Are you looking for a way to take your grilling to the next level? If so, then you should seriously consider investing in a pellet grill.
Pellet grills offer many advantages over a traditional charcoal grill or gas grill, and they can help you to create delicious meals that the whole family will love.
In this quick read, we run through what a pellet grill is, and 5 reasons why you need one!
What Is a Pellet Grill?
A pellet grill (a.k.a. a pellet smoker) is a type of grill that uses compressed wood pellets as fuel (not to be confused with wood chips), and pellet grills require electricity to power them.
The pellets are loaded into a hopper (basically a box attached to the side of the grill) and are fed into a burn pot (or fire pot) in the body of the grill through an auger. An ignitor rod heats the burn pot. The pellets smolder, creating smoke and flavor as they cook the food through indirect heat, which is often (but doesn't have to be), low and slow!
5 Reasons Why Pellet Grills are Awesome!
Below we run through the top 5 reasons why pellet greats are great!
1. Easy to use
Pellet grilling is very easy to do. Simply load the hopper with pellets, and the grill will pretty much do the rest!
Pellet grills cook food evenly, and some units will automatically adjust temperatures and cook against pre-set menus, so you don't need to do much once they're on, and they can make average cooks (such as myself) look like master grillers!
Also, they don't flare up so there's no need to worry about making much of a mess, and while juices do drop down from the grill grate into the grease management system and there is some ash that needs removing, cleaning a pellet grill is very easy on most units.
2. Versatility of cooking
You can cook pretty much anything on a pellet grill, from meats and fish to vegetables and pizza, and fruits, and you can even smoke nuts, bake bread and cook deserts!
You can sear steaks (on some units - not all do this), smoke, roast, braise and bake food. But most importantly for our household, pellet grills cook larger cuts of meat like briskets or beef short ribs that need to be cooked for many hours at low temperatures to render the fat down better than other cooking methods.
3. Technology
Some pellet grills (not all) have more tech built in compared with other grill styles, including wifi, temperature probes, PID temperature control (which are accurate for reaching and maintaining temperature by either feeding or restricting fuel).
With some of the newer models, they will even adjust temperatures to cook food through pre-set recipes depending on what you set the unit to cook, so you can ensure that your food is cooked to perfection every time.
Also, some units enable you to remotely monitor how your grilling or BBQing is progressing and how long until your perfect food will be ready!
4. Flavors, flavors, and more flavors!
Anyone who's ever tasted food cooked well on a pellet grill knows that there's just something about the smoky flavor combined with perfectly evenly cooked food that is irresistible.
With quality pellets, your food will be infused with delicious wood-fired flavor. And due to how pellet grills cook, they maintain a consistent temperature and evenly distribute heat, which results in it being easier to cook food to perfection.
Pellet grills are a step up from gas and charcoal grills, which simply can't match the flavor profile of a pellet grill, particularly with meats cooked at low temperatures for many hours.
5. Varieties of pellet grills
There are a variety of pellet grills available on the market, each with its own set of features and benefits.
For example, some pellet grills are designed for portability so are great for camping, tailgating, or for an RV, while others are large units that can cook several racks of ribs plus some all at the same time.
Of course, there are additional features that add to the variety of pellet grills.
To Sum Up
Why buy a pellet grill? Well, overall, pellet grills offer many advantages over charcoal and most gas grills, making them a great choice for anyone who loves to cook outdoors.
If you're serious about grilling, and the flavors that can be achieved with smoke and indirect cooking be sure to invest in a pellet grill. You won't regret it!
If you are in the market for a new pellet grill then consider our fully reviewed recommendations by clicking the links below, and happy grilling!
