Shane’s Made the Claim That Anyone Can Use a Pellet Grill. If You’re Still Doubtful, Try His Easy Beginner Tips & Then Let Us Know If You Believe.

So you have this awesome new Silverbac wood pellet grill and you are thinking, “great, but what do I cook, and how do I start?” There are a lot of answers to this question, but let’s start with some beginner smoker recipes, then lay out how you can up the ante when you become a pro. Here’s a crash course on grilling for dummies.

Try a Silverbac

Starting Easy

The benefit of a pellet grill is that they are part grill — obviously — but also part smoker and part oven, and they can handle about anything you want to throw at them. They can be a little intimidating if you’ve never been around one or cooked on one, but as soon as you get a couple of cooks under your belt, you will learn to lean on their reliability. You’ll also figure out where your hot spots are and get used to the idea that you will not have the flare-ups of cooking over charcoal or gas.

I like to say that pellet grills are the ease of a gas grill with the flavor benefits of cooking over wood. Treat your new Grilla smoker grill or Silverbac like you would any grill at first.

Try a Grilla

Frankly, I’m a big fan of starting with whatever you like to cook. To start out, here’s a go-to meal for grilling featuring an American favorite:

• No Flip Burger Recipe: How can you go wrong with a juicy burger? We put together a versatile recipe that you can spice up whichever way you want with condiments, buns or meat rubs. This will also give you the freedom to experiment with different wood pellet flavors. These burgers are a proven winner.

Taking It Up a Notch

Once you get used to your grill, I highly recommend you try to smoke something that takes at least 2 to 3 hours to complete. This will help you to further trust the temperature control unit and get used to the idea of letting the grill do the work for you without having to stand within arm’s reach of it the whole time.

When’s the last time you put on a whole chicken on your gasser or square charcoal grill and went and mowed the yard for a couple of hours or played with the kids in the pool? When you’re cooking for a sports gathering at your house, you can even join the crowd around the TV so you don’t miss much of the game. This is the true benefit of pellet cooking and the electronic control unit: It conveniently maintains the temperature over long periods.

But besides what technology can do to shave off some stress, what are you going to eat next? For the intermediate griller, fire up this recipe:

Orange BBQ Chicken: If you are unfamiliar with cooking a whole chicken, this recipe will teach you a lot. All the same principles of preparing and cooking chicken apply. If you want to make the recipe easier, you can skip making the orange glaze and just use rub and barbecue sauce. I believe in cooking chickens so much with this method that I never cook one by itself — I always cook 2 to 3 at a time. This way, I can debone the ones we don’t eat and freeze and save for later.

Master Chef

Before long, you will really start to count on the dependable results that a pellet grill provides, but more than that, you will love the ease at which you get these results. Once you trust the grill a bit, do longer and longer cooks. You’re never truly finished expanding your cookbook when you have a pellet griller. You can roast veggies, whip up side dishes and even make desserts. You can build the confidence to grill just about everything, so if you’d like some recipes that will demonstrate how far you’ve come, try these out:

• Slow Pulled Pork: Grab some quality pork, give it a rub of seasonings and let the pellet grill do the rest. This pork goes great on sandwiches. The tenderness you’ll get from hours of steady cooking makes it worth the wait. Just don’t forget the slaw!
• Competition Pork Ribs: These mouthwatering ribs will fall right off the bone. This is your chance to get creative with the glaze and be the hero of the tailgate.
• Smoked Herb Butter Turkey: Thanksgiving dinner will never be easier or more exciting when you break out the pellet grill. Make a buttery, crispy and seasoned bird, and when your friends and family ask how you did it — it’s okay to take the credit. We won’t tell. Check out how it’s made in the video below.

If you ever have a question about cooking, no matter how big or small, we are here for you. Just drop us an email to pitmaster@grillagrills.com or throw a question out to me, Shane the pitmaster. Good luck and happy cooking.