How, exactly, do you use liquid smoke?

[OneEyedJack]

I only put it into BBQ sauces and baked beans.

[Powersmoke_80]

Adding liquid smoke does not make it barbequey. If your going to make baked chicken then sell it as baked chicken. BBQ is over live fire and the taste is in part from the gases of the combustion of said fire. If you think you can replicate bbq or grilled chicken in the oven by adding liquid smoke I think you are smoking the wrong kind of wood.

[johnec00]

We have frequently used liquid smoke on grilled steak . . . sprinkle with salt and spray lightly with liquid smoke straight from the bottle. Refrigerate for an hour or more, then grill on the gasser. I've never used it for chicken, but if you search the internet for "oven chicken liquid smoke recipe", you'll get lots of candidates. Here's one:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/20608/super-simple-oven-barbequed-chicken/

A caution though, if you got the liquid smoke from the grocery store, you're OK using it straight from the bottle. If you got the "concentrated" liquid smoke from one of the meat processing suppliers (LEM, Butcher-Packer, etc.) it needs to be cut with quite a bit of water.

[Mosca]

Here is AR on liquid smoke, btw:

http://amazingribs.com/recipes/my_ingredients/science_of_liquid_smoke.html

[Lost in China]

I read that, but it doesn't actually SAY how to use liquid smoke.

[tbob4]

I have an OLD bbq book which has recipes for rubs, sauces and marinades. For longer cooked meats which have sauces - i.e., pulled brisket sandwiches, some of the recipes call for the meat to be BBQ'd OR, in absence of BBQ, put sauce in a dutch oven or crock pot with two or three drops of liquid smoke.

In answering your to sauce or not to sauce dilemma, it used to be that different regions had different sauces that went with BBQ. Some were applied during the cook, and others as a side to put on as you please. If I'm grilling (especially chicken) I'm generally saucing. If I'm going low and slow, I typically do not. However, I do like to experiment with sauces when finishing ribs sometimes. I will pull 1 of three racks from the smoker, apply a sauce and quickly finish it on my Santa Maria grill over high heat. The other thing that has become addictive is the chicken white sauce. I don't cook with it, but man-o-man, dipping hot chicken in that cold sauce is out of this world. Thanks Amazing Ribs for introducing me to that. I tweaked it recently, replacing the apple juice with non-alcoholic lime margarita mix because someone in my family STOLE my apple juice. That someone now takes credit for my new white sauce success.

[David Parrish]

I usually dab a little on my neck and underside of the forearms. It's a real lady pleaser!

[Mr. Bones]

Lol! Works where I live, too, David Parrish !

In honest, respectful reply to the originally posted question, in addition to those already posted here, I answer "Sparingly".

'A little dab'll do ya!'

[DWCowles]

and a little drop in my beer....nothing like smoke flavor beer 🍺😊

[ribeyeguy]

I keep a bottle of it on my nightstand in case I wake up thirsty in the middle of the night.

[Mr. Bones]

"There are times in a man's life, certain times, that naught else but smoke flavour will assuage, or mitigate. 'Tis simply so"

[Nate]

Proper and scientifically best way to use liquid smoke:

Step 1) pick up bottle of preferred liquid smoke

Step 2) throw it away so nobody ever has to taste that fake stuff

Oven roasted chicken is not barbecue chicken and trying to pass it off as such is a lie and an insult to the BBQ world.

[johnec00]

Depends on your definition of "fake" I suppose. Read the first couple of paragraphs of Meathead's article here: http://amazingribs.com/recipes/my_in...uid_smoke.html

[Nate]

Thanks johnec00 , I missed the other 2 times that was posted in this thread. Guess 3rd times a charm... I will still hold that using liquid smoke on a meat and then cooking it in the oven the entire time is faking Q.

[Huskee]

That about sums it up. We've tried to help you see how to get a smoky taste from oven chicken by using a smoky sauce as an accompaniment. You admit it won't be very barbecuey. But you still want it to be. There is no magic way to do this. Either oven bake it and use a barbecue sauce to add some smokiness, or grill/smoke it.

[Lost in China]

Yes, it has been well established that liquid smoke is a fake and that only real smoke can produce the best BBQ. I understand.

But I am trying my damndest to do BBQ evangelism here. It's not practical to do outdoor cooking in a bar & grill kind of venue. Tonight I am going in to do another cookout, and while doing so train the cook and make him understand how to cook BBQ chicken thighs. After my last chicken cookout, the Harley club one floor below the bar came in a few nights later and asked for BBQ chicken from the menu. Do you know how huge that is? If I can get this place to put oven-made BBQ chicken on the menu with liquid smoke, it can start a chain reaction. Chinese are huge copiers, if something is successful you get a dozen copycats immediately.

I'll tell you the story of my friend George from the Valley. George created a menu at his bar with American and Tex-Mex foods, easy to make and source. Quesadillas, nachos, hamburgers, onion rings, that sort of thing. People liked it and it was copied. I'd go into his friend's bars and see the same menu. It was funny. The really funny part was a year after he left town, going to other bars with no relation to him and seeing the exact same menu of quesadillas etc. They hadn't copied George, they had copied the other bars! It was second generation copying and it was spreading organically.

That's what I'm trying to do here. I just didn't understand how to actually use the liquid smoke. I suppose it falls into the category of things that are obvious to everyone else but not to me. Story of my life, I never get to do anything the easy way. What I got was that you should put the liquid smoke into the BBQ sauce. But, my BBQ chicken, which follows this site's recipe, doesn't have a sauce. Because if it's good BBQ, you don't need a sauce. That's an apparent contradiction that led into my other thread asking why we bother with BBQ sauce.

What I finally learned from a helpful commenter is that I should dilute the liquid smoke in water and use a spray bottle to wet the raw chicken. That's what I was trying to learn.

If I can teach this cook how to do BBQ chicken in the oven and the boss will put it on the menu due to customer demand, then it might catch on. Why not? It's delicious. Who cares if the smoke flavor is fake? Nobody here knows the difference anyway. It doesn't have to be perfect BBQ. It just has to be good enough.

[Mosca]

It doesn't have to be perfect BBQ. It just has to be good enough.

I know what you mean here, but there's a better way to say it. The food doesn't know how you cooked it. It either tastes good, or it doesn't. Everything else is irrelevant. You get there however you get there, the only thing that matters is the flavor.

[Cheef]

Now to complicate the topic. How many on here have used a smoke gun? I do use one occasionally to add a touch to salmon and really enjoy the results. I also use it on bbq beans when time runs short.