Its amazing what a little wood can do in a kettle grill. I picked up some red oak a while back because I'd heard it is less intense than hickory, while more flavorful than apple wood. And tonight I thought I'd give it a shot on some rib eye steaks. Bert and I were brainstorming how we could have done better in the Grillin on the Bay beef category last weekend, and he recalled a steak he seared and then smoked over mesquite. Sounded good to me, so I set to work on a similar version. Here's the lowdown: 

Normally I grill on the gas grill when in Brooklyn, but having the kettle and smoker on the patio from the comptetition I figured I should put at least one of them to work. I got a hot fire going with cowboy hardwood charcoal, and tossed in 3 softball-sized chunks of red oak. While i let the fire subside, I rubbed the rib eyes with about a tablespoon of my standard rub:

Once the coals died down to medium-hot (I could hold my hand on the edge of the coals for about 3 seconds), I tossed on the steaks and seared for 3 minutes per side just on the edge of the coals:

I then moved them over to the cooler side of the grill (without coals underneath), and let the indirect heat and plentiful oak smoke finish them off for another 6 or 7 minutes. For the last 2 minutes I glazed them lightly with some leftover beef bbq sauce from the GOTB competition.

I'm in love with that sauce... the foundation is smoked beef drippings marrried with ketchup, molasses, and a few other typical flavor profiles. The sauce has a nice sweet bump from the molasses, and the smoked beef drippings add a remarkable richness. So I let that glaze set for a few minutes, and when the steaks hit 120-125 degrees I yanked 'em off the grill and let them rest for about five minutes under foil. After removing the foil i had this:

I then sliced them up and served with a few sweet potato wedges and collard greens. A close up of the sliced steak: 

I thought these steaks were amazing. The rub and sauce marry so well together... the rub has no sugar, so the sweetness of the glaze is a welcomed addition. But the real story is the flavor of that red oak. Grillers are always raving about the flavor charcoal provides, and I have always agreed to an extent. Often times I think a gas grill can do a pretty close job to charcoal, but once you add some flavorful wood to the mix there is no comparison. The oak in this meal was sweet, woodsey, gamey, and really wonderful. The whole steak had a much more robust flavor than simply grilled over coals (or gas for that matter).

I can't recommend it enough people! Go get some oak and toss it in your kettle this weekend!