GE Profile Smart Indoor Smoker Review
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.