The Official Pellet Grill Smoker thread.

BigDon said:

Are you guys removing your pellets after you cook? I am just east of Raleigh NC and was wondering if I should worry about the humidity swelling up pellets. As of now I have the PG in the garage but wanted to move her to the back with the rest of the fleet :-D
It will be covered when not in use.

Click to expand...

I have an old style, without a door at the bottom to let pellets out. That means digging them out. I have never made the effort to unload no matter the weather. I also use mine almost every week and sometimes 3 times a week depending on our menu, so they never sit in the hopper a real long time. May be a good idea though, just to be safe, if you think it will sit for a while.

Spatchcock chickens are some of my favorite things to cook on the GMG. They come out unbelievable every single time. 325 for about 2 hours to 165. Best $7 I'll ever spend.

BigDon said:

Are you guys removing your pellets after you cook? I am just east of Raleigh NC and was wondering if I should worry about the humidity swelling up pellets. As of now I have the PG in the garage but wanted to move her to the back with the rest of the fleet :-D
It will be covered when not in use.

Click to expand...

We live in not far from you in Wilson. Had our 1st Rec Tec out under a covered porch for several years. Always kept the cover on when not in use. Never had an issue with pellets. It was always ready to go. The 2 new ones we got we roll into the garage when not in use.

I've had my pellet in my hopper for up to 3 weeks. Keep the GMG covered and never had a issue with pellets left in the hopper.

At least with the GMG, I've not cared for chicken skin that much. Yes the meat comes out moist and mildly smokey but it always seems a bit rubbery, even cooking at 350. Granted the sample size is small but I much prefer the 3 cooks with chicken I've done on the drum over anything I've done on the pellet. At 350, the drum infuses a lot more flavor than a pellet grill and the skin is definitely crispier. I have always thought the pellet grill was better at beef and pork than chicken.

stljay said:

At least with the GMG, I've not cared for chicken skin that much. Yes the meat comes out moist and mildly smokey but it always seems a bit rubbery, even cooking at 350.

Click to expand...

So I think I've found the solution for the leathery/rubbery skin. It's a combination of a few things I've heard/done over the years.

To get the skin to crisp up/be edible, you need to dehydrate it and render it (duh!) but doing that correctly is the trick. Now when I was oven cooking pork belly (skin on) in the UK, everyone always said to rub the skin with salt so it will crisp up properly (OMG pork belly cracklin' is the best) so that's what I always did and ended up with nice crispy skin. Oil is the second trick to get things to render quickly.

So, on to the tricks.

1. Pre-season your yardbird about 30 minutes before you cook it. If your rub has salt, you're good. If it doesn't, you may want to consider salting, then applying the rub. If you can't tolerate salt ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

2. Oil yer bird. I saw a recipe that recommended buttering the chicken, then applying rub. What a giant pain in the butt that was, messy and not very effective. I put the rub on, they spray it down with olive oil and LET IT SIT. This is part of the 30 min rest thing. The spices will absorb the oil and then they won't burn, and the oil will naturally spread itself out into a nice even coating. The big thing here is that the oil helps with heat transfer to the skin to render it. It also helps prevent the skin from drying out. Don't leave this step out.

3. Bird goes on the pellet smoker skin side down first. Cook for 30 mins before flipping. This starts rendering the skin, since heat mainly comes from the bottom up on a pellet smoker, hence putting it skin side down. I cook at 275°. You can go higher, but I probably wouldn't exceed 300°, but feel free to experiment. Once you flip, you've probably got 15 mins until it's done.

I've been doing chicken this way for a while and have had good success. Haven't tested it with a whole bird, obviously hard to put that skin side down unless spatchcocked.

stljay said:

At least with the GMG, I've not cared for chicken skin that much. Yes the meat comes out moist and mildly smokey but it always seems a bit rubbery, even cooking at 350. Granted the sample size is small but I much prefer the 3 cooks with chicken I've done on the drum over anything I've done on the pellet. At 350, the drum infuses a lot more flavor than a pellet grill and the skin is definitely crispier. I have always thought the pellet grill was better at beef and pork than chicken.

Click to expand...

I agree, the drum does a better job with the skin. But, we don't usually eat the skin anyway. With that said, my PBC also cooks amazing chicken. But, I'm an equal opportunity smoker

The only time ive gotten good skin on a bird was our turkey last Thanksgiving, but that was on for much much longer than these little chickens.

Down here on the Texas gulf coast, I was concerned about humidity and my pellets falling apart, jamming or otherwise. Bought airtight storage boxes for them on the porch. Well, then I ended up buying more pellets on sale than I could keep in a box, so in the bag on the porch they sat. Been about a year now for several bags and they are just as fine as they day I bought them. It's a deep porch and they don't get any rain spray, but they are essentially outside.

I also don't dump my pellets (can't) but they get used pretty frequently. Cookers are also under the same porch. I'll move them from one cooker to the other so the ones that have been out the longest get used first, but that's about as much as I do.

As long as you keep them out of water, they should be fine.

I pulled the trigger on a Mak 2 star last week from Big Poppa Smokers. Will be delivered to the house tomorrow. Sitting at the freight yard right now. Looking forward to adding some posts to this thread in the coming weeks.

DMosher said:

I pulled the trigger on a Mak 2 star last week from Big Poppa Smokers. Will be delivered to the house tomorrow. Sitting at the freight yard right now. Looking forward to adding some posts to this thread in the coming weeks.

Click to expand...

From one 2 Star owner to another... CONGRATS!!!

DMosher said:

I pulled the trigger on a Mak 2 star last week from Big Poppa Smokers. Will be delivered to the house tomorrow. Sitting at the freight yard right now. Looking forward to adding some posts to this thread in the coming weeks.

Click to expand...

Cool! Hope you get to enjoy some yummy food for a long time to come!

Well got the Mak 2 star delivered today. I spent around 3 1/2 hours putting it together. Did 99 percent of it myself except for help lifting the smoker onto the base. Over all impression-
Packing for shipping was very well done. No issues what so every with the shipper or the packing of the grill parts. Going to take me about 3 weeks to cut up all the cardboard and recycle it in my trash can. The build directions are straight forward and easy to understand. Very impressed with the build quality. Only tools needed are allen wrench (they Supplied) 1/4 inch socket and a phelps screw driver for the optional front door. Plan to do the burn in tomorrow, so will let you know how that goes. Plan to cook on it as soon as possible.

very cool DMosher! looking forward to you thoughts and of course PRON!!

Sorry no pics was a crazy day. The freezer in the garage died on me. I found out last night, when I took some salmon out to cook for dinner. Lost most everything. But saved the snake river farms Beef tenderloin, and flat iron stakes. They were on the bottom of the freezer so still not fully thawed. So threw the tenderloin on the new to me Mak 2 star. Cooked it different then normal at 300 degrees. Was following a Steven Raichlen recipe. Used the Hickory pellets that came with the smoker and rubbed the tenderloin with BPS Double secret steak rub. Came out very good. Also nice to have the warming box on the Mak to rest the meat for 20 minutes. Very impressed with the first cook on it.

DMosher said:

Well got the Mak 2 star delivered today. I spent around 3 1/2 hours putting it together. Did 99 percent of it myself except for help lifting the smoker onto the base. Over all impression-
Packing for shipping was very well done. No issues what so every with the shipper or the packing of the grill parts. Going to take me about 3 weeks to cut up all the cardboard and recycle it in my trash can. The build directions are straight forward and easy to understand. Very impressed with the build quality. Only tools needed are allen wrench (they Supplied) 1/4 inch socket and a phelps screw driver for the optional front door. Plan to do the burn in tomorrow, so will let you know how that goes. Plan to cook on it as soon as possible.

Click to expand...

I look forward to your review. I'm thinking a Mak 2 Star will be next to replace my Timberline 850.

BigDon said:

Are you guys removing your pellets after you cook? I am just east of Raleigh NC and was wondering if I should worry about the humidity swelling up pellets. As of now I have the PG in the garage but wanted to move her to the back with the rest of the fleet :-D
It will be covered when not in use.

Click to expand...

I wondered the same thing, but I must confess I've had pellets sitting in my Mak 1-star since I bought it at Thanksgiving, and when I fired it up last week to smoke some ribs I had no issue. Mine not only has sat outside during that period, but my Mak was uncovered because they were out of covers until a couple weeks ago. And it's been a rather wet winter here by SoCal standards.

I was really unhappy having to let an electronic smoker, with a digital contoller, sit uncovered outside 4-5 months because Mak couldn't get itself organized enough to have more grill covers made. But when I finally ordered and received it, I now am even more dissatisfied. It looks like in an effort to have a one-size-fits-all cover (whether you install a front shelf, or side shelf, or both or neither), they've made such a generic cover that it doesn't fit well. I found mine had blown off last week, and I had it cinched down tight with the straps. Must have gotten a bit of wind under it. I've had many, many grills and smokers over the past 25 yrs and never had a cover blow off.

In any event, fortunately the whole cover situation does not at all match my experience with the 1-star itself, which has been fantastic. Too bad, because I'm sure the company would rather deliver a consistently excellent experience.

Any love out there for the Blazin Grill lineup? Seem to have several nice features like pellet dump, stainless racks and drip tray, and double-wall construction.