Never crispy

[Harleydude]

Ok, lets not beat around the bush here. You can cool just about anything on the Traeger, yet it's never crispy. Steak may be cooked perfect, but it's not crispy or chared. I hate it!! Chicken, if you are lucky, it's light brown at best. I did a whole Turkey, same. Light brown at best. I love the Traeger temp control, but my food is never crisp!

 

[traeger860]

A lot of people on here use GrillGrates for searing on the Traeger. I still use my propane grill for that.

 

[RayClem]

Skin on chicken will not get crispy until you get the temperature around 375 or higher.
Cook the chicken low and slow to develop smoke flavor and cook the meat. Then boost the temperature up to 400F or so until the skin gets crispy.

For steaks, I cook to 135F and then sear in a carbon steel skillet on the gas stove. I add a little high-smoke point oil to start then add butter, garlic, and herbs to baste the steak to get a beautiful brown color. Do not attempt to do this without adding another oil to the butter as the butter will burn before the steak is properly seared. Of course, this can also be done on a gas grill. I purchased GrillGrates for my Traeger, but found they work even better on the gas grill.

 

[Whjones71]

"Skin on chicken will not get crispy until you get the temperature around 375 or higher.
Cook the chicken low and slow to develop smoke flavor and cook the meat. Then boost the temperature up to 400F or so until the skin gets crispy."

I NEED crispy skin on my chicken. I doesn't seem to happen on a Traeger. I've raised the temp and it still doesn't crisp it up enough. Should I just put it in the oven on broil? I really don't want to do this, I'd rather do it on the Traeger. Any and all suggestions welcome.

Bill

 

[RayClem]

Bill

Every Traeger seems to be a little different. I have an Ironwood 885 and set my controller to 450F to achieve a cook temperature of 400F. That should be high enough to crisp the skin.

If you are simply setting your controller to 400F, it might not be getting hot enough. Try setting the controller as high as it will go. I understand on the Pro series that the max setting is 450 F, but that should get to 375F cook temperature.

 

[Shedd]

My 780 Pro won’t crisp it either. I move it to my Webber gas grill and it really doesn’t take long to crisp it up. Now when I’m in the mood I’ll put it on my green egg instead of the traeger, so much better!