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Most of the chicken has been cooked for the fajitas and there is now room on the grill for the marinaded veggies in the foil to steam cook. The chicken and the veggies were marinaded over night. Grabbed a picture while the lid was off.
I use a commercial charcoal called Kingsford. I usually buy two bags of it in the spring and it lasts me to the next year. The grill in this image is about 5 years old. It stays outside in the weather with the lid on and the grill rack is removed, cleaned, and brought inside after every use.
I had thought one time about making my own lump charcoal. I have the wood to do so but the real issue is starting a fire here. After spring, everything dries up and fires become a real hazard along with winds to fan it. We get weather report warnings called 'red flag' days where any sort of burning is forbidden due to the fire hazard presented with that unless it is contained in some sort of fireplace made for that. Inside the city the only approved containers to burn in are BBQ grills or containers that food can be prepared in. I have a cast iron chimenia that qualifies for this but is also a sort of fireplace and I never use it for food preparation but rather for fires at night.
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We have the choice in charcoal of either brickettes or lump charcoal. Lump charcoal is basically wood from lumber or limbs that have been cut up and then turned to charcoal. The lump charcoal is hard to gauge how much you need or how hot the fire will be due to irregularities in the source wood plus the pieces are random in size and thickness.
Normally for smoking wood, I cut, dry, and make my own. On rare occasion I will purchase a bag of lump smoking wood. You can't see it in the image but there is a chunk of pecan wood on the coals to flavor the meat with pecan smoke. You have to use the lid for this to occur.