Guide to Wood Pellet Grilling
The delicious flavor of grilled meats, sides and even desserts takes us back to days spent outside surrounded by friends and family, mouths watering for whatever you’re preparing on the grill. You want to serve them the best, and while grilled food is already great, it can get even better with a simple addition.
Cooking with wood pellets adds something special to every meal. Whether you choose a signature flavored wood pellet to use or you mix it up to find the best combination of smoky goodness and delicious eats, you’ll find smoker pellets add something you just can’t get with other cooking methods. If you’ve never tried cooking with wood pellets or you’ve done it before and want more tips, we’ve gathered just about everything you need to know here.
Smoker Pellet Basics
If you’ve never used smoker pellets before, you’ll want to once you see the possibilities. Wood pellets fuel pellet grills to help you create amazing smoked, grilled and other types of meals. Compare BBQ smoker pellets to other grilling methods, and you’ll see the difference:
- Charcoal provides flavor but takes a while to heat up and leaves a mess.
- Propane heats quickly but doesn’t provide any depth of flavor.
BBQ grill pellets, on the other hand, infuse your food with rich flavors while heating quickly and evenly. Heat circulates throughout your grill, giving the top and bottom racks an equal amount of love. You even get better control when you use pellets for smoking or grilling. Turn up the heat for classic grilling or give your smoked goods the low and slow treatment for complex and mouthwatering flavors.
Pellet grills are also more convenient than charcoal or propane options because they light the pellets and add more as needed to maintain the grill’s heat. You can then control the heat automatically, with some grills offering five-degree increments in temperature adjustment.
In your search for wood pellets, you may see hardwood, softwood and blend options. From those, there’s one clear choice. When you’re grilling or smoking, hardwood makes the best wood pellets for smoking, and here’s why:
- Manufacturers create flavored wood pellets with hardwood varieties since they have better flavors for cooking.
- Hardwoods burn slower, meaning they work well for smoking food low and slow.
- You don’t need to replace or replenish hardwood as often when you’re cooking.
- Softwood contains elements that are harmful to cook with.
Softwood varieties are primarily used as heating pellets because they burn less consistently than hardwood and can create undesirable flavors in food. Softwood pellets contain a higher concentration of lignins and resins, which you certainly don’t want to cook with. Hardwood varieties are certainly the better option for a pellet grill.
You’ll also find a difference in the quality of various wood pellets for smoker grills. The quality depends on where manufacturers source the wood from and other factors, like what manufacturers include in their wood pellets. While some brands advertise a certain flavor, a closer look at the ingredients may reveal that they use:
- A mix of the flavored wood and other varieties
- The flavored wood and other filler materials
- A different wood variety and artificial flavor
Some pellets labeled as a certain flavor may contain as low as five percent of the hardwood advertised. Others may not contain any of the hardwood at all, using flavored oil instead. What you get is a flavor that mimics the hardwood instead of the genuine, high-quality delicious flavor.
With Ol’ Hick, you get what’s on the label. We want to offer authentic flavors, and the best way to do that is to use only the wood variety that creates the flavor you’re after. Choosing cooking pellets with 100 percent flavored wood brings bigger, more authentic tastes to whatever you grill. There’s also no need to worry about fillers that make cleanup more complicated. All you’re grilling with is pure flavor.
Best BBQ Pellet Flavors
Food-grade wood pellets come in an array of flavors that infuse your food with smoky goodness. From sweet to rich to nutty flavors, there’s sure to be something that goes with whatever you’re grilling. Some common pellet flavors include:
- Alder
- Mesquite
- Cherry
- Pecan
- A blend of various flavors
While there are many flavor options out there, we particularly love the following three flavors of barbecue pellets, which range from classic smoked flavors to something unique.
Apple
Infuse your grilled dishes with the sweet flavor of applewood. At Ol’ Hick, we source our 100 percent apple smoker pellets from apple trees in Pennsylvania where apple trees thrive. Within days, the trees are cut, chipped and turned into pellets, keeping them fresh and making them all the more flavorful for a wide variety of dishes. You may have heard the mouthwatering phrase “applewood smoked” before. Now you can recreate those meals at home with these cooking pellets.
Hickory
Our Ol’ Hick pellets are made with 100 percent Appalachian hickory. Other hickory pellets use artificial flavors and other wood varieties to mimic hickory smoker pellets, but nothing beats the real thing. If you’re looking for pure, hickory flavor, Ol’ Hick is for you. Hickory is up there with the classic smoked flavors that any barbecue fan will enjoy, so be sure to stock up on these smoker pellets.
Bourbon
Get unmatched quality and flavor with cooking pellets that bring the taste of Jim Beam bourbon to your pellet grill. So how do you infuse that rich, whiskey flavor with a hearty smokiness into your mains, sides and desserts? Get Ol’ Hick Jim Beam pellets, which combine oak pellets with ones made from Jim Beam barrels. Including oak barrels allows the bourbon flavor to come out with other oaky notes without artificial flavors masking that pure taste. Serve any meal smoked with these pellets with some bourbon for the perfect finishing touch.
How to Use Pellet Grill Pellets in Recipes
With so many flavors of barbecue pellets to choose from and so many delicious meals you can grill, you may want to know how to pair flavored wood pellets with different foods and recipes. Start by considering the type of pellets you’d like to use:
- Apple: Pair the sweet and smoky flavor of applewood with pork, poultry or vegetables for unbeatable combinations. Add a bit of unique flavor to your grilled corn for the perfect side at your next barbecue or make applewood smoked baby back ribs for a mouthwatering meal.
- Hickory: This classic flavor goes with just about any kind of meat you grill up, from beef to pork or poultry. Make flavorful grilled chicken or use these pellets for prime rib. You can even make amazing smoked lamb t-bones with these flavored wood pellets.
- Bourbon: Seafood, beef, pork, poultry, vegetables and even desserts go great with these versatile barbecue pellets. Give grilled corn a kick by using bourbon-flavored wood pellets, adding Cajun spices and wrapping it in bacon.
In general, many foods go well with various flavored pellets. Your options of pellets for smoking turkey or pellets for prime rib, for example, can include any of the three varieties above. Still, particular recipes may pair better with particular flavors. Consider what other flavors you’re adding to your meal to create the best combinations or take some tips from these recipes:
Brisket
Brisket is a classic barbecued meal, and for that reason, we love using the rich flavor of hickory pellets for smoking brisket. Prepare brisket to your liking, using hickory-flavored pellets. Then consider adding it to mac and cheese or making your delicious barbecue into an even more delicious sandwich.
Bacon
Maple and bourbon make a mouthwatering pair, and when you add in bacon, there’s no better combination. Use bourbon smoking pellets when you grill glazed, thick-cut bacon. You can then add this delicious bacon to burgers, mix it into mac and cheese or other sides or just eat it on its own — we won’t judge.
Pulled Pork
Using wood pellets to grill pulled pork adds an authentic smoky taste. Use bourbon pellets for pulled pork if you include bourbon BBQ sauce and straight bourbon, but you can also use hickory-flavored wood pellets in other pulled pork recipes.
Beef Ribs
If you need pellets for smoking ribs, try hickory or bourbon for the ultimate smoky flavor. With an infusion of extra taste from the BBQ pellets, you can keep the ingredients list simple for this smoked beef ribs recipe. Use salt, pepper and garlic as a rub and bind it to the ribs with hot sauce, olive oil or bourbon to match the flavor of the pellets.
Dessert
Even sweets can get a smoky upgrade. Use your favorite cookie dough with apple-, bourbon- or hickory-flavored wood pellets, loading up your smoker or grill and placing the cookie dough on a foil pan or cookie sheet.
You can even bake delicious pies with smoky goodness, using bourbon-flavored wood pellets for a pecan pie. Smoke pecans on a baking sheet with Jim Beam pellets, add some bourbon to the pie filling then smoke the pie with the same flavor of wood pellets for an additional dimension of flavor.
Pizza
Get creative with an easier twist on grilled pizza. Use tortilla wraps instead of dough for a less complicated recipe that grills even quicker. Use Jim Beam smoker pellets and spritz on some bourbon and olive oil before grilling your assembled pizza. Give this meal an even smokier kick by cooking your toppings in foil on the grill to infuse everything with the flavor of Jim Beam and oak.
How to Use Pellet Grill Pellets
With so many recipes to create, you’ll want to use your flavored wood pellets for more than just smoking or grilling. Luckily, that’s possible with a few adjustments to your grilling setup. Using different temperatures or cooking methods can let you use food-grade wood pellets for:
- Grilling: With your BBQ grill pellets ready to go, give a grilled treatment to steaks, burgers, hot dogs or any other grilling classics. You’ll get that familiar grilled taste with an enhanced, smoky flavor if you use pellets and high heat.
- Smoking: Pellet grill pellets aren’t just for high heat applications. Turn down the heat to anywhere between 225 and 275 and let the smoker pellets do their magic.
- Barbecuing: In the beautiful marriage of grilling and smoking, you get barbecue. Barbecuing also happens with low and slow heat but works best for tougher cuts of meat.
- Baking: Indirect heat is the key to turning your grill and smoker pellets into a baking powerhouse. Make creative desserts on your grill that get the same smoked flavor as your main course, or you can use a different variety of flavored wood pellets since they’ll heat up quickly between your main and dessert.
- Roasting: Use a roasting pan to get an even sear on your grilled meals with the added flavor of smoker pellets. You’ll get amazing colors, flavors and textures with this method.
- Braising: Combine methods for smoked and braised deliciousness. Sear meat on your grill or stove, throw it in a pan deep enough to hold it, add some liquid, and then place it on your grill, heated with flavored wood pellets, of course.
While grillers commonly use pellet grills or smokers for pellets, you can get a similar smoky effect even if you have a regular grill. Simply use foil to hold the pellets and place them inside your grill to infuse anything with hickory, applewood, bourbon or other flavors. No matter your method, be sure to keep a few things in mind:
- How much BBQ pellets you go through in one use may vary depending on the size of your smoker or grill and how long you use your smoker for in one grilling session.
- In general, you can expect to use around one and a half to two pounds of wood pellets to do your cooking.
- Remember to open your grill or smoker as infrequently as possible to keep the smoky goodness from escaping.
If all this talk about the complex flavors you can achieve with wood pellets has your mouth watering, get ready for grilling season with wood pellets for your smoker grill.
Fire Up Your Grill With Ol’ Hick Cooking Pellets
Now that you know more about how to get cooking with wood pellets, prepare for grilling season with help from Energex. We strive to provide consistent quality so you get reliable heat from bag to bag, and to do that, we hold each and every shipment to a high standard so that you get the best fuel for your grill.
Experience the quality for yourself. Check out our Ol’ Hick pellets in hickory, apple or bourbon flavors and take your grilling, smoking, barbecuing and more to the next level. Contact us with any questions you have about our products, and we’ll be happy to help you bring these delicious meals and methods to life.
