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I'm assuming something similar with the pellets, as mesquite pellets seem to be fairly popular. 

Mine obviously doesn't burn sticks or charcoal, so I'm out of the market for those top secret tips.

Lots of folks use mesquite on their stick-burners, too-- it just doesn't taste very good. 

I believe I've mentioned here before, but probably the best BBQ meal I've ever had in my life, was when I was 13 or 14 and on a boy scout trip to Mexico for a week over Spring Break.  We camped on the grounds of a massive hacienda, the owner was a major contributor to Boy Scouts of Mexico and had invited us along with a local troop of Mexican scouts, to spend the week there.

One day we started fairly early and we dug out two trenches-- one, where we burned mesquite logs into mesquite coals, and one where we shoveled those coals, under several spits where we had whole goat kids roasting.  Mesquite coals have already burned off their initial heat and they've also burned off the majority of their overwhelming flavor, but they still have more than enough to flavor the meat.  So between the 40 or so kids for cheap labor, and the 10 or 12 adults "supervising" we made a ton of cabrito, and then feasted that afternoon/evening. 

Absolutely the best BBQ I've ever put in my face.

One of the downsides of pellet smokers is that they generally don't impart very much "smoke" flavor.

Now you tell me. 

I probably don't get the point of a smoker that doesn't input much smoke flavor. 

I'm not excited about it anymore.  Nevermind.  

I may be disappointed, but it was still the right choice, I reckon. 

1)  We needed a new grill and weren't particularly interested in propane like the old one. 
2)  Stick/charcoal doesn't seem right due to the time/attention/expertise required.  At this point I'm after more of a set-it-and-forget-it experience.  
3)  I could taste some smoke flavor in the hotdogs last night, and they were in there basically no time.  Any smoke flavor is better than none. 

That's the story I'm telling myself, anyway.

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I can tell I'm not in SEC company when I've gone this many posts and nobody has made a corndog joke.

I mean, Alton Brown made a smoker from a cardboard box and a hot plate. BBQ'ers are a resourceful bunch. You're already ahead of the game with the Traeger...

Great episode. I wish he was still making shows.

Last night's smoked chicken breasts were a rousing success, I'd say.  I took @betarhoalphadelta 's advice threw them on about 2 hours before I wanted them ready.  I tried the Smoke setting, which Traeger's webpage tells me is supposed to be about 160, floating between 160 and 180.  That was a bust, because for some reason the temp just kept climbing and climbing.  So after I realized it wasn't working as I expected, I switched it to 180, and the temp duly dropped and stayed there.  And indeed, that seemed to be the magic number on this model for lots of smoking. 

I kept them there about an hour and a half before knocking it up pretty high to go ahead and finish them off.  Real smokes, the ones where I can just slow-cook them the whole way, will probably be weekend affairs....not something I can pull off on a weekday, because we eat pretty early.

Anyway, they came out great, I thought.  I could really taste the hickory flavor of the pellets, and a nice amount of smoke flavor, although I could've done with a little more of that.  I'm sure they can be better.....since I'm not much of a griller of any kind at this point, I wondered if basting them up front might've helped some.  They weren't dry, but they were a little dryer than I am ultimately aiming for.  I was wondering if basting sooner would make them more moist and also if the sauce would help retain more of that smoke flavor.  I dunno. 

Anyway, good run to gauge how long that particular meat takes to do what it does at that temp, and got a pretty good sense of how many pellets will be required for smoking that long at those temps.  All good info.  And....I ain't mad at the chicken breasts.  Definitely better than just baking in the oven or doing them on the stove. 

Family liked them as well, and the wife did some good sides to go with.  Success!

Last night's smoked chicken breasts were a rousing success, I'd say.  I took @betarhoalphadelta 's advice threw them on about 2 hours before I wanted them ready.  I tried the Smoke setting, which Traeger's webpage tells me is supposed to be about 160, floating between 160 and 180.  That was a bust, because for some reason the temp just kept climbing and climbing.  So after I realized it wasn't working as I expected, I switched it to 180, and the temp duly dropped and stayed there.  And indeed, that seemed to be the magic number on this model for lots of smoking. 

I kept them there about an hour and a half before knocking it up pretty high to go ahead and finish them off.  Real smokes, the ones where I can just slow-cook them the whole way, will probably be weekend affairs....not something I can pull off on a weekday, because we eat pretty early.

Anyway, they came out great, I thought.  I could really taste the hickory flavor of the pellets, and a nice amount of smoke flavor, although I could've done with a little more of that.  I'm sure they can be better.....since I'm not much of a griller of any kind at this point, I wondered if basting them up front might've helped some.  They weren't dry, but they were a little dryer than I am ultimately aiming for.  I was wondering if basting sooner would make them more moist and also if the sauce would help retain more of that smoke flavor.  I dunno. 

Anyway, good run to gauge how long that particular meat takes to do what it does at that temp, and got a pretty good sense of how many pellets will be required for smoking that long at those temps.  All good info.  And....I ain't mad at the chicken breasts.  Definitely better than just baking in the oven or doing them on the stove. 

Family liked them as well, and the wife did some good sides to go with.  Success!

Do you have a thermometer? Chicken breasts are pretty easy to overcook. You probably want them off at around 155 degrees. Or use fattier cuts that are harder to dry out.

Yeah, I was just getting in the shower and thought "oh I should have mentioned temp". If you left them in low for ~90 minutes and then did 30 minutes at 350, you might have just overcooked them. Get a chicken breast up to internal temp of 170, and there's nothing you're going to do to save that. It's going to be dry. In fact, when I do a whole chicken, I pull it when the breasts are at 155 and let carryover cooking bring up the rest of the way. If you wait until the internal temp is 160, it'll be 165 or higher when you serve it and dry. 

Two things you need: a good instant-read thermometer, and a good leave-in thermometer. Without testing temp, everything you cook will be guesswork. Being new, that's just going to be frustrating. Even though I've been doing this a while, I'm not a line cook doing 150 steaks a night, so I rely on my thermometers for pretty much everything I cook anyway.