7 Pellet Grill Accessories You Probably Forgot to Buy for Your Grill
Wondering what pellet grill accessories you need when you get a new pellet grill or smoker? These are some of the not-so-obvious grilling tools that I have found to be absolute necessities!
When you get a new pellet grill or smoker, you probably immediately start thinking of the pellet grill accessories that you’ll need to go with it. Yes, you’ll need a good pair of grill tongs and a spatula, and of course, you can’t power a pellet grill without the actual wood pellets.
But there are a few grilling accessories that are not so obvious. And until you’ve had firsthand experience with pellet grilling, then you may not realize that these tools and gadgets are actually necessities when it comes to using your Traeger, Pit Boss, or other pellet grill.
Here are 7 pellet grill accessories that you probably forgot to buy (or you didn’t even realize that you needed):
Heavy duty extension cord
Most pellet grills come with a relatively short power cord, and unless you have your outdoor outlets optimally placed on your back deck, then you’ll need a good heavy duty extension cord to be able to plug in your grill.
Yes, pellet grills run on wood pellets as the fuel source, but most common grill models also require electricity to operate. And you’ll want to ensure you have a good outdoor-rated, heavy duty extension cord so as not to damage any of the electrical components of your new pellet smoker.
I personally use this extension cord, that features three sockets on the end and an outside operating temperature range of -44 to 130 degrees F.
Scraper or Trowel
If you took a peek at my grill accessories cart, you may think that I accidentally misplaced my drywall trowel. But actually a flat-edged, handled tool like this is incredibly handy for scraping the grease off of the heat deflector plate inside your pellet grill.
The heat deflector not only protects your food from the direct flame underneath, redirecting the heat away from the cooking area for a more indirect heat-type of cooking, it also acts as a “grease slide” for the excess fat and drippings from your meat.
The grease drops onto the heat deflector and then gets funneled to the grease bucket. But that means that the large heat deflector plate can get dirty, crusty, and gross.
My favorite tool for cleaning that mess is a basic trowel that you find at a home improvement store. The long, flat edge of the trowel makes scraping and cleaning the “guts” of the pellet grill very easy.
Gloves for handling hot food
Moving your racks of ribs, pork butts, briskets, or other larger cuts of meat around on the pellet grill is much easier when you use your hands, rather than a pair of grill tongs. So you’ll definitely need a good pair of gloves for handling hot foods.
And I HIGHLY recommend a two-glove system, with a pair of cotton glove liners layered underneath black disposable barbecue gloves.
When you’re handling saucy or fatty meats, you’ll want to have disposable gloves, but those gloves alone are not enough to protect your hands from a 200 degree pork butt. The cotton glove liners are easy to maneuver in, because they’re flexible, and they also add another layer of protection to help prevent burns.
My personal glove preference is the Char-Broil Oklahoma Joe’s Disposable BBQ Gloves, and they come with a pair of cotton glove liners in the box, saving you a little money.
*PRO TIP – When you run out of the disposable gloves, don’t throw away the old cotton glove liners… Since the new box comes with a fresh set of glove liners, I use the old ones to protect my hands from sharp edges and grease when cleaning out my grills.
Magnetic Hooks
Why are magnetic hooks on my list of must-have pellet grill accessories? Because these small but mighty magnet hooks aren’t just for hanging up your grill utensils (I actually have never used them for that), but instead they are perfect for covering the thermometer probe port holes in the side of your pellet grill.
Most pellet grill models have a small hole in the side of the grilling chamber for you to insert your thermometer probes to monitor the temp of the grill and your meats. But if you’re not using a thermometer, then those holes are just that… holes in the side of the grill chamber that allow the smoke to escape.
Just plop a magnetic hook over the hole to quickly and easily close it off. Just like this on my Pit Boss Navigator:
Also, the magnetic hooks are handy for hanging your top grill grate on the back of the smoker when not in use. Depending on the make and model of your pellet grill, you may be able to conveniently store your extra rack out of the way like I do.
Here’s the back of my Pit Boss pellet grill, where I hang the top grill rack when I take it out to make room for cooking taller meats like smoked whole turkey:
*NOTE – The hooks work to hang the rack ONLY because of the back design of my Pit Boss pellet grill… the lip in the grill where the chamber meets the legs acts as a stop so that the hooks don’t slide all the way down with the weight of the wire rack.
Wire cooling racks and/or baking sheets designated for the grill
These pellet grill accessories may not be needed… It depends on how finicky you are about putting your good baking sheets or cooling racks directly on the grill.
If you have high dollar baking sets, you may not want to expose them constantly to smoke and grease. That’s when it’s nice to have specific cookie sheets and wire racks that you don’t mind getting a little dirty.
I personally prefer to use a wire rack when grilling smaller items like vegetables for a smoked tomatillo salsa or smoked pig shots. To move these smaller food items on and off the pellet grill can take up some serious time (especially if you’re making 50 pig shots to feed your hungry friends during SEC Saturday!).
*We personally use and recommend these stainless steel wire cooling racks. They are easy to clean and they fit perfectly on our favorite baking sheets from Costco.
But if you place those bite-sized appetizers on a wire cooling rack first, then you can move them all on and off the grill at once, instead of having to handle each individual piece.
Here’s an example of when I made smoked stuffed jalapenos recently. It’s much easier to move the jalapeños around on a wire rack, and the rack fits directly on to the grates of the pellet grill:
Pellet Storage Bins
Yes, you thought to buy wood pellets to fuel your new pellet grill… but did you buy anything to protect those pellets from moisture?
Depending on the humidity levels where you live, and where you plan to store your extra pellets, you may want to invest in some plastic storage bins with lids to protect your wood pellets.
I personally use these 5 gallon buckets with lids, because I always have a bunch of different pellet flavors on hand. These buckets were one of the least expensive options that I found, considering that I needed to purchase 6 of them.
As you can tell in the photo below, I just used a black permanent marker to write the pellet flavor on the side of the lid.
*NOTE – My pellet storage buckets are kept on my back deck, which is covered and protected from direct rainfall, so I have not tested the buckets in the rain. If you don’t have a covered area to store your pellets, then I suggest moving them to the garage or an indoor closet.
Good Wireless Meat Probe Thermometer
The last item on my must-have pellet grill accessories list is the real MVP of cooking on a grill… the wireless probe thermometer!
Just because your pellet grill’s built-in thermometer is reading 275 degrees F, that does NOT mean that the temp inside your entire grill is 275 degrees F. And, in fact, it’s probably far from it.
So I prefer a wireless thermometer like this one that has 4 probes, to be able to monitor the temperature of the inside of the grill as well as the internal temp of multiple pieces of meat at the same time.
If you look closely in the photo above, you’ll notice that one probe is inserted into the whole chicken that I was cooking, and the other probe is placed on the grill grate directly in front of the chicken. On the wireless display, you can see that the internal temp of my chicken was 53.2 degrees F, and the temp of the grill was 188 degrees F. (Of course, I had the grill lid open at this time, which affects the pellet grill temperature).
There have been many times that I have smoked a whole pork butt or a turkey, and my pellet grill is set to 275 degrees F, but the actual temperature around the meat is only 200 degrees. It’s helpful to know all of your temps so that you can adjust your cooking time and temperature accordingly, and that’s where a good wireless probe thermometer really shines!
If you’ve been asking yourself, “What pellet grill accessories do I need?” then I hope that I’ve given you some things to think about… beyond the obvious grill tongs and spatulas.
