Can You Use a Pizza Oven as a Smoker?

Using a wood fired pizza oven as a smoker is an incredibly popular way to cook food outdoors. You can smoke all kinds of fish and meat easily. All you need is some water-soaked fragrant wood and away you go.

Read our guide to find out how you can use your pizza as a smoker today!

How to Use Your Pizza Oven as a Smoker

The key to using your pizza oven as a smoker is to wait until the temperature is actually cooling down. This is really handy, as once you have used the high temperature to cook your pizza, you can make the most of the cool-down to make further smoked treats.

Here is how you smoke meat and fish in a pizza oven…

Allow the oven to cool down to about 110 - 130°C.
Prepare your food - rubbing spices and herbs onto your meat adds extra flavour
Place your meat or fish into a high-heat cooking dish or grill rack.
Soak your wood chips for 30 - 60 minutes before placing them on the embers inside the oven.
Place a pan of water inside too, to keep the oven from drying out
Once they are giving off smoke, push the embers to the back of the oven and place your food inside.
Close the door and adjust the air vents so they are almost closed, keeping the smoke inside
Allow your food to cook - always make sure it is safely cooked through before serving. The time depends on the size of the meat or fish.

When smoking on your pizza oven, there are two factors that are most important - the temperature and the wood. Smoking is definitely a long game, so you need a low and constant temperature that allows the smoke to sink in and tenderise the meat.

Don’t forget to throw some sides in, too! While the meat is smoking, you can still throw in things like corn on the cob and jacket potatoes - perfect when paired with some homemade coleslaw!

As for the wood, you want to choose a hardwood that will give your food a good flavour. Some popular choices are:

Hickory
Maple
Pecan
Oak

You need to soak them beforehand to be able to create the smoke. This might seem strange as most wood burning appliances stress the need for dry seasoned wood - this is the one time you actually want to create smoke!

You can eat your smoked meats straight away, or keep them in the fridge for later - be sure to drizzle on some BBQ or hot sauce!