The best pellet grills offer a distinct alternative to traditional smokers and Grills. Since there are a wide variety of wood pellets out there, choosing the best wood pellets for smoking can be quite challenging. Questions like which flavor to accept, or which brand makes the best wood pellets are just some of the common questions that come to mind. In this review, we would be talking about 7 of the best wood pellets. Don’t worry; it is not a must you stick to the wood pellet that came from your grill manufacturer. So, whether you’re new to smoking, or you’re becoming a pit expert, here are some smoking wood pellets worth checking out.
Review Summary
Editor Choice: Traeger PEL319 Hickory Natural Grill Pellets
Suitable grill for a wide variety of grilling options with 100% all-natural Hickory wood. High-quality pellets produced from the core of pure virgin wood with no additive or filler.
Best Value: Traeger Grills PEL331 Signature Blend
The Signature blend from Traeger a premium wood pellet produced from a mix of cherry, maple, and Hickory hardwood. Containing less than 5% moisture and offers real wood flavor.
Best Overall: BBQR’s Delight Jack Daniels Smoking BBQ Pellets
If you love Jack Daniel’s distillery, then you’d like this Tennessee whiskey flavored pellet. Made from 100% all-natural oak trees.
Top Pick: CookinPellets 40PM Perfect Mix
Features a combo of four most common hardwood; Hickory, apple, cherry, and maple hardwood. No additive, or oak filler, yet it still offers high quality flavored tasting smoky aroma.
Hickory Wood Pellets: PIT BOSS 55436 BBQ Wood Pellets
Manufactured from 100% all-natural premium oak. This wood pellet is an ideal wood pellet for smoking veggies, beef, poultry, and pork.
Best for Delicious BBQ: The Wood Pellet Smoker and Grill Cookbook
A cookbook from the pitmaster Peter Jautaikid. Features essential tricks and tips on how to choose the right pellet flavor, master slow roasting, and cold smoking, as well as maximize the potential of grilling/smoking.
Top Brand: CookinPellets 40H Hickory Smoking Pellets
A 100% hickory wood pellet produced specially for multipurpose use. Containing little or no lignin, fillers, or additives.
Top 7 Best Wood Pellets for Smoking Review 2022
#1. Traeger PEL319 Hickory Natural Grill Pellets – Editor Choice
Traeger is famous for its exquisite pellet grill, however, would their smoking wood Pellet be equally worthwhile? Well, these smoking wood pellets are 100% all-natural hardwood with no additional fillers or binding agents. Weighing about 20lbs per bag, these wood pellets for grills last long and are very affordable. Manufactured in the USA, this fantastic wood pellet adds pure hardwood flavor to your grills, smoke, barbeque, braise, bake, and roast. It’s 100% virgin hardwood provides your food with unmatched flavor. You can use the Hickory pellet for grilling beef, poultry, pork, vegetables, and wild games. They also work excellently well in other models of electric Grills and gas Grills apart from the Traeger grills.
The science behind the Traeger’s Hickory pellet is the formulation of each Pellet with the right amount of moisture. Each Pellet has the right amount of moisture, allowing you to achieve that perfect blue smoke that’s clean and dependable. And thanks to the patented process, each pallet produced by Traeger is of the highest quality.
In other words, with this Pellet, you can achieve that consistency you can count on every time. Because Traeger owns and operates their mills, they oversee the production process from the beginning to the end. So, they can implement the right guideline for smoke perfection. Traeger utilizes sawdust from existing clean green hardwood to manufacture these high-quality Hickory pellets without having to harvest a single tree. Furthermore, Traeger uses a unique pelletizing process to create the best gold standard Pellet on the market.
- Affordable Pellet
- Suitable for a wide variety of grilling choice
- Makes use of sawdust from existing clean greenwood, reducing the amount of tree harvesting
- 100% pure virgin wood with no additive, filler, or binding agent
- High-quality pellets that produce reliable, clean blue smoke
- Thin packaging material and so the bag can easily puncture
#2. Traeger Grills PEL331 Signature Blend – Best Value
The Traeger Signature blend pellet is another excellent wood pellet from Traeger worthwhile. This premium wood pellet offers a mix of enhanced flavor in your food. Produced from a perfect blend of cherry hardwoods, maple, and Hickory. It is a 100% all-natural hardwood pellet with no filler, additive, or binding agent. It is also 100% food grade with no additive that could pose a threat to our health. The Traeger Signature also works perfectly well for grilling, barbequing, braising, roasting, baking, and smoking. And like other Traeger pellets, this Pellet is sustainably made and sourced in the United States of America.
Get the best in your grills with the Traeger Signature, with a wide variety of applications from classic barbeque meats, veggies, and fishes. Its versatile blend of full-bodied flavor will give your food that real smoky aroma. And with a moisture content maintained firmly at 5%, you can expect nothing less than high-quality blue smoke. This 20lbs premium Signature pellet from Traeger has a compact cell structure that contributes to its dependable slow-burning nature.
The Signature pellet is also a food-grade pellet, and it also comes with a guarantee from Traeger that nothing harmful is cooking your food.
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- Affordable Pellet
- Food grade pellet
- Made from 100% virgin hardwood
- Offers enhanced real wood flavor
- Produced from a blend of maple, hickory, and cherry hardwoods
- Suitable for grilling, barbequing, baking, roasting, and braising
- Poor quality control
- Packaged in thin bags which can easily puncture
#3. BBQR’s Delight Jack Daniels Smoking BBQ Pellets – Best Overall
The 20lbs bag of the Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey pellet is a flavored pellet suitable for all bbq pellets fired cooking applications. Made from 100% all-natural premium oak tree with flavor wood. In the production process, the mellowing charcoal from the Jack Daniel’s distillery is what gives Jack Daniel’s whiskey its smooth sipping taste. In that light, this Pellet serves as an excellent fuel for pellet-fired grills, and it on its own or missed with other flavors. And because charcoal is essential when it comes to Grills, these pellets also help boost the fire in the Grill. This Delight Jack Daniels smoking pellet is pretty affordable and also offers an excellent burning efficiency.
Each bag is 20lbs and comes with a guarantee for high BTUs, moisture content, low ash, and clean-burning smoke for a better grilling experience. This Pellet is 100% recommended to fire up any grill with a sufficient amount of heat. And because it is a premium pellet brand, it is suitable for premium cooking. And Jack Daniel’s smoking wheel comes with the old no.7 brand Tennessee whiskey flavor.
For more versatility, this Pellet from Jack Daniel’s also comes in other lovely flavors like pecan, oak, and sugar maple. When this pellet burns, it produces very little ash because of its considerable low moisture content.
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- Works well on other pellet grills
- Low moisture content grill
- Comes with the no.7 brand Tennessee whiskey flavor
- An excellent fuel source for pellet-fired cookers
- Quite expensive for a 20lbs bag of Pellet
- Does not burn so well as they continuously go out and have to be relit
#4. CookinPellets 40PM Perfect Mix – Top Pick
In case you make use of an electric or gas grill, this Pellet is a perfect solution to add that smoky aroma to your food. Featuring a combo of four of the most common hardwood for making pellets; Hickory, cherry, apple, and hard maple. And with CookinPellets being one of the top 5 best brands for making the best smoking pellet, you can expect nothing less than perfection from these wood pellets. Offering 40lbs of hardwood blends for smoking and grilling. There are so many advantages of this wood pellet that have proved it to be very versatile. You can use it for smoking and grilling a wide variety of recipes from beef to veggies and so on.
The tree core or heart of the wood is what the manufacturer uses in making this Pellet and not the bar of trees. The bark of trees has two times more lignin than the wood core, which acts as a fuel source and natural binder. The bar of trees also produces more heat and more ash when used in making pellets. Furthermore, CookinPellets does not make use of oils and filer woods like alder and oak in manufacturing this Pellet, which is excellent for short films and long smoke time. CookinPellets also guarantee you that these wood pellets would not void any warranty on your grills so that you can use it with peace of mind.
- Assurance warranty thus Pellet wouldn’t void your grill or smoker warranty
- Features a blend of the top four hardwoods
- No additives or oak filler
- High-quality Pellet for flavored taste smoking
- Versatile wood pellet and offers excellent value for your money
- Quality control issues
- They disintegrate quickly producing a lot of ash if exposed to moisture
- The flavor may be too mild
#5. PIT BOSS 55436 BBQ Wood Pellets – Hickory
The PIT BOSS 55436 barbeque wood pellet does not add artificial flavor but 100% pure hardwood. Producing hotter and cleaner burn to give your grills or smoker high-quality results. Manufactured from 100% all-natural premium oak and mesquite hardwood. The PIT BOSS 55436 pellet is straightforward to use, offering you great tastier food with a real natural smoky flavor. The PIT BOSS 55436 is great tasting as the natural juice from wood helps to bind the Pellet properly. They produce a smoky taste that’s ideal for smoking veggies, poultry, pork, and beef. Made in North America, this wood pellet makes a superior quality.
Produced from sawdusts and wood pieces, which helps reduce the falling of new trees. And applying high pressure to the sawdust during production causes the natural hardwood juice to bind to the pellets creating a unique flavor to each blend. Available in 40lb bags at an affordable price. After pressurizing the wood to form a compact pellet, a coating of natural lignin helps it burn better. PIT BOSS is one of the most natural fuels to use; it produces less than a percent of ash. From an entire 40lbs bag of pellets, you will get only about ½ a cup of ash, making clean up a breeze.
- Made from 100% all-natural wood
- Burns efficiently and produces less than 1% of ash
- No chemical additive or filler used
- Delivers high-quality smoke flavor
- Poor packaging
#6. The Wood Pellet Smoker and Grill Cookbook – Best for Delicious BBQ
Here’s a hardcover pellet cookbook with all the essential tips and tricks of adding the most flavor to your barbeque. An excellent book to read when you want to enhance the flavor of everything from seafood and meat to vegetables and baked goods. This cookbook explains everything you need to know about picking the right pellet flavor, mastering slow roasting, and cold smoking, as well as maximizing the potential of your grill/smoker. Authored by Peter Jautaikid, a barbeque pitmaster. Packed in his book are helpful tips and picture steps of how to go about making some of the best spectacularly delicious dishes.
You can expect to find dishes like Cajun Spatchcock Chicken, Alder Wood-Smoked Trout, Texas-Style Brisket, and Hickory New York Strip Roast, amongst others. You also get to know how many servings, preparation time, cook time, and rest time in each recipe. With the highlighted ingredients and recommended pellets, you can not go wrong. Learn new ways to get tastier appetizers and sizes to snacks, steaks, and hamburgers.
- Self-explanatory book for new and experienced smoke enthusiasts
- Thorough details
- A wide selection of delicious recipes
- Suggest Pellet type to use, temperature and times
- May not be suitable for all kinds of wood smokers or Grills
#7. CookinPellets 40H Hickory Smoking Pellets – Top Brand
Here’s another pellet from CookinPellets made from 100% hickory wood. The CookinPellets is a perfect mix of wood pieces made from the heart of the tree, which reduces the amount of lignin in the Pellet. Furthermore, these pellets do not contain ant oak or alder wood and are free from additives and fillers. Though it’s a multipurpose pellet, you may find it’s flavor a little bit too mild. Made in America and are available in 40lbs bags. Because of its high quality in production processing, they can last for years and remain usable as long as you keep them dry.
Most often, this Pellet contains a high amount of dust in its bag as a result of shipping handling. But generally, the pellets are low in moisture, little in fine-dust, and burn at an average BTU of 8500. This Pellet may not be suitable for all grills/smokers or all foods. Some users with experience using this Pellet had issues with temperature variations. According to the manufacturer of this Pellet, using it in any supported grill will not void your grill manufacturer’s warranty.
- 100% hickory base hardwood pellet
- Free from fillers and additives
- Does not void the grill manufacturer’s warranty
- Free from oak and alder wood
- Little quantity of lignin
- Mild flavor
- May not be suitable for all grills/smokers
- Poor packaging
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What are Smoking Wood Pellets
Smoking wood pellets produced from food-safe hardwood are useful in adding a smoky flavor to foods while smoking. Wood pellets also make excellent fuel for pellet grills. Common food-safe Hardwoods used in making Pellets include applewood, mesquite, or Hickory, just to name a few. Manufacturers use sawdust and wood pieces to make different flavors of pellets. Pellets produced from compressed sawdust are the most common Pellet on the market. During compression, the natural substances released softens the word and then hardens later, which adds flavor to your food.
2. Do Wood Pellets Need to be Soaked Before Use
No, you do not need to soak wood pellets before using them. You need to avoid the wood pellet from absorbing as much moisture as you can if you want it to burn efficiently. Since wood pellets are mostly sawdust produced, soaking them in water would make it disintegrate. It also would produce white smoke, which often makes your food taste bitter. A dry pellet when it burns effectively creates a blue smoke, which perfectly adds the right aroma to your food.
3. What are the Best Pellets for Brisket
Any flavor you feel comfortable using would be just perfect. But based on what other pit experts suggest, you can use a hickory or mesquite pellet for smoking brisket. When smoking with Hickory, the hickory hardwood exudes a strong aroma that infuses a rich bacon-like aroma to your meat. The mesquite, on the other hand, is suitable for Texas-style brisket aficionados. Mesquite produces a strong and almost spicy flavor. The mesquite is a perfect flavor pellet for those who prefer to go for the regular pepper and salt rub in other to enhance the natural beef flavor of the brisket.
4. What are the Best Pellet Flavors for Smoking
The flavor smoking gives your food is what sets grilling with wood apart from electricity and gas. But there are tonnes of wood pellet flavors you can choose. It’s hard to say a particular Pellet basic is best for smoking since everyone has a different opinion about taste. However, some Pellets give certain foods the best aroma. Alder, for example, is perfect for game birds, poultry, and salmon. Cherry is suitable for all meat, and mesquite works best with red meat. Also, maple is great for veggies and cheese.
5. How Long do Wood Pellets Last in a Smoker
A pellet grill can use an average of ½ pounds of Pellet in an hour while smoking. Although colder temperatures and wind factors can also increase how fast the Pellet will burn. Just as different pellets have different base hardwood, the rate at which they burn is different. Some wood pellets burn more quickly than others, meaning you may burn more of one flavor than another. Also, the size of the meat you’re smoking determines the speed or rate at which you burn pellets. A large piece of meat, perhaps a whole chicken, will need more pellets when you want to smoke for 12 hours.
Conclusion
In conclusion, getting the best bbq wood pellets smoking is not only convenient to use, but they also offer excellent results when we use them. Out of the 7 best wood pellets for smoking review above, did you find any that’s appealing to you? If you did, then waste no more time, engage yourself in that flavor-rich Grill you’ve been drooling for, in a while. And as they say, practice makes perfect. So, feel free to try out new flavors; you might just discover your next best way to Grill or smoke.