Char-Broil has been making a high quality line of charcoal grills for the last 25 years; and most people don’t realize that they have been applying their high quality standards into their new line of charcoal barbeque smokers as well.

Under review today is the Char-broil American Gourmet Offset Charcoal Smoker; a combination charcoal smoker and grill that actually does a great job of imparting smoked flavor to both meat and fish.

Char-Broil Offset Smoker American Gourmet Deluxe Charcoal Grill Features

Each Char-Broil American Gourmet Offset Smoker comes with…

• 670 square inches of primary cooking area
• An additional 355 square inches of secondary cooking area
• A porcelain coated cooking grate with chrome swing away supplemental grate
• An easy access clean out door for simple ash removal
• A hardened steel firebox for offset heat and slow smoked flavor
• A convenient front shelf in addition to a wire bottom shelf

Char-Broil Offset Smoker American Gourmet Deluxe Charcoal Grill

We got our Char-Broil American Gourmet Offset Smoker online for $229, and it shipped free.

We received it in five days, and unpacking and assembly took about an hour; we wasted 15 minutes because the assembly instructions are not the clearest, and we had to disassemble/reassemble one part of it about halfway through.

Once put together, it is a strong, well constructed smoker; and at 28 inches x 58 inches x 42 inches, it doesn’t take up the entire patio.

Plenty of Room on the Char-Broil American Gourmet Offset Smoker

The Char-Broil American Gourmet Offset Smoker is ideal for those that love smoked food and entertaining. The main advantage of this Char-Broil smoker is the sheer size of the cooking area.

If you use both areas of the main cooking chambers, you are talking about almost 1000 square inches of cooking surface.

That is more than enough for a full turkey (a big bird), a full ham, and a couple of racks of ribs as well.

And using this smoker is very easy as well. The temperature control is easy to regulate; which is mandatory with any slow cooking smoker.

And surprisingly, this smoker is a little better than others we tested since it is a dry smoker; there is no included water bowl which means that your ribs, chicken and roasts will be slow smoked with a dry heat.

Using dry heat allows the crust to form faster on the meat; and once the crust forms on the food, you then can start to add a little water to keep it moist. We use a regular spray bottle filled with water, and do not introduce it until the crust (or “bark”) has formed on the meat after the first hour.

This insures that the smoking flavor is locked in; and that your meat and chicken comes out moist and tender.

The Char-Broil American Gourmet Offset Smoker – Some Minor Issues

There are only two minor issues we have discovered with the Char-Broil American Gourmet Offset Smoker.

First, the grates are not the easiest to clean. It takes a little elbow grease and some steel wool; and you really need to keep the firebox as clean as possible or it will flare up on you.

However, that is easy enough to do since there is a handy ash removal door for this very reason. And it also helps when adding more charcoal throughout the smoking process.

But we did like the fact that you can control the temperature fairly easily, and it seems to work particularly well with hickory flavored charcoal. Plus, it does as great job on smoking fish (try some trout or salmon) and has enough room inside to smoke your ribs using a rib rack.

Overall, the Char-Broil American Gourmet Offset Smoker works very well smoking meat, poultry or fish. We like the dry smoking feature, it is easy to start and easy to maintain a constant temperature, and there is more than enough room for large amounts of great tasting smoked foods for large summer parties.