Tom's Guide reviews the GE Profile Smart Indoor Smoker.
This countertop appliance lets beginners and masters alike smoke food indoors with plenty of protein presets and a self-extinguishing pellet system.
This countertop appliance lets beginners and masters alike smoke food indoors with plenty of protein presets and a self-extinguishing pellet system.
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TechTranscript
00:00I've considered buying a traditional smoker before, but the thought of camping out in my backyard to
00:04keep my food's temperature consistent for countless hours has ultimately kept me away. For me to finally
00:09invest in a smoker, it'd have to be self-sufficient and hassle-free. Being able to use it indoors all
00:14year round would be nice too. That's exactly what the GE Smart Indoor Smoker promises.
00:20I'm just about ready to get smoking, but before I can think about putting any food
00:38in this indoor smoker, there's two things I have to do. First, I have to fill up this
00:43water basin with enough water that it will safely extinguish the pellets as they burn.
00:48Of course, we also need to fill the auger up with some pellets. This bag of pellets comes
00:53included with a purchase, but you can use any pellets that you have. If you have an outdoor
00:57Traeger, for example, you can use those pellets as well as long as they're wood-burning pellets.
01:02This machine is big on the presets. It wants to take as much of the hassle out of actually
01:06smoking food as possible. It's great for beginners in that sense. So there's a few different settings
01:10here. You can do your own custom one too, but we're going to start with chicken wings. How
01:15could we not, right? So we're going to be making wings on that mode. I'm going to press to confirm.
01:21I also want to get my probe in there. So let's see where this goes in.
01:28I'm super curious to see how long this thing takes to preheat. It's 233 right now. I imagine
01:34we're going to need a few minutes, so let's go prep our chicken wings. The temperature range is
01:38150 to 300 degrees Fahrenheit, so it can smoke your meat and also keep it warm for up to 24
01:44hours after you're done cooking. So we're going to do two different types of chicken wings. We have
01:49a buffalo rub and then we're going to go in with a plain poultry rub and judge it up with some
01:55barbecue sauce after they're done cooking. Apparently we can fit up to 40 wings in here.
02:00This pack we got comes with 38, so we might as well try to get them all in there to see if that's true.
02:06Now this is technically a countertop appliance, but it's certainly not comparable in size to
02:11average coffee makers or toaster ovens. Those look fired. So not quite 20 minutes, but definitely
02:19over 15, and our smoker is preheated to 300 degrees, which means it is time to get these wings cooking.
02:28And now we wait.
02:29So once the chicken wings came to temp according to the probe reading, the smoker automatically
02:35switched from the cooking mode to the keeping warm mode. Now it has only been about 45 minutes. I'm a
02:41little bit worried that could be from the placement of the probe, so I'm actually going
02:44to take them out, take a look, and see if they're actually ready or not.
02:50That's a nice thick one, right? Okay, so we're going to go ahead and take them out.
02:54Okay, so we're going to go ahead and take them out, and see if they're actually ready or not.
02:56That's a nice thick one, right? Okay, so we're going back in. Trial and error. I love that we're going
03:02through this right now. That wing that I had the probe tucked into definitely wasn't right, so I
03:06picked a meteor wing in the middle that's already been cooked a bit. It's at 150, so I think we're
03:11going to need a bit more time on these guys.
03:16Does it air fry too?
03:18How long does it have to be in for then to smoke it?
03:20Are you going to eat the chicken after?
03:23That's the plan.
03:25While I'm waiting for the wings to finish up, I want to do a quick temperature check
03:28on the appliance. It's really important for something that you're going to keep inside that
03:32it's not going to burn your hand off, or if you have a child at home that they're not going to
03:36come by and touch it. The sides, while hot, you definitely don't want to like leave your hand
03:40on there to burn, but you'll be fine with a little touch. Let's try this side. Not nearly as hot, and
03:47I think I know why. It's hot, but not not bad. I'm not going to touch that upper corner because that
03:53is where the pellets are being ignited. It looks like the smoke is still being cleared out. What
04:01do you think? Should we see if anything comes out? Okay. Oh. So the smoke clearing process takes about
04:1210 minutes according to the manual, so we're just going to sit tight. We know that it's clearing
04:16right here. That's what this icon right there means, and once that's done, then we can take the wings out.
04:23Now the smoker just told us that it's done clearing, so I think that means we can open our
04:28wings, and look at that. You can see in there that the smoke is still being pulled out slightly.
04:35Ooh, tell me these don't look so good. I think I'm really happy with how these look.
04:41There's only one way to find out. A taste test.
04:47Doing the rub was definitely a good idea,
04:49and I feel like the smoke is subtle. It's coming on like the aftertaste more than anything.
04:54This is like a barbecue.
05:03Very good.
05:15The GE Smart Indoor Smoker, it's also quite a bit more expensive than your average indoor
05:20appliances. It costs $999, so what do you get for that? With the unit, you get three racks,
05:27one drip tray, one meat probe, and a water tank.
05:34I got the used racks here. I'm gonna go ahead and hand wash them, but you also could just
05:38throw them in the dishwasher. Yes, all the accessories like the racks and the drip trays
05:43are dishwasher safe, which is actually very rare for these types of appliances,
05:48and a huge plus when it comes to convenience.
05:54Get some on the sides.
06:00I told myself if I ever got a smoker, I would have to make smoked cream cheese. I've seen so
06:05many recipes online for it, and it always looks so good. We had that going in there for nearly
06:11two hours at about 225, and now we have a nice little appetizer dip.
06:18Ooh, that went real nice. Cheers.
06:26Hot. That's so good.
06:31The question is whether the GE Smart Indoor Smoker can make great-tasting smoke-infused
06:36food. The answer is yes. That said, you have to take things like size and whether this is
06:40something you'd actually see yourself using into consideration before investing. I know I'm
06:46definitely going to be making a lot more things like this in my indoor smoker. Let me know what
06:50you think I should try doing next, though, and be sure to check us out on social at Tom's Guide.
06:55As always, I'm at Kate Kozich. Thanks for watching. I'll catch you next time.