traeger Archives - My Latina Table

How to Smoke a Pizza on a Wood Pellet Grill + Pizza Dough Recipe

Charbel Barker — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 20:25:59 +0000

Inside: If you ever wanted to try cooking a pizza on a wood pellet grill, you will want to keep reading! Plus, a bonus recipe for a great pizza dough that works in the oven or on your smoker.

This post was sponsored by Home Depot. All opinions are my own.

One of our favorite cooking “tools” is definitely our Traeger wood pellet grills. Our most recent addition to the collection is our Traeger Timberline 1300, which has a ton of space and the most up-to-date features from Traeger.

We have used it to cook so many things, but one of our favorites is pizza! We love to make pizza for holiday gatherings since everyone loves it, and it is so versatile. You can make many different flavors and even incorporate Thanksgiving leftovers like smoked turkey!

The Timberline 1300, which you can buy at the Home Depot, makes it easy. Using the WiFIRE feature, you can set and adjust the temperature straight from the intuitive app. It will even tell you how many pellets you have left and you can easily set a timer as well.

It is still a perfect time to buy a Traeger grill online since right now the Home Depot offers free delivery on all grills purchased online and free delivery and assembly of any grills purchased in-store over $399. We also buy our pellets from the Home Depot – the Timberline 1300 has a pellet sensor in the hopper so that you can tell straight from the app how many pellets you have left so you never run out while cooking.

One other thing I love about this grill is that it comes with a cool magnetic cutting board that goes on top of the pellet hopper, so you can cut into the meat to check it out without going back in the house!

Overall, this is my favorite grill by far. Everything I have made so far has come out very good and we get compliments all the time about the grill.

Whether you are making pizza, turkey, brisket, ribs, cherry cobbler, and more, you can easily do it with the Timberline 1300. Pick one up in-store or online this holiday season at Home Depot – you won’t regret it!

How do you cook pizza on a Traeger?

Using your Traeger to make a pizza is similar to an oven, in that you will preheat it and put the pizza inside. That said, the flavors that you can get from cooking the pizza on a smoker are amazing. The steps are pretty simple, but make a big difference.

Prepare your pizza dough (see recipe below)
Preheat your Traeger to 450 degrees fahrenheit
Spread out the prepared pizza dough on a pizza stone or another heavy duty pizza pan
Cook for 10 minutes, and remove from the smoker
Add the sauce, toppings, and cheese and return to the smoker for 15-20 additional minutes
Remove from the smoker and enjoy.

What are the best toppings for a smoked pizza?

This really depends on your personal tastes. I love to add ingredients that were previously cooked on the wood pellet grill. For example, if I make smoked pork or brisket one day, I will chop up the leftovers and add them as one of the ingredients on the pizza the next day.

Some other great options are smoked chicken, smoked ribs, smoked turkey, and smoked sausage (which is what I included on the one we made for these pictures).

Of course, you can always go with standard cheese, pepperoni, veggies, and more depending on what you like the most.

What dough should you use when cooking a pizza on a smoker?

There are so many different recipes out there for pizza dough. Personally, I love seasoning my dough by adding some herbs and spices like basil, oregano, and garlic. This gives the final product a delicious taste that is hard to resist.

One of the key steps for this dough recipe is using and activating the yeast. I always add the live yeast to a large bowl or cup with warm milk, and a little bit of sugar and flour until it starts to froth and rise. Then I add it to the dough with the other ingredients. Following this method will result in a dough that rises well and has a great texture when cooked.

I also like to melt butter with some garlic powder and fresh herbs, which I brush on to the crust right after it is done cooking.

This pizza dough recipe is always a hit and results in perfect pizza every time.

Pizza may not be what you think of as a traditional holiday meal, but when you get together with friends and family, it is a great option – especially when you are making something different from normal carry-out or delivery.

Let me know in the comments below how this turns out and what your favorite toppings are for pizza.

Pizza Dough Recipe

This pizza dough recipe is easy to make and tastes amazing. You can use it in th oven or on a wood pellet smoker from Traeger.

Course Main Course, Pizza

Cuisine American

Keyword Pizza dough, smoked pizza

Prep Time 25

Cook Time 12

Rising Time 30

Total Time 1 7

Servings 14 inch pizza

Calories 1679kcal

Author Charbel Barker

Ingredients

For the Dough

2 1/2 Cups All purpose flour
Yeast prepared as described below
2 Tsp Sugar
1/2 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Smoked Paprika
1 Tsp Dried Basil
1 Tsp Black Pepper
1 Tsp Garlic Powder
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
2/3 Cup Warm Water

For the Yeast

2 Tbsp Flour
3/4 Cup Warm Milk
1 Tbsp Sugar
2 Tbsp Active Yeast I use the kind that you keep refrigerated

Instructions

Prepare the yeast by stirring together all of the ingredients for the yeast shown above. Set aside and let rise for 10-20 minutes.
Combine 1 cup of the flour and all of hte remaining dry ingredients for the pizza dough and mix well.
Add the olive oil, warm water, and yeast mixture and stir with a wooden spoon or in a stand mixure until well combined. This mixture should be quite sticky.
Add additional flour until you can form a ball of dough thtat is soft, but no longer sticky.
Form the ball of dough and add it to a large bowl that was previously coated in olive oil.
Cover and let rise for 30-60 minutes (it should double in size)
Roll out the dough into a 12-16 inch circle (depending on the size of the pizza stone you are using) and cook on your smoker or in your oven for 10 minutes at 425 degrees.
Remove from the oven or smoker and add the sauce and toppings and then cook for approximately 20 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through.

Nutrition

The post How to Smoke a Pizza on a Wood Pellet Grill + Pizza Dough Recipe appeared first on My Latina Table.

How To Make The Best, Foolproof Smoked Chicken Wings

Charbel Barker — Mon, 11 Feb 2019 19:34:10 +0000

Inside: Find out the foolproof method to make perfect smoked chicken wings using your wood pellet grill.

Ever since we bought our Traeger wood pellet grill last year, we have gotten a lot of use out of it. We have made brisket, pulled pork, nachos, burgers and more and everything has been amazing.

Once you start smoking meat, it is hard to eat it any other way! A couple of weeks ago, we were invited to a Super Bowl party. We offered to bring a few things, including some wings. We thought about making our delicious buffalo wings recipe but decided that we wanted to try something new instead. In the end, we decided to try our hand at making smoked chicken wings and they were delicious.

How To Prepare Chicken Wings Before Smoking Them

While these wings get a lot of their flavor from the smoke itself, it is also important to prepare them correctly. We started by adding the cleaned wings to a ziplock bag with about a tablespoon of oil. We then added about 1 tablespoon of the chicken rub from Traeger, and one tablespoon of the Traeger Rub before sealing the bag and shaking it up to get some seasoning on all of the wings.

We then put them in the refrigerator and let them marinate for about one hour.

What Temperature Should You Set Your Wood Pellet Grill For These Smoked Chicken Wings?

One of the good things about smoking chicken wings is that it doesn’t take nearly as long as some other meats. We used a two-step process for smoking these chicken wings.

The first step was to set our Traeger Texas Elite 34 smoker to 225 degrees Fahrenheit. After it reached the correct heat, we added the chicken wing sections and cooked them for about 45 minutes. At that point, they had reached an internal temperature right at 160 degrees Fahrenheit.

The second step was to remove the smoked wings from the grill and toss them in our favorite Traeger sauce, Traeger ‘Que. There are lots of other sauces that you can use as well. Check them out here. While tossing, you will want to increase the heat to about 375 – 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

After each wing was coated in the sauce, we added them back to the grill for an additional 20 minutes so that the sauce could adhere to the wings and bring in some extra smoke.

For these smoked chicken wings, we used cherry wood pellets, but they would also be really good with hickory or mesquite.

The good thing about a wood pellet grill from Traeger is that it makes the whole process very easy. They have lots of different options in different price ranges, so check them out if you don’t already have one.

We had a lot of success with these wings, and everyone loved them at the party. It is really amazing how much flavor some smoke can give to chicken wings. Once you try these wings, you may never be able to go back to making them any other way.

Let me know in the comments below how they turned out for you.

Check Out These Other Recipes To Try On Your Smoker

Smoked Chicken Wings

Find out the foolproof method to make perfect smoked chicken wings using your wood pellet grill.

Course Appetizer

Cuisine American

Keyword wings

Prep Time 1

Cook Time 1 15

Total Time 2 15

Servings Wings

Calories 150kcal

Author Charbel Barker

Ingredients

16 Chicken wings
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp Traeger Chicken Rub
1 tbsp Traeger Rub
1 cup Traeger 'Que BBQ sauce or other BBQ sauce of your choice.

Instructions

Add the chicken wings to a large ziplock bag and add the olive oil and rubs. Shake around until wings are coated with oil and rub.
Preheat wood pellet grill to 225 degrees Fahrenheit.
Add wings to the wood pellet grill and cook for about 45 minutes, or until wings reach an internal temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit.
Toss the wings in the BBQ sauce and increase heat to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
Return wings to the grill and cook for an additional 20 minutes.
Serve with ranch dressing or alone.

Nutrition

The post How To Make The Best, Foolproof Smoked Chicken Wings appeared first on My Latina Table.

How to Grill a Perfect Cheeseburger on a Wood Pellet Smoker

Charbel Barker — Fri, 18 May 2018 01:58:02 +0000

Inside: Keep reading for step-by-step instructions on how to grill a perfect, smoke-flavored cheeseburger on a Traeger wood pellet smoker.

Here in Colorado, Winter sometimes seems to last forever. The good thing about that, is that when it is finally over, we can really appreciate the warm weather! Part of that is grilling as often as possible.

I recently bought my husband a Traeger wood pellet smoker for his birthday. He absolutely loves it and has already made fall-off-the-bones ribs, a whole chicken, and today – burgers! We love getting that delicious smoked flavor on our food, so this is perfect for us.

Today, I want to share how to grill a perfect and delicious cheeseburger on a wood pellet smoker. Although the patty is usually the star of a burger, I also want to point out that it is important to have a high-quality, flavorful cheese to melt on top of the burger at the end of the cooking process.

Tips for Grilling A Burger On A Wood Pellet Smoker

There are a few things to remember when you grill a burger on a wood pellet smoker.

Unless you want to smoke the entire burger, you are going to want to set your temperature to around 425-450 degrees. You will still get the smoky flavor and it will be hot enough to add a good sear.
The outer layer of the burger will likely have a reddish color as it cooks. This is normal and is known as a smoke ring.
You will want to use a meat thermometer so that you know when the burger is cooked to your desired doneness. If you cut into the burger, it will let the juice escape and could result in a dry burger.

How to Smoke a Burger on a Wood Pellet Grill

I always choose a high-quality ground beef and form my patties by hand. Of course, you can buy the pre-formed patties, but I like to make my own. You can season them simply with salt and pepper, or you can choose to add other spices, a marinade, or even shredded cheese.

For today’s burger, I seasoned the ground beef with a little bit of salt, pepper, garlic, and cumin. I then formed the patties and took them straight to the smoker (after it was preheated of course).

One issue that we had the first time that we cooked burgers on the smoker, is that we didn’t wait until it was hot enough. This resulted in not having the greatest sear. I recommend that you set your wood pellet smoker to 425-450 degrees and make sure that it is completely preheated with the lid closed before adding the burgers.

This can take some patience, but believe me – it is worth it! You can use whatever flavor smoke that you want, but I usually go with Hickory. Traeger has so many different varieties that you can check out here.

Another option is to sear them off in a frying pan in the house before transferring them to the smoker. I haven’t done that method yet, but I may in the future!

Once the wood pellet smoker is preheated, it becomes a timing game. You don’t want to be flipping the burgers over multiple times and letting the hot smoky air out of the smoker.

I have found that putting the burgers on and waiting 8-9 minutes before flipping, and then grilling on the other side for another 8-9 minutes results in a juicy burger that is right about at 160 degrees.

This may seem like a long time, but on a wood pellet smoker, you don’t want to rush it and you want enough time to pass to allow the smoky flavor to penetrate the beef.

This is why it is important to have an instant-read meat thermometer. Make sure you insert the probe through the side of the burger and that it registers at least 160 degrees. Right before or shortly after the burgers reach 160 degrees, I add a slice of the sharp cheddar and let it melt before serving on a toasted bun with whatever fixings I am craving.

The first Traeger smoker that I had didn’t have the temperature probes integrated, but I recently upgraded to the new Pro Series 575 which has so many new features including the integrated temperature probe and WiFire technology.

This grill has really been a game-changer for me and I recommend it to everyone. They have the larger size Pro Series 780 which is good if you need more space. Make sure you pick up whichever option works best for you – you won’t regret it. Buy HERE.

I like to add bacon, grilled onions, and barbecue sauce for an extra tasty version, but you can add just about whatever you want.

Summary For Smoking A Burger

To review, here are the steps for a perfect grilled burger on a Traeger wood pellet smoker:

Add your preferred flavor of wood pellets to your wood pellet smoker (I recommend Hickory for burgers). Buy pellets here;
Preheat wood pellet smoker to 425-450 degrees with the lid closed;
Add the patties, close the lid, and let cook for 8-9 minutes;
Flip the patties, let cook for an additional 8-9 minutes, or until an internal meat thermometer reaches 160 degrees;
Add the cheese and let it melt;
Make your burger with all of your favorite fixings!

What is your favorite food to cook on your wood pellet smoker? Let me know in the comments.

Here are some other great meals you can make on your wood pellet grill

Best Accessories for Your Traeger Grill

Folding Front-Shelf. I love this and it makes everything more convenient. Buy here.
Drip Tray Liners. This is a must have if you want to keep your grill as clean as possible. Just add one of these and it will make clean up much easier. Buy here.
Digital Instant Read Thermometer. Heat is crucial when using your smoker. Even if your grill has probes built in, it never hurts to have a standalone one as well to double-check the internal temperature. Buy here.
Bucket Liners. Like the drip tray liners, these bucket liners are amazing for clean up. Buy here.

How to Smoke a Burger on a Wood Pellet Grill

Learn how to smoke a perfect burger on a wood pellet grill

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Keyword burger

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 20

Total Time 40

Author Charbel Barker

Ingredients

1 bag hickory wood pellets
4 hamburger patties
hamburger fixings
1 wood pellet grill

Instructions

Add your preferred flavor of wood pellets to your wood pellet smoker (I recommend Hickory for burgers)
Preheat wood pellet smoker to 425-450 degrees with the lid closed
Add the patties, close the lid, and let cook for 8-9 minutes
Flip the patties, let cook for an additional 8-9 minutes, or until an internal meat thermometer reaches 160 degrees
Add the cheese and let it melt;Make your burger with all of your favorite fixings

The post How to Grill a Perfect Cheeseburger on a Wood Pellet Smoker appeared first on My Latina Table.