Recipes for a pellet grill

[Keith]

I just got a Recteq 590 pellet grill and I am looking for recommendations on what to cook on it. Please share your favorite recipes for a pellet grill/smoker. I want to smoke a brisket, but want to start with something easier before trying a brisket. I also bought sear plates for it, so keep that in mind.

We just bought a side of beef, some beef to experiment with. I have a lot of hamburger and cube steak. I have a few picanha steaks, along with several flat iron and chuck eye, if they would be good on a smoker.
Of course chicken, fish (crappie) or pork are always good choices, too.

[Twist]

It’s best to start with something simple to get a feel for how the grill cooks, say maybe hamburgers and hotdogs. Performance wise, the biggest difference between a pellet grill and a charcoal grill/stick smoker will be that a well made pellet grill should maintain a more constant temperature due to there not really being a variation with the fuel. Reqteq’s are pretty well built so you’ll probably notice and appreciate the stability.

After you get an idea, you can cook pretty much anything you’d cook on a grill, smoker and even a lot of what you’d use an oven for. Just remember if you put something on it that you’d usually use an oven for and it’s not covered or protected, there will be smoke flavor added to some extent.

That said, we use ours for almost everything major we cook, or at least for part of it. We did spaghetti last Sunday and I dropped the meatballs and Italian sausage on the new Pitts and Spitts for an initial cook to get a feel. Doing that and then adding them into the sauce for a several hour low hit/simmer lets a bit of the smoke spread through the sauce and adds a terrific accent.

And yes, brisket, picanha, tri tips, ribs, etc all turn out amazing. You’ll probably grow to love that thing the same as we have with the ones we own and just like several other members love theirs as well.

[Richard S.]

I had recently bought some seasonings from Cajun Blake and gave my neighbor a pack of chili seasoning to try. He smoked the ground meat on his Egg and then put the chili mix in pot on the Egg as well to finish. Man was it good, might want to try this.

[b.a.saha]

Traeger has a ton of recipes online. Meatchurch guy does mainly pellet grill recipes as well

[Keith]

Thanks for the suggestions, keep them coming.

[Snapperhead94]

Chicken is easy, maybe 3 hours for a whole bird. Same for ribs.
Pork butt is easy but takes longer.
Get a good thermometer and let it smoke. Lots of good recipes online.

[Jtrage]

Market Street here has pork butt for $0.99. That’s always an easy good way to start.


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[Mike D]

Start with chicken, chuck roast or a tri tip.


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[Greenheadless]

I run mine almost the same way I would have an offset stick burner.

If you haven’t already, get an Amazen smoke tube or the like.

[mzurovec]

I've been cooking on a pellet smoker for about four years at this point. Tons of great recipes out there, but one of our favorites is turkey. Actually really simple to do and makes a whole lot of food:

Make a brine, we like to put brown sugar, honey, and citrus in ours among many other things. Drop the turkey in about 24 hours before you plan to put it on. Season with whatever poultry seasoning you prefer, we've used all sorts at this point. Spray every half hour with a vinegar/apple juice blend (or whatever spray you'd like), and baste with butter 2-3 times through the process. Overall cook time for a 13lb bird the other day was around 3.5 hours on 250*.

As mentioned above, get a good wireless thermometer. I've used an Inkbird for the past four years and it's been great, also coming in as one of the cheaper options out there. Good luck!

[BlackHogDown]

meatloaf, frozen pizza, stuffed marinated chicken breasts (Frozen at HEB). Stuff like that other than the typical chicken, ribs, and brisket. Pulled pork is pretty much fool-proof as well.

[WItoTX]

My latest favorite is t-bones. Pick whatever seasoning floats your boat. I've been on salt and pepper only kick lately.

Turn smoker to 225, put a cold (even slightly frozen) t-bone on, cook to 115, remove from the smoker and take the steak to a HOT pan, cast iron is ideal, sear both sides for 20-30 seconds at most. Wrap in tin foil, set for 10-15 min, then eat.

An easy one, 3-2-1 ribs. Can't go wrong, great way to break in a pellet grill.

a 3rd good one, pork tenderloin, either let it sit overnight in a brine (I just do salt/water), or coat in your favorite seasoning, set the smoker to 350, cook it to 145, pull off. Delicious as well, and the most moist pork I've ever had.

One other thing to consider. Recommended meat cook temps are based on instantaneous temps. So for Pork to be safe, it has to immediately hit 145. BUT, you can cook it to a lower temp, as long as the pork holds that temp for a duration of time. Same goes for chicken. There are some charts out on the internet on what those safe cook temps are if you are interested.

[TheWidowMaker]

Go to the Meat Church website and click on their recipe section. They have tons of YouTube videos on things to cook and how to do it all. I've done a lot of their stuff and it's always good. Except for the smoked salsa, that was a little too much.

[TxBowHntr]

Start with pork if you want to cook barbecue on it and learn how it smokes. Pork is very forgiving, and will give you a much better understanding of how your specific grill cooks with less chance of having something inedible.

Pork Butt:
Season with your barbecue seasoning of choice. Throw on pit @ 225 and smoke until good bark and internal reads 170ish. Throw in foil pan, cover with foil, and back on the pit until the bone pulls clean. Pull the meat, mix with some sauce if you want, and enjoy.

Pork Ribs:
Remove the membrane on the back of the ribs. Season with seasoning of choice. Unwrapped for 3ish hours on smoke @ 225, then wrap in foil with some brown sugar/honey/hotsauce/seasoning/whatever you want. Back on the pit for 1-2 hours (check it after 1 hour and then every 20 minutes). Then take it out of the foil and back on the pit unwrapped for saucing and tacking up for the remaining 30 minutes to 1 hour.

My absolute favorite thing to cook on my pellet grill is chicken wings. I do this almost once a week.

Chicken Wings:
Make a 50/50 blend of Bass Pro shops brand original and spicy fish fry. Dredge naked wings in fish fry mix. Shake off excess dredge. Wings should be only lightly coated.
Throw on the pit and smoke at 350, for 45ish minutes. This will show you where the hot/cold spots are as you will have many small items all over the grates. I eat mine with some bleu cheese dressing, but they are delicious plain. My wife and I will eat 30-40 when we sit down to them.

[kd350]

How to bbq right is a good resource too. I use the Traeger app a lot for recipes

The garlic and herb roasted pork loin is a go too in my house