What are the Best Wood Pellets for Smoking and Grilling?

Wood pellets are what provide the rich smokey flavor that sets a pellet grill apart from a gas grill or charcoal grill. Wood pellets are much more convenient and cleaner than cooking with traditional wood chips and chunks. They are very efficient, work well at both low and high temperatures, and can provide many different types of barbecue flavor depending on the type of wood pellet used. It doesn’t matter if you are grilling or smoking, you should always make sure you have the best pellets for the food that you are cooking. In this guide, I will review some of the best types of wood pellets for various foods and cooking techniques.

What to Look Out for When Buying Wood Pellets

Imposter Pellets (Fillers and Flavorings)

Surprise surprise, some wood pellets are not exactly what they advertise on the bag. Some manufacturers label their pellets as a certain type of wood, but instead use a wood filler and apply a scent, rather than using the more expensive hardwood or fruitwood. These cheap filler woods mean less flavor, less clean smoke, and more ash. Although these pellets are cheaper, they really should be avoided if you are interested in cooking the most flavorful ribs, brisket, or pulled pork.

Does Brand Name Matter? Should the Pellets Match My Grill/Smoker Brand?

One question I get a lot is “Since I bought a Traeger/Zgrills pellet grill, does that mean I need to buy Traeger/ZGrills brand pellets?” Some manufacturers may encourage you to use their brand of wood pellets since they are confident they make the best pellets. That may or may not be the case, but there is no mechanical reason why you need to do this. All wood pellets are the same size and they will work in any pellet grill, no matter the brand. But there is no question, some pellets are better than others.

Best Wood Pellets for Smoking and Grilling Various Foods

Here are our recommendations for wood pellets for smoking and grilling. I’ve personally used all the pellets on this list many many times and have experimented with various pellet and food pairings. My pellet brand recommendations only contain 100% hardwood so you can avoid brands that use fillers and artificial flavors.

Best All-Purpose Wood Pellet Blend

One of my favorite all-purpose pellets for cooking a variety of foods that produces a nice flavor is CookinPellets Perfect Mix Smoking Pellets. This mix provides a blend of quality hardwoods – hickory, maple, cherry, and apple that is perfect for smoking foods low and slow. This mix can be used for grilling too. This blend is perfect if you don’t want to mess around with swapping different types of wood for each type of food you put on your pellet grill.

CookinPellets uses heartwood only to manufacture their pellets. They do not use bark or soft wood as filler like some other cheaper brands. Bark and softwoods burn much quicker and create much more ash when burned. This company is also proud to never use any oils or binders in their wood pellets. They only use the best woods in their product you can trust will be consistently cooking with some of the best pellets money can buy.

Best Pellets for Smoking Brisket

If you are smoking a brisket, oak, hickory, and mesquite should be on your shortlist. I am a big fan of hickory for brisket which provides a very intense, rich flavor. Oak is great too but it is a bit more of a mild wood. To me, the hickory smoke compliments brisket perfectly. Lumber Jack 100% Hickory pellets are perfect and you can be confident these pellets do not have any additives or fillers either.

Depending on how you smoke your brisket, you may alter your pellet wood selection too. Typically I smoke a full-packer brisket low and slow and wrap the brisket using butcher paper during the cook. For this method, I typically use hickory pellets. But if you like to cook your brisket hot and fast you may prefer to use a more mild flavor pellet like oak. Oak is a traditional flavor smoke profile that pit masters have relied on for years that creates an intense smokey flavor. If you are looking for a traditional oak flavor try Z-Grills 100% Oak pellets, one of the few manufacturers that offer a 100% oak pellet.

Best Wood Pellets for Smoking Ribs

The best pellets for smoking ribs are fruit woods like apple and cherry. Apple is sweet and mild, making it perfect for pork ribs. Applewood smoke provides a lighter flavor than hickory or oak. If you use apple juice or apple cider vinegar to mist your ribs when smoking, the apple wood smoke is a perfect compliment.

ASMOKE 100% apple wood pellets are the perfect choice for ribs. These pellets are on the pricier side but ASMOKE claims their premium pellet burns hotter and 20% longer than others. I can confirm these pellets produce very little ash, which is a strong indicator of a premium pellet and the flavor is spot on.

Cherry pellets will also provide a sweet flavor that will produce delicious ribs. Cookin Pellets 100% black cherry is a great 100% cherry wood pellet that is made in the USA.

Best Pellets for Smoking Pulled Pork – Pork Butt

When I smoke a Boston butt to make pulled pork, I have always liked a combination of fruit tree pellets….apple, cherry, etc. The best is to find a blend including apple, cherry, and then harder wood like hickory and oak. My favorite fruit tree blend for cooking mouth-watering pork butt is Lumber Jack Fruitwood Blend 80% Cherry and 20% Apple.

Best Pellets for Smoking Chicken

Chicken and turkey is a very mild meat that is elevated when grilled or smoked on a pellet grill. Since poultry has such a mild flavor on its own, it can be easy to overdo the smoke if you use a stronger flavor of wood like oak or hickory. Wood pellets made from cherry wood, like the 100% black cherry from CookinPellets or Lumber Jack Fruitwood Blend 80% Cherry and 20% Apple provide a subtle sweetness that doesn’t overpower the meat.

Best Wood Pellets for Grilling

The best pellets for grilling on a pellet grill are hardwood like oak, hickory, and mesquite. Hickory and mesquite give an intense smokey flavor that is perfect for grilling. When grilling, you are cooking at higher temperatures so food will cook for a shorter time. For the best flavor, you want to impart as much smoke flavor as possible. I recommend either a 100% hickory, 100% oak, or a competition blend. Most competition blends, like Competition Blend from Lumber Jack have a high percentage of hardwoods for that rich intense flavor you want when grilling.

With all Lumber Jack pellets, the wood is direct sourced from the lumber mill. Lumber Jack puts customer satisfaction as their highest priority and will offer independent test results on request to show the purity of their pellets.

Advantages of Wood Pellets

Greater Fuel Economy

Wood pellets are the most efficient and eco-friendly type of grilling fuel. Propane, charcoal, and natural gas all burn much faster and produce more waste than all-natural wood pellets. Wood pellets are also way more efficient fuel to either grill or smoke. Quality pellets using 100% hardwood will produce more BTUs per pound than cheaper pellets made with soft woods and fillers.

Pellet burn times can vary depending on several conditions (like the size of your pellet grill and outside temperature), but you can typically expect to burn ½ – ¾ lb of pellets per hour at 275 degrees. This means that you can reasonably expect a 20lb bag to last around 25 hours at 275 degrees. A 20lb bag will last less time if you are cooking at higher temperatures.

Less Mess

Cleaning out your offset smoker or charcoal grill can be a real pain. Although you still need to regularly clean your pellet grill, it is a much smaller job and much quicker to do. Wood pellets burn almost completely and leave very little ash behind. Pellets are also much cleaner than charcoal they will not turn your hands black, or leave behind large chunks after you are done grilling. The better quality pellet that is burned the less ash that is left behind.

Frequently Asked Questions