How To Smoke Turkey Thighs On The Pellet Grill (Step By Step Traeger Recipe)

Make these yummy smoked turkey for a game day main dish.... or for a cozy Fall BBQ dinner. Save this recipe and pick up a pack or two of this totally under-rated cut of meat that is the turkey thigh!

INGREDIENTS

3 LB Turkey thighs (about 1 pound each)
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp BBQ seasoning (or poultry rub)

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat Traeger smoker or whatever pellet grill you’re using to 250 degrees F.
Pat turkey thighs dry with a paper towel.

Drizzle them and rub all over with olive oil - make sure to coat all sides.

Season turkey thighs with dry rub of your choice. We pop them in the fridge to let the flavors of the seasoning adhere to the thighs for at least 20 minutes.

Add turkey thighs directly to the pellet grill grates, once it’s preheated to the smoke temperature of 250 degrees F.

Smoke turkey thighs for about 90 minutes, until the internal temperature reaches 155 - 160 degrees F as measured with an instant read thermometer.

Increase the smoker temperature to 400 degrees F and smoke thighs for another 15 - 20 minutes until the internal temperature reaches 175 degrees F. The higher temperature will help the skin crisp up a bit.

Video highlights
00:00 SMOKED TURKEY THIGHS RECIPE INTRO
00:03 Ingredients
00:07 Prep and season
00:20 Add turkey thighs to pellet smoker
00:29 finish smoking on high
00:40 Serve
00:00
00:00
00:00
00:00
00:00

________

Connect with me

/note: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases/

STOCK YOUR KITCHEN with the essentials…

My favorite thermometers…

For smoked foods and grilling recipes…

For sous vide cooking…

Everyday kitchen and ingredient supplies…

KitchenAid mixer and accessories…

Hey – It’s Jenna Passaro. On Sip Bite Go, I share how to make restaurant-style recipes at home.

[Mixwell]

Glad you mentioned taking the temps to 175 for dark meat but sadly for me, pellet grills offer crap for smoke flavor. Adding a amoker tube to smolder with pellets works well but a good/bad thing with pellet grills is the heat source (pellets) burn into almost a complete combustion which is efficient but the smoke flavor you get in normal wood chunks is due to incomplete combustion so essentially a pellet grill/smoker is too efficient. Kind of an oxymoron but if you've ever wondered why your pellet smoker or grill didn't impart a lot of smoke flavor that is the reason why