Picking up my new pellet smoker next week. Let’s here everybody’s tip, tricks, and recipes for your favorite meals.

What pellets do y’all like best?

I have narrowed my pellet use down to just a couple. For most recipes I like the Traeger Signature Blend (Hisckory, Maple & Cherry blend) and for fish I go with Traeger Alder wood.
I did St Louis ribs yesterday using the 3,2,1 method and they turned out excellent as usual.
You will love Bacon wrapped things like shrimp, Jalapeño, etc on the pellet grill since you don’t have to worry about grease flair ups.
Traeger suggests doing a brined whole chicken early on as it demonstrates its ability to keep moisture in the meat.

You shut your whore mouth. I don’t have time to babysit a damn fire. I’ve got a toddler and all the citizens of Dallas to babysit.

Lumberjack or Bear Mountain pellets

OMG! I hate to see pellet-grills fall into "debate-hell" along with beans in chili, .223 for deer & Nathan's GF.

When I had mine I liked the bear mountain pellets best. They would hold together and not turn to sawdust. Traeger pellets are cheaply made in my experience and crumble apart. It seemed like that would cause some temperature spikes.

As for what to cook. Pellet grills are a jack of all trades master of none in my opinion. Doesn't give the right smoke for long slow cooks and not enough heat for good searing. But that doesn't make it useless.


Reverse seared steak
Set pellet grill to 200°f and cook seasoned steak until internal temp of 120°f. Pull off and sear on a charcoal chimney or cast iron.



Whole Chicken
Brine chicken overnight or about 16 hours. Pat chicken dry and place on a wire rack on top of a baking sheet. Place uncovered in the fridge for two days until the skin starts to become translucent. Rub with olive oil and season with your preferred seasoning before cooking. Brine makes it juicy and drying the skin makes for extra crispy skin.

Buffalo Wings
Set buffalo wings on a wire rack in the refrigerator to dehydrate for about 4 hours. Season with your favorite chicken rub. Smoke at 225°f for about 2 hours until 165°f. Toss in a mixture of 1 part buttermilk ranch and 3 parts franks hot sauce. Not franks buffalo sauce.



The best tip I can think of is finding your hot spots. Heat your grill to 350-400 and set white bread from one side of the grate to the other. Flip after a couple of minutes. You will see where pieces toasted more than others. That will be your hot spots.

The best tip I can think of is finding your hot spots. Heat your grill to 350-400 and set white bread from one side of the grate to the other. Flip after a couple of minutes. You will see where pieces toasted more than others. That will be your hot spots. [/quote]

THIS. Took some trial and error to find my hot spots. Wish I would've done this.

I like Lumberjack, shuping and b&b pellets. Hickory and pecan are my go to. The shuping pellets put out more ash, but more flavor imo. Made here in TX.

Spatchcock chicken is great. Look it up.
I like tri-tip reverse seared, smoke at 180 until internal is 120, then sear.

spatchcock
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ovwvKYtmdA

wings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1q3m0DyONo

tri tip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AvarnUZk4k

beef ribs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaYBDfhJ6xs

I use the Rec Tec pellets or the B&B pellets @ HEB. Just remember the higher the temperature the less smoke flavor you will get. I don`t use mine as an oven and cook things like pizza and such, I have an oven that does a great job at that already and I don`t use it as a grill to cook steaks, my Weber genesis will get up to over 600° in about 10 minutes and does a great job. I do use it to smoke briskets, ribs, chicken, bacon, pastrami, jerky, salami, brisket and pork belly burnt ends and jalapeno poppers and other things. I have reverse seared some steaks and finished on my Weber that I really liked also. The only thing I was not happy with was a pork butt I smoked for pulled pork. It was not even close to the pork butts I smoked on my offset smoker.

I like the ease and convenience of a pellet smoker and not having to get up at 4 in the a.m. to start a fire. I also have no plans to get rid of my offset smoke because you can`t have to many cooking tools at your disposal. I actually collected some mesquite and oak for it this week and have plans to cook some pork butts on it for the 4th of July. I don`t think you can replace the taste of meat cooked on a wood smoker(if done properly), but a good pellet smoker can still turn out a good product with a good smoke flavor if cooked low and slow.

I bought a RecTeq Bullseye & I'm still learning. There are recipes galore on YouTube for pellet grilling. I think the thing to look for is what is the ideal internal target temp of what you're cooking. Everything I've done has come out great, but I will admit it can't come close to my offset stick- burner. But the PG sure is convenient. Think of it the same as your indoor oven except it's also full of smoke. I guess you could even bake a cake on one! I'm going to try a Papa Murphy's with cherry pellets soon.

Now that’s funny!

I see some people are insecure. That’s cool. I’ll admit that it took a lot for me to convert to the idea of a pellet smoker over a stick burner, but truth is I don’t have time to babysit a fire. My days are a mess. Woke up Thursday at 12:30pm, showed an office building in Richardson at 2pm, then off to Celina to check on a new build, the Frisco to show a home, got home at 8pm, showered and off to work by 9pm. Home from work at 630am, took kid to school by 9, off to Richardson to show another office space. Now writing about 13 purchase offers. This is a normal day for me, so yeah, I’m going to buy a pellet smoker because it makes sense, not because my balls are in my wife’s purse.

This, no fillers or flavor additives. Love my Camp Chef pellet grill with sear station. I highly recommend a smoker tube for longer cooks to add more smoky flavor.

THIS. Took some trial and error to find my hot spots. Wish I would've done this. [/quote]

This will work.