Growing up, my dad didn’t have a wood-fired smoker at the house. He’s a grill master, and to this day he’s still a chef by trade who can make magic happen on a gas or charcoal grill. But I had to teach myself how to BBQ when it came to wood-fire. Over the past 12 months, I’ve thrown myself head first into the glorious world of smoking meat (and fish) since I picked up the Traeger Tailgater Wood Pellet Smoker last October. Buy Now: $411 (Usually $450)
I’m trying to get in the habit of sharing products here on BroBible which have profoundly impacted my life in recent weeks/months/years, and I can say that the Traeger Tailgater Smoker has improved my life more than any other single product in my house, for real. I’m addicted to the slow-cooking nature of smoking BBQ. A lot of days I’ll head outside around 10am and fire up the smoker, throw some chicken sausage on there, and leave it on the lowest setting (the ‘smoke’ setting) for 3 hours/until I’m ready to eat lunch. In the past year, I’ve perfected a brisket recipe, mastered both pork and beef ribs, and I’ve made a brisket so darn tasty that my competitive father (who is a chef) was forced to swallow his pride and tell me how life-changing delicious it was.
This product is portable. The legs have rolling wheels and they also fold up. You can toss this puppy in the back of the car/truck and bring it…as the name implies…tailgating:
I’ve featured the Traeger Tailgater on BroBible before, but you can save $40 today by purchasing it on Amazon. The Tailgater is Traeger’s entry-level smoker. It boasts 300 square inches of cooking space, which is more than enough for 36 wings. Spicy smoked BBQ wings are another specialty of mine. It’s more than enough cooking room for brisket and ribs. In fact, I’ve yet to have a time when I didn’t have enough space on the smoker for whatever it is I was trying to cook.
There is an electric temperature gauge which ranges from ‘smoke’ on up to 375-degrees Fahrenheit. The wood that powers this smoker comes in the form of wood pellets, and you can buy every variety under the sun for cheap on Amazon. I’ve been into the fruit woods lately (cherry wood, apple wood, etc). These wood pellets are automatically fed into the Traeger Tailgater via the electric hopper. Really, all you have to do in order to become a master BBQ chef is find the right ingredients, set it, and forget it. You get all of the gratification of cooking the world’s best barbecue without having to labor over the temperature all day long. Like I said above, this is a product which has improved my life more than anything else in the past year.
Buy It Now: $411 (Usually $450)
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