Give Your Grilled Sausages Way More Flavor With A Simple Foil Pouch Tip

Smoking sausage is one of the best ways to make this delicious protein taste even better. This is because of a chemical reaction that involves organic and volatile compounds, the latter of which imparts that memorable barbecue aroma to your food. Fortunately, you don't need a dedicated smoker to infuse that coveted flavor into your sausages. You can do so using a gas grill and this handy foil pouch hack.

For this smoke-creating hack, you'll need to place about one cup of wood chips or pellets on the center of a sheet of tin foil. You can add any kind of wood — cherry, hickory, pecan, etc. — to your aluminum foil grilling aid. Plus, it may even be more helpful to make multiple packets, in case you run out and need to make more smoke. Also, you don't have to soak the wood beforehand to make it last longer, because you aren't directly burning it. Once placed on your grill, your foil pouch of wood chips should last about 40 to 45 minutes.

To create the packet, fold opposite sides of the foil over the wood, and then double-fold the remaining ends into themselves, which will act as a seal for the pouch. Then, so the smoke can be released while the wood heats up, pierce the foil with a fork or knife. The more holes that you make, the more smoke will come out. Finally, place the packet over medium heat while the grill preheats. In about 15 minutes, the smoke will develop so that you can start cooking. When you do so, always remember to avoid overcooking your sausages.

Using foil-wrapped wood chips to smoke sausage isn't the only way to infuse it with extra flavor. You can also imbue flavor into this meat by cooking it in the foil. This trick works because the sausage is cooked in its own fat, allowing those juices to flavor the meat, rather than escape through the grill grates.

Similar to the smoking hack, you'll start to take advantage of this hack by placing a couple of sausages in the center of a foil sheet, cutting the sausages longways (partially) first. Before folding over the foil to create the pouch, you can add vegetables and seasonings to it for a boost of flavor. Consider including sliced carrots, bell peppers, and onions sprinkled with freshly ground salt and pepper, garlic powder, dried basil, and oregano. Halved potatoes, snow peas, string beans, and zucchini are some other vegetable options that work great, and they will soak up flavor from the sausage, too.

When all of the ingredients are in place, fold the foil over to close the pouch, then place it on the grill to cook. You should wait to open the packet until later, after letting it rest on a plate for half as long as it took to cook it. It's important to always let meat rest, so that it can reabsorb its fat and juices, locking in flavor and moisture.