Background: have owned a charcoal smoker for a few years, rarely used as it was always quite a fair amount of work to keep the temp right and fiddling with the vents. Decided to try out an electric. It just seemed sort of...wrong to use an electric smoker, but what the heck, I could always return it if I hated it. Did I hate it? No. It maintains very even temperature, requires no fiddling with other than adding wood chunks every few hours and topping off the water bowl (keeps things moist and helps regualate temperature) if needed. I was worried that the smoke flavor might not be intense enough, but it was absolutely outstanding. Threw some sausages, chicken, ribs and corn(!) on there and everything came out most excellent. Rich flavor, great color, nice and juicy. Adding some nice Moore's marinade or spices/herbs to the water really makes a difference too. For instance, when cooking pork you can use half water and half apple cider for some really amazing flavor. Highly recommended. The one I picked up was a Brinkmann Electric 'Gourmet' -- it retails for around $60 locally. You can use the lower part alone as an electric grill, though I can't vouch for its efficiency. It holds two racks so you can cram a bunch of food in there fairly easily. No, it's not the ultimate smoker, and no doubt charcoal can be better...but for me it's far more likely to see use thanks to its simplicity. Give it a go. PS. Approx cooking times I experienced were ~5 hours for a 5 lbs chicken, ~6 hours for a pile of ribs, ~2-3 hours for sausages, ~2 hours for corn. Based on the charcoal smoker experiences I'd guess around 8 hours for a pork butt.
Oh wow nice. I've always gotten away with using liquid smoke and braising my ribs in the oven then tossing sauce on top then sticking it under the broiler. Of course it won't be as good as using a smoker. But it can all be done in one pan so clean up is very very easy. I think I might have to try this one out.
I can't wait to get a house or atleast a place to do some outdoor cooking...thanks for the tip....I would've thought the same as you did that the smokey flavor might be muted a little...
I've been researching electric grills since I can't have a gas/charcoal at my apartments. That smoker sounds good too for $60