Flavor Pro: How to Use the Flavor Drawer

The Flavor Pro™ is designed so you can cook with both gas and charcoal and may be used to grill, sear or smoke your food. By using temperature zones, charcoal, gas burners and wood flavor, you can customize your culinary experience as desired.

The Flavor Drawer™ allows you to get that great smokehouse flavor super-fast. It’s positioned directly above the gas burners, so you can use the Gas burners to ignite solid fuels to add that classic smokey BBQ flavor or use them to light your charcoal and cook directly with that.

You can either light the charcoal like you would a “traditional” charcoal grill (DO NOT use lighter fluid) or save time and use the gas burners [ignite burners].

You can even use the Gas burners and charcoal/solid fuels together to accelerate temperatures and/or cook time.

The Flavor Drawer™ itself pulls out really easily and is set up with these three troughs or “Wood Product Zones.”

You want to make sure you only place charcoal or your wood products in the three middle Wood Product Zones (Identified on p C-6 of the owner’s manual). Do not place briquettes or anything else in the space on the far edges of the drawer.

When using logs, we recommend only using 1 3 in. in diameter log at a time. You want to make sure you aren’t using too many logs or logs that are too big or you risk burning up your food and potentially your grill.

Now let’s get into the three most common ways to use your Flavor Drawer.

Grilling

Pull out your Flavor Drawer and add charcoal to two of the Wood Product Zones. Close the drawer and turn the burners under the charcoal to high. Light the burners, and allow the gas to burn until the charcoal is ignited.

Turn off the gas burners (if desired) and allow your grill to preheat. Adjust the smokestacks using a grilling glove to dial in your desired airflow.

After about 7 minutes, you’ll be ready to grill! This is a great way to cook all the things you associate with charcoal grilling like burgers, brats, chicken breasts, kabobs, vegetables, or for toasting buns on the warming rack!

Searing

This is the set up you are going to use when you want to get intense, high-heat cooking. Pull out your Flavor Drawer and place charcoal in all three of the Wood Product Zones. Add some soaked wood chips if you want to add more smoke flavor.

Close the drawer and turn the burners under the charcoal to high. Light the burners, and allow the gas to burn until the charcoal is ignited.

Turn off the gas burners (if desired) and allow your grill to preheat. Adjust the smokestacks using a grilling glove to dial in your desired airflow. The whole process should take about 10 minutes.

This is a great way to get those perfect sear marks on steaks, cook pork chops or quick roast corn.

Smoking

Smoking on a gas grill? That’s right. You can smoke with the Flavor Pro. We’re not just talking about adding a few woodchips to some foil either. We’re talking about honest to goodness smoking with wood chunks and even logs!

Pull out the Flavor Drawer and add about three wood chunks or one log (no more than 3 inches in diameter and 7 inches long) to either the far left or the far-right Wood Product Zone.

Close the drawer and turn the burners under the wood to high. Light the burners and run until the wood is ignited and smoldering (about 7 minutes).

Turn off the gas burners and allow your grill to preheat. Adjust the smokestacks using a grilling glove to dial in your desired airflow and smoke concentration.

This is how you make those real smokehouse foods like ribs, pork shoulders, chicken and more all with a gas grills! Make sure to place the food on the side furthest away from the wood for the best results. Check on the wood every so often and add as needed.

These are the basics! You can mix and match and create your own custom cooking experience with the Flavor Drawer! Figure out a cool way to use it? Share it in the comments below!