Pellet grill recommendations?

Nater Potater said:
I know we always insist for pictures or it didn't happen, but we need your recipe to go along with it. Without it, we're all just looking at a picture of your meat.
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That couldn't be my meat, you'd need a wide angle lens.

Those were cooked following Treager's 3-2-1 recipe. I like my ribs dry rubbed, not with any liquid BBQ sauce.
 
A few years ago I visited a factory client of mine in Alabama. The plant was in maintenance shutdown, so the plant manager did BBQ lunch for each shift of employees that were doing clean up and maintenance. They had a massive company smoker maybe 8 feet long and another one almost that big. He was smoking 1/2 chickens for each lunch.

The sauce he used to baste was simple. Vinegar heated up, then some black pepper, sugar and salt added along with some oil. He mopped that over the chickens as they cooked. I have never had better chicken.
 
Gofirstclass said:
That couldn't be my meat, you'd need a wide angle lens.

Those were cooked following Treager's 3-2-1 recipe. I like my ribs dry rubbed, not with any liquid BBQ sauce.
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3-2-1 is a great method. Sometimes I do 4-1-1, 3-1-2, 3-1-1…..just depends on the bark I want. I like them to have clean bones while eating, but not necessarily falling apart after you take them out of the wrap.

While wrapping, I’ll add honey, brown sugar and butter, and cook upside down. I was taught from Matt Pitman, that adding fat to fat is good. He’s not there for a diet plan.
 
Here’s another cook I did last Spring. Smoked Texas Chili with smoked brisket leftovers and sausage. 6 quarts IIRC
1696338790016.jpeg
 
How do you guys smoke with direct heat like that? I have never seen that done, doesn't it get to hot?
 
highslice said:
View attachment 152291
Pork butt on the Weber. Smoked with cherry wood and rubbed with an apple rub. This is about 4 hours in.
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I smoke everything on my 20 year old $70 22” Kettle using the minion method and a pan of water under the meat. My pellet and Green egg buddies can’t tell the difference from their cooks.
 
ZZ13 said:
I smoke everything on my 20 year old $70 22’ Kettle using the minion method and a pan of water under the meat. My pellet and Green egg buddies can’t tell the difference from their cooks.
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Same here. Works like a charm. Just takes more attention and a bit more effort.
 
SKybolt said:
How do you guys smoke with direct heat like that? I have never seen that done, doesn't it get to hot?
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It's not as direct as it looks in my pictures. First I put a foil pan of water or apple cider then I load up 1/4 of the grill with charcoal and light it. Before I put the meat on, I use the lid and vents to lower the temp to around 250. Then I put the meat on and add soaked wood chips (usually cherry or apple wood for pork and poultry) and put the lid back on. I control the temp with the vents and add wood chips every 15 minutes for the first 2 hours of the cook. The meat stops taking smoke at that point. Then I keep the temp low until it is at the desired temp/doneness. It kills my pellet friend (especially the one with the $2,500 rig) that my ribs always blow theirs out of the water. I learned from my Dad and have passed it along to my sons.
 
JayhawkCurtis said:
Chocolate bar in chili? Never heard of that one
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It’s good that way. Layers of flavor are what makes chili in my opinion. You don’t taste the chocolate per se, but seems to bring out a more rich chili flavor. Try it, won’t hurt anything.
 
highslice said:
It's not as direct as it looks in my pictures. First I put a foil pan of water or apple cider then I load up 1/4 of the grill with charcoal and light it. Before I put the meat on, I use the lid and vents to lower the temp to around 250. Then I put the meat on and add soaked wood chips (usually cherry or apple wood for pork and poultry) and put the lid back on. I control the temp with the vents and add wood chips every 15 minutes for the first 2 hours of the cook. The meat stops taking smoke at that point. Then I keep the temp low until it is at the desired temp/doneness. It kills my pellet friend (especially the one with the $2,500 rig) that my ribs always blow theirs out of the water. I learned from my Dad and have passed it along to my sons.
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I smoke lake trout similar to that at the cabin. I put a small amount of coals on one side, foil up some cherry wood and regulate the temp as low as I can go.
 
I have been smoking using one of these for years. You can’t cook with it so I have to use it to get a good smoke flavor and then transfer to the Weber grill (with the smoker box) to finish. The new Traeger will be vastly easier.

I’ll keep using that Big Chief to smoke salmon and lake trout though. It does a fantastic job and I have the timing perfected after 30 or so years using it.

IMG_3898.png
 
Creekwood said:
I have been smoking using one of these for years. You can’t cook with it so I have to use it to get a good smoke flavor and then transfer to the Weber grill (with the smoker box) to finish. The new Traeger will be vastly easier.

I’ll keep using that Big Chief to smoke salmon and lake trout though. It does a fantastic job and I have the timing perfected after 30 or so years using it.

View attachment 152338
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Yeah - I almost picked one of those up a few years ago, but then my dollars per trout would have exceeded $1k ;)
 
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