There are things that need a special piece of equipment.

Grilling and smoking are two of these things.

Although in some cases you can use a grill to smoke, when it is large enough for 2-zone setup, most of the time you can not grill on a smoker.

What is grilling?

Grilling is done over a hot bed of coals. Directly or indirectly.

Meat is cooked fast to sear it and then can be moved to a cooler spot to finish or stay above the hot coals in case of a thin piece of meat.

Examples of grilling are: Hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken.

What is smoking?

Smoking meat is done on a low temperature of around 225 to 250 degrees and can take many hours depending on the meat you are smoking.

Examples of smoking are: Boston buts, brisket, whole chicken.

Technically this is not a smoker. Its is my grill that I use for smoking. The indirect set-up allows me to keep the temperature low.

Smoking on a grill?

You can use a grill for smoking when it is large enough as you can see on the picture above.

This is a very short and compressed explanation of the difference between grilling and smoking.

I will write several more articles on how to  grilll and smoke meat.

Eddie.