill combo

There are different types of electric and charcoal grill combos available. The most common of them run on electricity as well as charcoal. These grills are very easy to use and combine the best features of both electric and charcoal grills.
You won’t have to go through the inconvenience of starting up and controlling the temperatures manually and get that awesome flavor you crave for. These appliances are truly a blessing in disguise because they eliminate the shortcomings of both grills to provide you with the best.

Mind the health aspects

There is nothing that can compete with charred flavor in your grilled meat and vegetables. But you need to be sure you don’t consume it a lot as well. Utilizing oil on charcoal produces vapor that contains cancer-causing particles and causes malignant growth over the long haul.

Controlled consumption won’t be an issue, but if you consume too much of this kind of barbecue, you are putting your health in serious jeopardy. Therefore, prevent it from becoming a habit or addiction.

Final thoughts

If you have been thinking about how to make an electric grill taste like charcoal, you might have found out it’s simple. Just placing the wood chips or charcoal briquettes into the separate box inside your grill would do the trick.

You can also use a separate wooden pan or foil to work here as well. But we recommend not to use charcoal and oil too frequently. As health aspects are associated with it. Eating once or twice in a while won’t matter much but don’t make it a weekly endeavor.

Using wood chips instead of wood would be a better option. There are different types of electric grills available that come with wood chips options. You can use the wood chip box to place charcoal once in a while to calm down your craving thoroughly!

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.