Western BBQ Smoking Chips are primarily used to add wood smoke flavor to food cooked on gas grills or in electric smokers. The great part about using chips is that there are so many different flavors available, you can create your own unique combination. Mesquite, a long-time favorite wood in the South, has a strong, sweet, hard flavor. Mesquite is great with rich, full-bodied meats like beef, duck, chicken and lamb. It can also be used to flavor seafood and vegetables.