18 Electric Smoker Recipes

Have you recently obtained or own one of the many smoker grills on the market? Well if so then you are going to want to take advantage of the precision that the electric smoker offers you.

While electric smokers may not put out the pure BBQ power of wood-fired or charcoal smokers, the control and versatility of the electric smoker make it a formidable tool that can put out some seriously tasty eats.

From savory to sweet, we have compiled some of the best electric smoker recipes around.

Here is our list of the top recipes we’ve found on the internet for your electric smoker!  Each recipe has a link to the original source.

Mesquite Smoked Tomato Bruschetta

If you want to switch things up and put a twist on a classic, this delicious smoked tomato bruschetta is a perfect choice. Whether you want a light lunch for a day at home or you want to bring a dish to share with your friends or family at the upcoming potluck, this is sure to please.

If you have ever had the classic bruschetta, you know how delicious this simple dish is. With this recipe, you’ll be taking this classic to the next level by smoking the tomatoes. Don’t worry, they won’t lose their signature texture, just be sure to follow the instructions carefully. Served on a flame-grilled baguette, this tasty dish is a great summer treat.

Smoked Rack of Pork with Black Cherry Sauce

Fantastic for a weeknight or a holiday gathering, your family will ask again and again for this sweet and savory main dish. Pork pairs beautifully with all kinds of fruits, from apples and peaches to raspberries and cherries. The smoky, salty meat with the tangy and sweet sauce is the perfect combination.

Smoked with cherry wood, the smokiness of the meat is the ideal match for the black cherry sauce, as the flavors play off of each other perfectly. If you’re looking for a sweet and savory dish that is a little bit out of the box, then you’ll definitely want to check this one out.

Smoked Apple Crumble

Your electric smoker isn’t just limited to created juicy, smoked meats. You can also make dessert in it. With a few ramekins, some apples, and a few staples from your baking cabinet, you’ll be on your way to having the best apple crumble you’ve ever tasted.

If gooey, buttery, and sticky are what you are looking for in an apple crumble, look no further. Apple pie is an autumn staple, but most people stick to the oven. Your smoker can cook meat, why not dessert, too? Served with vanilla bean ice cream, you’ve got the perfect dessert.

Bacon Explosion

Is there really anything in this world that is better than bacon? We didn’t think so! This recipe is perfect for the meat lovers out there. Combining bacon, sausage, more bacon, smoky dry rub, and your favorite barbeque sauce, the Bacon Explosion is great sliced for sandwiches or served alongside your favorite side dishes.

One of the best things about this recipe is that it is really easy to customize. If you want a spicier experience, use hot sausage and add jalapenos and pepper jack to the filling. If you’re looking for a pizza explosion, you can use Italian sausage, fill it with mozzarella and pepperoni, and serve it with garlic bread and your favorite marinara sauce. The possibilities are endless!

Smoked Mac And Cheese

If you’re having a cookout and need an option for a vegetarian friend or you just want a simple side that goes with just about any dish your guests choose to bring, this smoked mac and cheese would be a fantastic choice.

This recipe starts with the basics – your favorite pasta and a roux. Throw in some whole milk, cream cheese, and your favorite freshly shredded cheeses and you’re on your way to a mouthwatering dish that even the pickiest eaters will love. You go with the classic mac and cheese or you can mix in bacon and jalapenos, top it with breadcrumbs, or go with a garlic and herb flavor profile.

Smoked Lobster Tails

One of the most delectable and succulent dishes is a perfectly cooked lobster tail, but achieving this can prove difficult sometimes. There is a fine line between just right and a piece of tough rubber. This recipe for smoked lobster tails is not only delicious but it is also easy to make. With just three ingredients, you’ll be on your way to one of the tastiest things you’ll ever make in your smoker.

The lobster is truly the star of the show in this recipe. Brushed with a bit of garlic butter and then cooked on the smoker, there is nothing that will cover or take away from the natural beauty of the lobster. While we love the simplicity of this recipe, the best thing really is how quickly it comes together. In right around half an hour, you’ll be able to enjoy a luscious lobster tail right out of the smoker.

Smoked Brisket

Brisket is one of the staples in backyard or home meat smoking. Even though it is extremely popular, it is also extremely easy to overcook and dry out your precious cut of meat. This recipe for a smoked brisket lays out the process in an easy way, along with a tip for getting past the frustrating “stall” that happens during the brisket smoking process.

This is one of those recipes that should go in your permanent collection since brisket meat is one of the smoker staples that can be used in just about anything from tacos to sandwiches to mac and cheese and beyond.

Make sure to pay particular attention to the brisket preparation portion of this recipe. The preparation and sizing can mean success or failure in your smoking adventure. Too large of a cut will mean your cook time gets greatly magnified, while too small of a cut means it is going to be done well ahead of expectations.

This recipe calls for about a 10-pound brisket, but make sure that doesn’t include 2 pounds of fat. The butcher may trim the meat beforehand, or they may not, your best course of action is to specifically request that they leave only about a quarter-inch of fat on the brisket. Just that little bit of fat left will be more than enough to add moisture and flavor to the meat.

Buttery Smoked Corn On The Cob

Here’s a great opportunity to make an amazing side dish in your smoker, and as a bonus, it’s even a vegetable! This simple recipe for buttery smoked corn on the cob lets you flex your smoker muscles on a starter or side order, which are often overlooked in a lot of backyard smoker cuisine. The best part is, you can get corn super cheap in-season, freeze it, and enjoy smoked corn year-round.

Featuring a little seasoned butter mixture and green onion, you will peel and shuck the corn first, then brush with the butter mix and smoke away. You’ll want to have your smoker preheated to 225, and you’ll smoke the corn for about 60 minutes, turning the cobs once during smoking.

Easy Double Smoked Turkey

One of the staples in smoker cooking is the turkey, and while most people would be happy to smoke a turkey once, this recipe for a twice-smoked turkey might just change your Thanksgiving for years to come. This recipe can be used to great effect with an entire turkey, but you can get more bang for your buck by using a whole turkey breast. Not only will you not have to wry about carving around bones, but you can fit several of them in a smoker with ease.

This recipe uses an all-purpose bbq rub and requires you to hold the temperature at 250 for 3-4 hours in total, though there are points where you will need to baste the meat every twenty minutes or so. This is another one that is perfect for an electric smoker since you’ll be opening it frequently when it approaches the finish line because it can hold a more steady temperature and compensate for “peeking”.

Smoked Salmon

When you have your electric smoker broken in, and you want to really try some serious smoking, it’s probably time to give this recipe for smoked salmon a try. Salmon is definitely one of the easiest and best fish to smoke.

You will need to cure the fish for more than 24 hours, as well as dry it, before smoking. The simple spice mix consists of just salt, sugar, brown sugar, and peppercorns, and gives the final product enough flavor to accent the smokiness without overpowering it.

Once the fish has been seasoned and set in the fridge, a heavy book or pan is placed on top of it, helping to squeeze out more of the remaining liquid. After that t is taken out and set to dry for a few hours. Finally, it is smoked at about 150-160 until the thickest portion of the fillet measures 150 degrees.

Caplansky’s Smoked Meatloaf

Ask anyone about meatloaf, and you’ll likely get one of two answers, either they have never had a good meatloaf so they think they hate it, or they love it and probably have their own favorite meatloaf recipe. You can knock all their socks off with this life-changing smoked meatloaf recipe. In addition to your smoker, you’ll need a pair of rectangular bread molds for this, along with some wax paper to line them with.

Once the meat is combined with the spice mix and the rest of the dry ingredients, it’s loaded into the paper-lined bread pans and set in the smoker for about 3 hours. The sauce that you make to accompany the meatloaf with be almost salsa-like in its consistency, and it is really the perfect finishing touch for this meatloaf.

Mesquite-Smoked Beef Ribs with Vinegar BBQ Sauce

One of the things everyone is eager to try with a smoker is a recipe for fall off the bone ribs. When you make these mesquite-smoked superstars you will never want to go out for ribs again. With a fairly standard spice mix in the rub and a vinegar-based bbq sauce, you’ll find these taste like competition ribs without the stress and all-day cook.

This recipe has you make convenient smoke pouches with your wet and dry chips so that you can quickly add smoke at certain stages. With an easily manageable 2.5-3 hour cook time and 30-minute basting schedule, these beef ribs are perfect for your electric smoker. You’ll be in there frequently to baste them, so you will enjoy having the electric smoker manage that temperature control.

Hunan Smoked Beef Ribs

When you want a new twist on your standard ribs, these Hunan smoked beef ribs give you an amazing sweet and sour hoisin flavor that is hard to beat. The five-spice powder gives you that perfect Hunan beef flavor, while the brown sugar helps put that caramelized crust on the meat that makes it simply divine.

This recipe will have you do some of the preparation the day before you smoke the ribs, such as having the meat marinate in a resealable bag in the fridge to let those muscle fibers tenderize. The easy to add smoke pouches let you add premeasured amounts of wood chips to the process at predetermined times. You’ll only need about 3 hours at 220 for these bad boys to be plate-ready.

Smoked Whole Turkey

While it may seem like an intimidating task at first, this recipe for smoking an entire turkey makes it nearly foolproof. It even covers one of the biggest caveats with smoking a whole large bird, with is choosing your wood chips ahead of time and properly preparing them before smoking. To get the best smoke flavor and volume, you want to make sure your chips are soaking in cold water for at least two full days before you put that turkey in.

This recipe works best with a 15-17lb turkey and will require 4-5 hours to finish. It will need the smoker to hold at about 275 for the entire cooking duration. Once it is done, make sure you do the hardest step, which is letting the meat rest before carving, otherwise, all those juices will run right out.

Smoked Ham with Maple Mustard Glaze

This recipe for a whole ham incorporates a maple mustard glaze that has the perfect amount of sugar to carmelize and provide that crust that we all love. The mustard imparts a bit of the vinegar taste to cut the sweetness and makes an unbeatable combination of sweet and savory in one amazing piece of meat.

While this isn’t one of the quickest recipes, as it needs about four and a half hours to smoke and finish, but with it taking less than some other large cuts of meat, it makes this a great candidate for a holiday ham, since it helps keep the oven and kitchen free for other preparation.

Smoked Beef Cheeks

Cheek meat is one of the most overlooked pieces of meat on the cow. When smoked, then either sliced or pulled and shredded, beef cheeks have uniquely rich flavor and a soft almost buttery texture. This recipe for smoked beef cheeks produces some of the most tender and delicious beef cheeks that you can then use in tacos, sliders, mixed into mac and cheese, and so on.

The important preparation of the cheeks s covered since they are smaller and more delicate pieces of meat, and easy to overcook or toughen. Luckily there is a strip of collagen through the cheek that makes drying the meat out nearly impossible.

Smoked Crab Legs

Most people enjoy crab legs either steamed or boiled, but once you have them smoked you’ll never order crab legs in a restaurant again. You might think that the smoke would have a hard time getting to the meat inside the shells but you would be sorely mistaken.

This recipe for smoked crab legs recommends using softer flavored wood and advises to stay away from woods like mesquite and hickory which can overpower the delicate flavor of the crab meat. The butter and spice mix is all you’ll need in addition to the flavor that the smoke imparts.

This recipe is built for using alder or oak and holding it at about 225 for only approximately 30 minutes. One of the caveats with this recipe is making sure the temperature is consistent before putting the legs in, or they can end up overcooked.

Smoked Pastrami

This recipe for homemade pastrami nearly guarantees you won’t need the deli for your delicious smoked and peppered sandwich stuffing. While most pastrami is beef pastrami, coming from the beef naval with the ability to smoke your own meat, you can turn beef, pork, and even lamb into amazing pastrami.

This recipe uses a brisket flat, and a simple peppercorn and mustard rub. This one takes some preparation since you’ll need to brine your meat for nearly six days ahead of time, but once it’s finished you’ll have perfectly seasoned pastrami.

Final Thoughts

I hope you’ve enjoyed this round up of the best electric smoker recipes!  Be sure to visit the links above and support the creators who came up with all of these tasty recipes.