I've been looking at the stick smoker thread and thinking about whether I should get a smoker, but then started thinking about whether I would use it enough, especially since I am usually just cooking for two people and tend to cook after dark.

That led me to think about smoking on my gas grill or even indoors. I was looking at something like this from Serious Eats where I'd use a wok or a steamer as a stovetop smoker and rely on the hood to keep the smoke alarm from going off.

But... that's being used for smoking with tea and similar. I suspect post oak wood chunks wouldn't work. Oak sawdust might...

Anyone have experience with doing something like that?

Right now I'm thinking about adding some smoke to a sous vide round roast for tomorrow... meat's been in the sous vide starting last night. Inspired by this but not sure I would buy or use liquid smoke... plus I don't see oak.

Chefsteps has several videos on ribs and brisket indoors and without a smoker. I haven't played with them but I love most of their stuff!

Use wood chips. They're smaller and will still smoke.
As long as you've got a good vent hood, I say go for it.

Got some oak chips at HEB. Foil on the bottom of the wok, a small amount of wood, then more foil to keep any dripping from hitting the wood. Got it heating after lighting one chip in the flame and throwing it in. Don't think that mattered. Put the meat in an aluminum steamer I have an top of the wok around kickoff with the hood on high. Definitely generated smoke but the hood handled it well.

The meat is is <1 lb so I only smoked it for 30 minutes. Didn't get much of a bark, but based on what was on the thermapen, got the smoke flavor. Internal temp ~150f when I turned off the heat. It was about 130 when I started. It's resting now.

Will update later if I remember to, but I think I need to get a probe thermometer that can report the temp inside the steamer.

Update: the smoking part worked, but the meat was on the dry side. I think that was a combo of wrong size, cut, and sous vide settings for that cut. We used the bag liquid to moisten the meat and it was tasty. Served with bread, onions, pickles.

Bottom line for me is that it worked well enough to warrant further experiments. No smoke or CO alarms went off and the house doesn't smell like a fireplace.

I've used 2 hotel pans and a rack to smoke for years!

When your cheap you find a way!

I did my last brisket in the oven using a recipe from Pioneer Woman. It was great and produced a ton of juice that was terrific for other kinds of dishes.