Would you like to use the beautiful aromas and flavors of your granules on your grill? It turns out it’s not as complicated as you might think. How to use wood pellets in a charcoal grill.
Wood pellets are a fantastic fuel source. They contain no bark or dirt like traditional logs, so they burn cleaner. They also cost less per unit of energy than almost all other types of fuel, including brands of lump or briquette charcoal.
Today I will show you how wood pellets can help flavor meat, the benefits of using wood and how to use them.
How do you use wood pellets in a charcoal grill?
Ready to get the most out of your new favorite woodfuel? So use wood pellets properly in your grill.
Mix your pellets with charcoal
It’s perfectly fine to use these little wooden balls on a charcoal grill, but you need to make sure you’re using grilling pellets (not the type of heating described above).
Some people may want to use granules on their own, but I prefer to mix it with charcoal. This helps keep the heat high enough to cook while also leaving a good amount of flavor in the food. They tend to burn too quickly on a charcoal grill.
Use a chimney lighter
Light your grill with a fireplace lighter. If you’ve never done this before, make sure you buy a good, long-lasting starter (they’re pretty cheap but will last for years), then read my guide to lighting a charcoal grill.
Transfer the glowing coals from your starter to your grill. Replace the lid, but leave the vents wide open.
Add your granules
Once you are sure your charcoal grill is heating up, add your wood pellets to the coals. Extra you walk the fine line between spraying a small amount and heaping a load on it. We just want to carry flavor here, so just add a very thin layer of it over the coals. As a measuring guide, I try to use around half a cup, which should get you around 30-40 minutes of smoking.
Once the granules ignite, they are ready to cook. It’s best to wait until this point because then you know your pellets are giving off quite a bit of wood flavor.
Open the vents halfway.
Close the lid again and adjust the grill openings so they are half open . Use your grill thermometer to estimate whether you need to open or close them.
If you need more time, after about 30 minutes, you need to remove the grill lid and add more wood pellets.
Consider a pellet grill
Pro tip: Intend to use a pellet smoker. These sturdy little tubes work by being filled with pellets before being placed over burning coals. The pellets are then packed tightly together, meaning they give off a much more powerful stream of smoke and carry a stronger, more powerful flavor to your food.
These are fairly inexpensive and can be easily purchased from sites like Amazon.
What are wood pellets?
The vast majority of modern pellets are made from a combination of sawdust and wood shavings. These are then pressed together with a binder before being subjected to heat.
They are quite small, resembling a bullet, but pack a powerful punch. They are primarily used on wood pellet grills and fans rave about the beautiful and strong wood flavors they bring to their food. It’s a kind of flavor that gas or charcoal just won’t give you.
Discover the big differences between pellet and charcoal grills
To be clear, we are talking about grilling pellets here, not heating pellets. Babrecue granules are designed to be safe to use with food without introducing hazardous chemicals into your food. Heating pellets, on the other hand, are designed for devices such as domestic heaters and therefore contain harmful chemicals.
When purchasing wood pellets, always make sure you are purchasing ones that are specifically designed for grills or outdoor cooking.
The pellets are also available in a variety of flavors, meaning you can add flavors like hickory, apple or mesquite to your cooked meats.
Because of this, smokers and wood pellet grills are growing in popularity as people look for ways to make their grilling even better.
However, what you may not know is that you can use these granules in your charcoal grill to further improve your grilling. There’s no need to switch from charcoal or gas grills to wood-fired grills. no no no
If you think about it, that makes sense. The most traditional type of fire that comes to mind is the log fire.
However, cooking with wood is growing in popularity, and many people are beginning to choose wood pellet grills over gas or charcoal models. Maybe it WILL be caused by people wanting to replicate something similar to their home wood fire, or maybe people want to be able to add a little more flavor to their food using flavored wood to do so. Either way, many people want to use it as another way to fuel their outdoor kitchen.
However, the truth is that YOU don’t always need a wood pellet grill to use the right fuel. If you already have a charcoal grill that you are just plain happy with, we can retrofit it to use wood pellets as a fuel source.
What are the advantages of using wood pellets for grilling?
Compared to charcoal, wood pellets are significantly more environmentally friendly. They are made from wood shavings and sawdust, which means they are recycled materials.
Just be sure to avoid granules that contain chemicals or additives, as these are more likely to be toxic .
Wood pellets are also much more energy efficient ( source ) and come in a wide range of flavors and aromas. Some of the flavors include oak, hickory, and mesquite, while fruitier varieties like apple or maple are available. What I especially love about them is that the different flavors pair better with different types of meat. For example, applewood pairs perfectly with pork, while a deeper wood like hickory can really bring out the best in a chest.
Pellets also tend to be a lot cleaner as they don’t leave much ash behind, and they also burn more evenly with much less heat fluctuation than plain charcoal.
Writer & content creator. BBQ fanatic!
