RecTeq Pellet Grill Assessment: Our Product Testing Workforce’s Favourite Smoker

We’ll get straight to the meat of it. Of the 11 pellet grills we examined and reviewed, the RecTeq pellet grill was the perfect general. The Flagship 1100 is giant in each cooking house and hopper capability, it has very exact temperate controls and what finally ends up in your plate is price writing dwelling about. Even when in comparison with Traeger, we have been impressed.

Our Product Testing group reviewed this grill for over per week, with testing overseen by our grilling skilled, Catherine Ward. Right here’s what we discovered.

What’s the RecTeq Flagship 1100 pellet grill?

The RecTeq Flagship 1100 pellet grill is the latest model of the corporate’s RT-700, amping up the latter’s cooking house, hopper measurement and temperature capabilities. Like all pellet grills, it’s well-liked for the smoky flavors it offers meals and the huge versatility by way of cooking types—particularly in comparison with charcoal or fuel grills.

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This dangerous boy is made for crowd cooking, with an enormous 1,109-square-inch cooking space. In keeping with the web site, which means you may match 60 burgers or 138 hen wings, though we didn’t check this . The hopper is large—it could actually maintain about 40 kilos of pellets (most pellet grills maintain about 20). Not sufficiently big? Look into the Flagship XL 1400, which has a 1,437-square-inch cooking house.

The grill can warmth as much as 700 levels Fahrenheit, and its PID tech retains your temperature inside 5 levels Fahrenheit of what you specify. We discovered this to be true, though the grill will get extremely popular to the contact, even externally.

You’ll discover one large decrease grate and one narrower higher grate. Below the unit is a roomy, huge shelf. There’s additionally {an electrical} outlet on the bottom, which we expect is nice for plugging in your blender for margaritas. Personally, we weren’t enormous followers of the design (notably, the 2 horns on both facet), nevertheless it undoubtedly evokes a masculine vibe.

VIA MERCHANT

VIA MERCHANT

How We Examined the RecTeq Flagship 1100

RecTeq deserves props for its supply. The grill got here on a pallet in a field that simply comes aside, so you can begin assembling the grill instantly with out having to elevate it out. Meeting itself was pretty easy in comparison with different grills we examined. Discovering the net manuals and meeting video wasn’t as easy as we hoped, however if you get there, the meeting video is the way in which to go. Notice that setting the Flagship 1100 up is a two-person job, so ensure you have help available.

Seasoning was additionally notably simple. It requires eradicating all the cooking parts earlier than including 1/4 cup of pellets to the hearth pot after which reinstalling the cooking parts, however nothing too arduous. It took a full 60 minutes to burn off quite than the everyday 30 to 45 minutes (you need to use that point to go store for some presents for grillers to go along with your new RecTeq). The grill was fairly scorching at this level, nevertheless it shut down simply.

There was no higher strategy to see if the RecTeq Flagship 1100 may dwell as much as its promise than by attending to grilling. We examined salmon, hen breasts, pork chops, pork shoulder and corn. For all of our checks, we used Pit Boss apple mix hardwood pellets.

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We smoked the salmon for an hour at 190 levels Fahrenheit, earlier than brushing it with honey and sprinkling with peppercorns. We bumped up the temperature to 225 levels Fahrenheit and added corn cobs brushed with herbed butter. The salmon got here out smoky and really moist, with some darkish edges. The corn was smoky and brown on the highest and the underside. The hen was equally profitable—we smoked three breasts at 225 levels Fahrenheit for 3 hours, and the meat was juicy and moist with caramelization on the underside.

Our pork chops—coated in a easy combination of salt, garlic salt and black pepper—have been seared at 500 levels Fahrenheit for 10 minutes, rotating and flipping them all through. The sear wasn’t tremendous pronounced, and we thought the Pit Boss did a greater job, nevertheless it was nonetheless a stable final result.

The standout by far was the pork shoulder, which was dry rubbed with mustard and spice. It took 10 hours, however as Catherine identified, sooner instances and warmer temps can imply robust and dry meat. And it was price it. The pork was tender, moist and straightforward to shred. Our Product Testing group raved that it “was the perfect pork shoulder.”

We topped off the pellets firstly of the day earlier than we started cooking. By the top, it was nonetheless about half full; there’s definitely worth in with the ability to prepare dinner a lot with no need to fret about refills.

Then got here the cleanup. Since there’s no strategy to empty the pellet hopper, you’ll should take away extra pellets with a vacuum. The most important draw back to the RecTeq is that the grills are too giant to soak and wash within the sink, so we needed to resort to scraping particles off with a steel scraper, which didn’t really feel as sanitary as getting it soaped up. However so far as hassles go, this was minor in comparison with the standard of the grill and the meals it produced.

Execs

Massive hopper permits for an prolonged cooking time
Doesn’t leak loads of smoke
Grilling floor may be very massive (have we mentioned that sufficient?)
Two handles to elevate the lid are nice

Cons

Scorching to the contact, even externally
Costlier
Solely two spots for the probes, though it may have match 4
Wheels are small and may get caught at an odd angle
Emptying the hopper generally is a problem

FAQ

The place are RecTeq pellet grills made?

The ultimate meeting of RecTeq pellet grills takes place at their manufacturing facility in Augusta, Georgia, though they manufacture and supply their elements from China.

Why You Ought to Belief Us

That will help you discover the subsequent greatest grill in your yard, our Product Testing Workforce dove into thorough testing for 11 pellet grills, together with fashions from Yoder, Pit Boss, Cuisinart and Weber. We, after all, additionally examined 4 Traeger fashions: the Ironwood XL, Tailgater, Professional 575 and Timberline.

For every grill, we analyzed the meeting, tried out the important thing options and carried out a number of meals checks to see how properly every product carried out. All checks have been overseen by grilling skilled Catherine Ward. As a group, we carry many years of expertise testing merchandise and evaluating them for the house prepare dinner based mostly on high quality, affordability and accessibility.