Can You Use Pellets in a Gas Smoker? 5 Important Tips
Do you want to experiment with different flavor profiles when you use your gas smoker?
Maybe you’re new and have never used a smoker before, and you want to get that perfect deep flavoring that is so common with smoking your food. Adding wood pellets can easily add a very rich and thick smoky flavoring while being very cost-effective.
This can lead you to wonder if you can add pellets to your gas smoker, and the short answer is yes. If you select pellets that are for smoking or cooking and don’t have any unnatural coatings on them, you can safely add them to your gas smoker.
The best thing you can do is to is put your pellets in a pouch made using aluminum and poke a hole in the top, or you can put them in a small metal box that has ventilation holes to increase the smoky flavoring.
Although you can use wooden pallets in your gas smoker without a problem, there are several factors that you want to consider. They include the amount and types of pellets, smoker style, the difference between chips and pellets, and more.
Since there is so much to know, I’ll outline everything you need to know with techniques and tips to help you use your gas smoker with pellets safely and effectively.
Five Tips for Adding Pellets to Your Gas Smoker
It’s a fairly simple procedure to use pellets in your gas-powered smoker, and the following simple tips can ensure you have a high success rate when you attempt it.
Tip One – Creating an Aluminum Pouch or Getting a Smoking Box
The choice between a smoking box and aluminum foil will come down to your personal preference, but a smoking box will usually last much longer while shortening the time your pellets smoke.
The heat generated from a smoking box can result in unwanted flares, so you have to pay close attention to how close you place your smoker box with pellets to the heat source.
Aluminum foil can be an invaluable tool to helping you use pellets in a gas stove, and this is a relatively inexpensive method that makes cleanup very easy because you toss the whole pouch when you finish with it.
Another point with aluminum is that it has a much thinner design that will allow your pellets to start smoking much sooner.
However, you want heavy-duty foil if you go with this option because it will fall apart, and this can cause a mess and burn-up inside your gas smoker. It’s also slightly more labor-intensive because you create and fill a pouch each time you want to smoke something.
Tip Two – Pick the Correct Pellet Type
The most important part of the whole process of using pellets in a gas smoker is making sure you pick out the correct type. You’ll want to select pellets that claim they are food-grade or that say they’re safe for food.
If you don’t pick these pellets, you could get ones coated with additives or chemicals that can make them unsafe to have around your food. Additionally, these pellets could also have a less smoky flavoring.
Tip Three – Know Your Smoker Style
Most gas smokers are vertical smokers, and this is excellent news for you if you want to add pellets because they work best in a vertical setting.
If you picked out an offset smoker, you could still add your pellets to the aluminum foil basket. However, this is restricted to small or medium offset smokers.
This reasoning is due to the fact that bigger offset smokers use full sticks and chunks of wood, and it’s easy for the smoke to overrun the pellets due to the smoke’s density.
When you’re learning to put pellets into your gas smoker, go for a small or medium vertical model to give yourself a good learning curve.
Tip Four – Learn the Correct Pellet Amounts
When you put your pellets into your gas smoker, you have to learn what the correct amount is so you don’t end up with a phenomenon called a creosote buildup.
You see this buildup in chimneys, and it’s a sticky, black residue that forms on the top and walls of your smoker.
One easy way to teach yourself the correct amount of pellets to use is to experiment with different amounts. Start with a few and look for a bluish, thin stream of smoke.
If you end up with a large amount of thick white smoke, there’s a very good chance that you added too many pellets to your gas smoker.
Tip Five – Don’t Put Pellets Into the Heating Tray
Since pellets are extremely flammable, just having them in a smoking box is enough to make them flare up dangerously high.
So, when you add your wood pellets to your smoker, you want to be very careful to avoid accidentally putting them on or right around your smoker’s heating tray.
Make a point to always keep your pellets a short distance from the heating tray, and always put them in your pellet box or aluminum pouch to stop any flare-ups that could ruin your smoker or food.
Three Benefits of Adding Pellets to a Gas Smoker
Now that you have a few good tips to help maximize how successful you are with adding pellets to your smoker, we’ll outline the biggest benefits of striking the perfect balance.
Smoke Output is Easy to Control
Pellets have a smaller and very consistent size, and this makes it very easy for you to test out pellet weights or numbers.
Once you get the correct weight for the amount of smoke you want to produce, you can easily replicate it over and over again to get consistent results. Start out small and gradually add to them until you get the right balance.
Flavor Varieties
Pellets come made out of very compressed sawdust, and this means that they have multiple materials in each product, and you can buy your pellets with multiple wood types.
If you get a lighter wood mix and combine with a darker wood mix, you can easily tailor your flavor profile to suit your needs. Also, some pellets come specially flavored to bring out your meat’s characteristics.
Don’t Have to Soak Pellets
Pellets form when you take sawdust and put it under a huge amount of pressure, and the pressure will cause heat to burn off any contaminants.
Pellets don’t have solid materials that bind them together, so you don’t want to add water and soak them before you add them to your gas smoker. If you do, they can swell up and crumble.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Can you safely use a gas grill with wood pellets?
If you don’t have a gas smoker, you can use pellets and a gas grill to get a very similar effect as you’d get with the smoker.
A lot of the higher-end gas grills have a smoker box equipped, and this is where you add your pellets to infuse the smoky flavor into your food. If it doesn’t have one, you can make one using aluminum or purchase one that sits right in your grill by the flame.
2. Can you add charcoal to your gas smoker?
Traditionally speaking, adding charcoal to your gas smoker isn’t a well-known practice, but you can. Adding a few pieces of charcoal will give your gas smoker an excellent smell and flavoring, and it can also help your smoker retain heat if you choose to use it during the winter months.
All you have to do is add a few pieces of charcoal to the heat try, or you can add a small grate to let more airflow through.
3. Are gas or electric smokers better?
Electric smokers are convenient, but they’re not as versatile as gas smokers because they offer a lower temperature range then you can achieve with gas.
Gas smokers are also more portable, but the final decision will come down to your personal preferences. If you like cold smoking, go with electric.
4. How do you add pellets to your gas smoker?
If it doesn’t have a dedicated smoker box, you can put your pellets in a pan and cover them with aluminum foil.
Poke holes in the top to allow the smoke to seep out, and put your pan directly on the bars in the back corner over your burners. Put the grates in place, turn your smoker on, and close it.
5. How long do pellets last in a gas smoker?
This depends on how high your heat is, what you’re going to smoke, and the smoker size itself. Generally speaking, pellets can easily produce smoke for several hours.
If you notice the smoke flagging, it may be time to add more to your smoker. Always make sure you’re getting the blueish-tinged smoke instead of thick white smoke clouds.