How I made my BBQ smoker

I posted a picture of my homemade BBQ smoker on Facebook and have received several questions about how it was made and how it works. I got the idea for the smoker from the video below. I couldn’t find a pot like he used for his lid so I used one of the things that goes under the base of the flower pots. I had to drill a hole in it for the thermometer. Before I use it again I’m going to follow some of the suggestions I read elsewhere about taking apart the hotplate and putting the temperature control on the outside of the pot and disabling the overheat switch on the hotplate. I’m also going to put a handle on my lid. Btw, this whole flower pot BBQ smoker has quite the cult following with people making their own versions.

The pot cost me about $18 and the lid about $14. I bought a 17” pot because anything bigger was $30+ and I didn’t want to pay that much – although a bigger pot would be nice. The BBQ thermometer cost me $8. I got all of this at the Home Depot. The hot plate cost $10 at Walgreens. I picked up the wood chips at Walmart. I already had a grate so I didn’t have to buy one.

The whole thing was a little pricey but it will last a long time and doesn’t have thin walls like some of the cheap smokers you can buy. The thicker pot holds the heat better than the cheap thin walled smokers. Plus I don’t have to buy charcoal every time I want to smoke some BBQ – just the occasional bag of wood chips.

I also made some homemade bbq sauce for this whole endeavor. I’ve never made sauce before so we’ll see how it tastes…another hour and it’s chow time!!