Camp Chef Deluxe Pellet Grill and Smoker

I've been on the fence about buying a pellet smoker for a while. I'm a pretty committed, die-hard believer in the Weber Smokey Mountain, charcoal and wood chunks. I've made countless pounds of brisket, ribs, chicken and sausage on my WSM, and I've never had a problem or a complaint. I felt like pellet smokers were easy mode. A cheat. And they are, but in a good way. After a ton of research, I settled on the Camp Chef Smoke Pro DLX 24 as a pretty optimal sweet spot of features and price, and the reviews suggested they were well made, performed well, and good controllers and a logical layout. i couldn't agree more. It's a fantastic smoker and well worth what I paid. i didn't want or need the sear feature, I have plenty of better options for searing on various grills, so i went with the bare bones model, which is what I can strongly recommend. When it arrived, my first impression was great. Assembly was straightforward and simple. The instructions were clear and easy to follow. The included parts and hardware were well made, quality components. It has very nice fit and finish - somewhat unusual at this price point. After I assembled it and set it up, I followed the recommendation for a 30 minute burn-in at 350F. Filled the hopper, turned the controller to fill until the auger began dropping pellets into the burner, and set it to 350. the burner has an electrically heated rod, like a glow plug, that ignites the pellets. Once the pellets catch, the heat is maintained by a thermostat which controls the auger, to deliver fuel, and fans, to deliver air. It works extremely well - once up to temperature, the internal temp usually stays within 3-4 degrees F of the controller setting. It's surprisingly consistent. Using a Thermoworks Smoke, I checked the internal temp to confirm, and the two probes, built-in and Thermoworks, agreed on the temperature within 1-2 degrees, so it seems to be very accurate too. I bought the thing for Thanksgiving, where we usually smoke a turkey, or partially smoke it and finish inside in the oven. I wanted to do that this year, and thought that a pellet smoker would be a much simpler setup on Thanksgiving day than setting up a full burn in the WSM and maintaining it for a few hours. Ultimately, my wife decided she wanted to do the turkey inside, but my concession was two pheasants she got and two very large turkey thighs for smoking. I used Green Mountain Grill Fruitwood blend which seemed like a nice complement to game birds. The Camp Chef DLX has two "high smoke" settings, 160F and 225F, as well as a full range of temp settings from 200-500F. Thanksgiving day, it was about 45-50 degrees out. My plan was to start low and slow, on a high smoke setting and then turn it up at the end to crisp the skin, until the probe in the breast read 170. I ended up going with 160 for about an hour and a half, which cooked very slowly but put some lovely smoke on the birds. I turned it up to the higher high-smoke setting for a another half hour or so, and then finally went to 350 for the remainder. It worked beautifully. Attached is a picture of the pheasants right before I carved. They were tender, and juicy with a nice amount of smoke on them and the skin was crisp. It was incredibly easy, just turning the dial to the setting I wanted and going back inside to drink with my guests. If I'd used the WSM, I would have been outside for hours, building and tending the fire, and no way I could have gotten the precise temperature ranges I used. Clean up on the Camp Chef couldn't have been easier. Scrub down the grates and pull a knob to open the bottom of the firebox to drop the ashes in the ash collector cup. After a 3 hour or so smoke, there was less than a shot glass full of ashes in the cup. This thing burns incredibly efficiently. All of that said, I love the result from a traditional smoker, and there's no way this will be a full replacement. But it's another great tool in the collection, and the next time I want to smoke a chicken on a weeknight in cold weather, I know what I'll use.