The Best Pellet Grill Recipes - Traeger Grills (2024)

FAQs

What is best cooked on a Traeger? ›

The smoker burns 1 to 3 pounds of pellets per hour. Traeger says that means each 20 pound bag provides between 6 to 20 hours of cook time (at high or low heat).

First Recipes to Cook

Simply coat a whole chicken with Traeger's Chicken Rub and cook for just over an hour. That's all you'll need to do for chicken perfection.

Pulled pork is the perfect meat to start with when you're new to a pellet grill.

For a delectable date night dinner, try out this Traeger filet mignon. Give this small and luxurious cut of meat a simple wood-firing, then enjoy the most tender, succulent piece of grilled beef on the planet.

Once you have opened your bag of pellets, it's even more crucial to protect them from moisture. While you can leave pellets in your grill's hopper for the short term when you know the weather will be dry, you should remove them from the hopper and store them airtight when prolonged rain or high humidity is forecast.

Traeger, however, earns a slight edge in temperature control with smaller increment settings and more precise heat management for the duration of cooks. There's also the matter of Wi-Fi compatibility with phone apps and other smart devices for mobile grill control, which Traeger features and Pit Boss doesn't.

If a Traeger is stored outside during wet weather, water can get into the Pellet Hopper. When pellets get wet, they expand and can clog the auger. Additionally, a Traeger cannot cook with wet wood. If you do not have a cover, take extra care to keep the pellet hopper covered and away from any water.

Open-Lid Startup

Set your Traeger grill to the SMOKE setting with the lid open. You will hear the fan running. Wait for the fire to ignite and establish, roughly 5 minutes, give or take. You should hear a difference in sound from just the fan to hearing a flame going.

What not to do with a pellet grill? ›

Simple, quick, and easy-to-cook foods like beef ribs, pork chops, turkey, duck, and salmon are the finest meats to smoke for a beginner. This will give you a solid foundation on food smoking before moving on to more luscious and flavorful meats like brisket, lamb, pork butt, and tri-tip.

Smoking is a common way to cook meat with a high fat content. The best cuts for smoking tend to be thick cuts with lots of fat and connective tissue. Ribs, brisket and pork shoulder are a few of the classic examples. The amount of connective tissue would make these cuts tough and chewy if cooked over high heat.

Before cooking the first batch of food in your new Traeger, you will need to season your grill. This simple, one-time initial firing process will burn off any residual, non-toxic oils from the manufacturing process and help create non-stick surfaces so that you get the most out of your Traeger Wood Pellet Grill.

All-natural wood pellets are moved from the hopper to the fire pot by an auger, where they're ignited to feed the flames and add wood-fired flavor to your food. A fan circulates heat and smoke for even, consistent cooking, and a drip tray keeps flames off your food and prevents flare-ups.

Smokers are designed to deliver indirect heat at low temperatures, while grilling requires direct heat at high temperatures. Some smokers, like wood pellet grills and ceramic smokers, can also be used to generate the high temperatures needed for direct grilling.