Pretty sure I suck at Traeger! ;)

Here's the way I look at things with my Traeger. If I haven't done something before, but have done it in the oven, I mimic exactly what I do in the oven with my Traeger. So many smokers on the market barely reach 300F. They are good at low and slow but that's about it. Traeger's have no issue hitting 400-500F (depending on model). So if you tend to bake chickens in your oven at say.. 375 or even 425 to get that crispy skin then do that in your Traeger. It's perfectly capable and it'll add that wood smoked flavor to any recipe.

I do wings in my Traeger all the time at 375. My butcher sells packages of pre-cut fresh wings. I grab two packs, toss them with a light amount of olive oil then my favorite rub, toss them on the Traeger and cook em right up. Usually takes less than an hour. After about 30 minutes I check them if they are close, I sauce the ever-lasting crap out of them and give them another 10-15. Enjoy. Nice crispy BBQ wings.. nothing fancy.

I also do bone-in chicken thighs (one of my favorites) at the same temp. Same method as the wings. They come out super juicy and the skin is crispy.

Low and slow will always make chicken, or any poultry, have rubber skin. For that reason, you season under the skin if you're going to cook it low and slow, then discard it before eating the chicken.

Just remember, the Traeger can do everything your oven can do, it'll just add better flavor.

Once you get the hang of it, try some of the recipes for lower and slower, but remember, unless that skin gets crispy with higher temps it's going to be rubber.

For pork butts.. use the bone-in if possible. Dunno why, but mine turn out better with the bone-in style. I generally will unwrap the pork butt, trim the excess fat off of it (excess fat, eave about 1/4" or so). Next slather it in either PYM (Plain Yellow Mustard) or Molasses. Then hose it down with your favorite rub. Wrap it in plastic wrap and put it back in the fridge overnight. Very early the next morning I pre-heat the Traeger up to 400ish, then drop it back to 275 and pop in the pork butt. This part will take all day. Feel free to baste but it's not necessary. Pull it off once the internal temperature is 205F. I have a special Pork Butt Spatula for this (it's freaking huge, found it at Academy years ago). Once you pull it, wrap it tightly in foil, then in a heavy towel and toss it in a cooler for at least 30 minutes to an hour (you can actually 'hold' it in the cooler for much longer if you want it to stay warm, I've done up to 4 hours). Right before you are ready to serve, shred it (bone should pull out with no effort). Discard any pieces that don't look good or are too burnt. I generally will set aside a lot of the bark and chop a little and toss it back in but not all of it. Serve with a sweet spicy BBQ sauce (my preference anyway).

I've had smaller pork butts be done in 12 hours, but larger ones in 18+ hours. Pork butts take as long as they take there's nothing you can do about it, just let it cook. So plan accordingly on time.

For ribs (I usually do baby back pork ribs or pork spareribs) 3-2-1. Unwrap them, remove the skin on the back (plenty of videos for this online, or ask here if you have never done it), rub either with your favorite rub or use the PYM + rub method (I just use rub). Pre-heat your Traeger to 225, and smoke them directly on the rack for 3 hours. Pull them, wrap them in foil with about 1/4-1/2 cup of liquid.. beer or juice of your choice, and put them back on the grill for up to two hours. Once that is done open the foil (be careful they may be fall off the bone tender.. feel free to adjust this time to less if you're using small racks) and pour off (but save) the liquid. I will sometimes leave them sitting in the foil (roll down the sides but leave the foil on the bottom so you can flip them easy and sauce the backside and they won't fall apart and through the grill grates, but keep the foil open for the sauce to cook on), if I think they will fall apart on me. Put them back on the grill and cook for up to an hour to tighten them back up a bit, sauce them up baby. Doesn't have to be a full hour, and usually isn't at my house. For the sauce, trust me on this, mix your favorite sauce with a little of that liquid you poured off before putting it on the ribs. It'll blow your mind how good that is.

Tri-Tip.. I have not done any of these, but with beef, unless I'm doing pulled beef, I'd suggest doing it like you would in the oven. For pulled beef do it like you would pulled pork. I've done some killer BBQ beef that way. Couple of big roasts, rubbed and smoked low until 200ish internal temp (baste as you feel is necessary), then shredded and sauced. There's a recipe you should look into called "Poor Man's Burnt Ends", they turn out great on the Traeger.

Hope all that helps. Don't over complicate things at first. Treat it like an outdoor wood-fired oven and have fun. You got this.
 
Last edited:
Hi, all!

I'm a new Traeger owner and wow, I must really be missing something because my food sure isn't turning out right. I follow the instructions to the letter and am getting the following results:
Grill: 575 Pro
Pellets Signature

Try 1: Turkey breast. Dry rub. No bark formed. Super tough, almost jerky-like exterior. Gross
Try 2: Whole chicken. Tried basting this time. A little better but still super tough exterior without it browning much. Pretty juicy but not very appetizing looking and certainly not like the YouTube videos.
Try 3: Pork butt: Tasty but non bark whatsoever. Hard dry crust.
Try 4: Tri tip: 225 until internal temp was 130. The thing looked raw like it hadn't even been cooked. Quite chewy to try to eat. Pretty frustrated at this point.

Clearly I am the problem here. Many folks are posting good dinners. I'm wondering if there is something super obvious I'm doing wrong here since the same thing keeps happening to me (jerky-like exteriors with no bark, primarily that look gross and don't taste very good). I would love any suggestions you all might have and am happy to review any prior posts, threads or videos if someone would be willing to point me in the right direction.

Thanks so much in advance.

Denise
Utah.

This article might be helpful:
 
This article might be helpful:
 
Thank you so much. I'll keep reading and searching the forum. All of the tri tip recipes I read said to cook to 130. Am I misunderstanding something? I am going absolutely take your suggestion and go back to trying to master whole chicken which is supposed to be where to start. Thank you for your feedback.
A couple of tips. ALWAYS brine pork ribs, and poultry. Best way to cook a whole chicken is spatchcok (remove back bone and flatten a bit. Start with 3, 2, 1, st Louis pork ribs. Smoke at 170 for the 3 hours, raise temp to 275, for wrap portion. Chicken skin will be rubbery. Been cooking chicken for years, never get crisp skin in a smoker. Good luck. And yes your grill / smoker is probably 20 degrees off. That is within Traeger tolerance. If it is greater than 20 off, contact Traeger. And if you want smoke flavor, lok on YouTube for discussion of pellets.
 
Excellent! Thanks! I have used Ink Bird products for my aquarium so I am a little familiar with the brand. Do any of you have feedback on the ThermoPro items as well? I've heard good things.

PS: Thawing a whole chicken and going to work on getting back to basics! Also ordered some GrillGrates to start doing burgers/brats and keeping it a little more simple as I learn. The reviews on this site helped push me over the edge. Had been looking at them for quite some time.
I have thermoworks products I am using the Smoke right now also have a Signal
 
A couple of tips. ALWAYS brine pork ribs, and poultry. Best way to cook a whole chicken is spatchcok (remove back bone and flatten a bit. Start with 3, 2, 1, st Louis pork ribs. Smoke at 170 for the 3 hours, raise temp to 275, for wrap portion. Chicken skin will be rubbery. Been cooking chicken for years, never get crisp skin in a smoker. Good luck. And yes your grill / smoker is probably 20 degrees off. That is within Traeger tolerance. If it is greater than 20 off, contact Traeger. And if you want smoke flavor, lok on YouTube for discussion of pellets.
I've never brined my pork ribs. They come out flavorful and tender using 3-2-1. However, if I have the time, I will rub them the day before and wrap them and re-refrigerate until the BBQ the next day. But I rarely have the time to do it. Brining chicken may help though. I don't personally bother with it though. I do brine Turkey generally the night before the cook the next day. Helps keep it moist.
 
I have a 575 so we are on the same page. When I started the first thing I did was to verify the pit temp against the Traeger probe. Here I found a 20f difference, so I installed a Fireboard pit probe. Now I adjust the temp of the pit from the Fireboard read out. Example, the other day I was cooking some short ribs, set the Traeger at 250 but the actual reading was 235 so I upped the temp until my Fireboard read 250. First problem solved.
Very important to get an accurate probe (which the Traeger is not). One again I use Fireboard (there are cheaper types available) I will use two probes and equal out the two readings to reach my final cooking temp. Second problem solved.
Third situation is smoke flavor and you could enhance that with a smoke tube filled with wood chips and pellets. I use 80% chips to 20% pellets in my smoke ring and light it as soon as the Traeger is at the correct temp.
Keep it simple, expand from basic cooks to harder ones later, master the pit temp and the internal temp first.
This forum has been my backbone to better cooking and the help from members and the information they give up has ben fantastic. Stick with it.
Just remembered: clean the Traeger pit probe after each cook with a damp cloth otherwise your reading will be further out.
 
Ink Bird is another brand several here use and they are a lot less expensive. They look to be on sale now for $52 for 4 probes and $42 for two probes.

I find my Pro 780 is pretty close if I am cooking <225 but as I raise temperature the accuracy really falls off; for example, if I set the Traeger to 350 the actual pit temp is usually about 25 or 30 degrees less. This is important when I cook chicken since I like to start at 225 and then raise to 350 or 375 to get crispy skin. If I didn't know this about my grill I would really be cooking at 330 and wondering why the skin is rubbery.

 
Ink Bird is another brand several here use and they are a lot less expensive. They look to be on sale now for $52 for 4 probes and $42 for two probes.

I find my Pro 780 is pretty close if I am cooking <225 but as I raise temperature the accuracy really falls off; for example, if I set the Traeger to 350 the actual pit temp is usually about 25 or 30 degrees less. This is important when I cook chicken since I like to start at 225 and then raise to 350 or 375 to get crispy skin. If I didn't know this about my grill I would really be cooking at 330 and wondering why the skin is rubbery.

Same here with mine on temps. I hear ya when you pay BIG money for these and then you get well you got to buy temp probes and yes fireboard can break ya. But as listed here there are other ways to get around it. Big plus is a lot of good info here from these members.
 
Clearly I am the problem here. Many folks are posting good dinners. I'm wondering if there is something super obvious I'm doing wrong here since the same thing keeps happening to me (jerky-like exteriors with no bark, primarily that look gross and don't taste very good).

I was having similar issues with my cooks until I splurged on the Fireboard2 thermometer and placed two ambient probes on the far left and right sides of the cooking surface, centered front-to-back. I calibrated the probes per instructions first. On the right side, the cooking temperature on the Treager-reported temperature was 40 degF higher (!!) than the Fireboard temp reading, meaning that I was cooking too slowly. On the left side, the difference was 20 degF. I now offset the Treager temperature set point accordingly, and my food suddenly looks and tastes better.

The infrared thermometer mentioned in a later post won’t be accurate enough to correctly measure temperatures (it‘s an ”averaging” device, not to a specific point, despite the presence of the laser pointer that most have).

I hope you find the solution!
 
Here's the way I look at things with my Traeger. If I haven't done something before, but have done it in the oven, I mimic exactly what I do in the oven with my Traeger. So many smokers on the market barely reach 300F. They are good at low and slow but that's about it. Traeger's have no issue hitting 400-500F (depending on model). So if you tend to bake chickens in your oven at say.. 375 or even 425 to get that crispy skin then do that in your Traeger. It's perfectly capable and it'll add that wood smoked flavor to any recipe.

I do wings in my Traeger all the time at 375. My butcher sells packages of pre-cut fresh wings. I grab two packs, toss them with a light amount of olive oil then my favorite rub, toss them on the Traeger and cook em right up. Usually takes less than an hour. After about 30 minutes I check them if they are close, I sauce the ever-lasting crap out of them and give them another 10-15. Enjoy. Nice crispy BBQ wings.. nothing fancy.

I also do bone-in chicken thighs (one of my favorites) at the same temp. Same method as the wings. They come out super juicy and the skin is crispy.

Low and slow will always make chicken, or any poultry, have rubber skin. For that reason, you season under the skin if you're going to cook it low and slow, then discard it before eating the chicken.

Just remember, the Traeger can do everything your oven can do, it'll just add better flavor.

Once you get the hang of it, try some of the recipes for lower and slower, but remember, unless that skin gets crispy with higher temps it's going to be rubber.

For pork butts.. use the bone-in if possible. Dunno why, but mine turn out better with the bone-in style. I generally will unwrap the pork butt, trim the excess fat off of it (excess fat, eave about 1/4" or so). Next slather it in either PYM (Plain Yellow Mustard) or Molasses. Then hose it down with your favorite rub. Wrap it in plastic wrap and put it back in the fridge overnight. Very early the next morning I pre-heat the Traeger up to 400ish, then drop it back to 275 and pop in the pork butt. This part will take all day. Feel free to baste but it's not necessary. Pull it off once the internal temperature is 205F. I have a special Pork Butt Spatula for this (it's freaking huge, found it at Academy years ago). Once you pull it, wrap it tightly in foil, then in a heavy towel and toss it in a cooler for at least 30 minutes to an hour (you can actually 'hold' it in the cooler for much longer if you want it to stay warm, I've done up to 4 hours). Right before you are ready to serve, shred it (bone should pull out with no effort). Discard any pieces that don't look good or are too burnt. I generally will set aside a lot of the bark and chop a little and toss it back in but not all of it. Serve with a sweet spicy BBQ sauce (my preference anyway).

I've had smaller pork butts be done in 12 hours, but larger ones in 18+ hours. Pork butts take as long as they take there's nothing you can do about it, just let it cook. So plan accordingly on time.

For ribs (I usually do baby back pork ribs or pork spareribs) 3-2-1. Unwrap them, remove the skin on the back (plenty of videos for this online, or ask here if you have never done it), rub either with your favorite rub or use the PYM + rub method (I just use rub). Pre-heat your Traeger to 225, and smoke them directly on the rack for 3 hours. Pull them, wrap them in foil with about 1/4-1/2 cup of liquid.. beer or juice of your choice, and put them back on the grill for up to two hours. Once that is done open the foil (be careful they may be fall off the bone tender.. feel free to adjust this time to less if you're using small racks) and pour off (but save) the liquid. I will sometimes leave them sitting in the foil (roll down the sides but leave the foil on the bottom so you can flip them easy and sauce the backside and they won't fall apart and through the grill grates, but keep the foil open for the sauce to cook on), if I think they will fall apart on me. Put them back on the grill and cook for up to an hour to tighten them back up a bit, sauce them up baby. Doesn't have to be a full hour, and usually isn't at my house. For the sauce, trust me on this, mix your favorite sauce with a little of that liquid you poured off before putting it on the ribs. It'll blow your mind how good that is.

Tri-Tip.. I have not done any of these, but with beef, unless I'm doing pulled beef, I'd suggest doing it like you would in the oven. For pulled beef do it like you would pulled pork. I've done some killer BBQ beef that way. Couple of big roasts, rubbed and smoked low until 200ish internal temp (baste as you feel is necessary), then shredded and sauced. There's a recipe you should look into called "Poor Man's Burnt Ends", they turn out great on the Traeger.

Hope all that helps. Don't over complicate things at first. Treat it like an outdoor wood-fired oven and have fun. You got this.
Thank you so much for such a thoughtful, detailed response! I like how you frame thinking about it! Please see my additional post below on a better experience I had with chicken using the suggestions found here!!! Thanks again!
 
A couple of tips. ALWAYS brine pork ribs, and poultry. Best way to cook a whole chicken is spatchcok (remove back bone and flatten a bit. Start with 3, 2, 1, st Louis pork ribs. Smoke at 170 for the 3 hours, raise temp to 275, for wrap portion. Chicken skin will be rubbery. Been cooking chicken for years, never get crisp skin in a smoker. Good luck. And yes your grill / smoker is probably 20 degrees off. That is within Traeger tolerance. If it is greater than 20 off, contact Traeger. And if you want smoke flavor, lok on YouTube for discussion of pellets.
Good points! I made a passable chicken last night. Check out the pic in the post below. Thank you for the feedback!
 
I have a 575 so we are on the same page. When I started the first thing I did was to verify the pit temp against the Traeger probe. Here I found a 20f difference, so I installed a Fireboard pit probe. Now I adjust the temp of the pit from the Fireboard read out. Example, the other day I was cooking some short ribs, set the Traeger at 250 but the actual reading was 235 so I upped the temp until my Fireboard read 250. First problem solved.
Very important to get an accurate probe (which the Traeger is not). One again I use Fireboard (there are cheaper types available) I will use two probes and equal out the two readings to reach my final cooking temp. Second problem solved.
Third situation is smoke flavor and you could enhance that with a smoke tube filled with wood chips and pellets. I use 80% chips to 20% pellets in my smoke ring and light it as soon as the Traeger is at the correct temp.
Keep it simple, expand from basic cooks to harder ones later, master the pit temp and the internal temp first.
This forum has been my backbone to better cooking and the help from members and the information they give up has ben fantastic. Stick with it.
Just remembered: clean the Traeger pit probe after each cook with a damp cloth otherwise your reading will be further out.
Good to know about the pit probe!!!
 
I was having similar issues with my cooks until I splurged on the Fireboard2 thermometer and placed two ambient probes on the far left and right sides of the cooking surface, centered front-to-back. I calibrated the probes per instructions first. On the right side, the cooking temperature on the Treager-reported temperature was 40 degF higher (!!) than the Fireboard temp reading, meaning that I was cooking too slowly. On the left side, the difference was 20 degF. I now offset the Treager temperature set point accordingly, and my food suddenly looks and tastes better.

The infrared thermometer mentioned in a later post won’t be accurate enough to correctly measure temperatures (it‘s an ”averaging” device, not to a specific point, despite the presence of the laser pointer that most have).

I hope you find the solution!
Yep. Based on all the feedback here, looks like I'm going to be doing some research on new probes, etc. Can't do much if I don't have the correct temps.
 
MAKING SOME HEADWAY!!!

I made a whole beer can chicken last night and got a portion of the top with crispy skin and it was quite tasty overall. I tried to keep it really simple: Dry rub with Traeger chicken rub and put it on the stand with butter cubes under skin and chicken stock/spices in the "beer can" at 375 degrees. I sprayed it once with oil during the cook and removed at 165 internal temp. Now, on to researching the temp probes and getting something better than the standard included probes.
IMG_1107.jpg
 
Back
Top