Best Pellet Grills for a Holiday Turkey and Ham: 3 Tested Picks

Meet Rufus: Rufus the bear lives up past the lake and only comes down to the river once a year, the week before the holidays, with a smoker on a sled. This year Gerzsi asked him the big question: why does Rufus’s turkey come out juicy and Gerzsi’s comes out like bark? Rufus didn’t answer. He just tapped the grill’s controller with one claw, pointed at the hopper full of pellets, and went back to sleep in a lawn chair for nine hours. Chef Tamás translated: “He’s saying the fire does the work. You just keep it steady.”

Gerzsi and friends are made up. The gear and the test results are real.

A pellet grill is an electric smoker-grill. A small screw feeds wood pellets from a hopper into a fire pot, and a controller keeps the temperature where you set it. That is why it suits a holiday turkey or ham: you set it and walk away, instead of babysitting a fire.

For a long holiday smoke, three things matter most: how steady the temperature stays, how big the hopper is, and whether it can still get hot enough to sear. We didn’t test these ourselves. Smoked BBQ Source, Taste of Home, Bob Vila and AmazingRibs cooked on them. All three picks are pellet grills, so the table compares like with like.

Quick picks

The three pellet grills, side by side

Pellet grill	Cooking area	Hopper	What the testers found
Traeger Woodridge Pro · See today’s price	970 sq in	24 lb	AmazingRibs: Best Value Gold Medal. SBS and Taste of Home: best for beginners. Steady on long cooks; weak at searing.
Weber Searwood 600 · See today’s price	648 sq in	20 lb	SBS and Taste of Home: best overall. Heats and recovers fast; shelves cost extra.
recteq RT-B380 Bullseye · See today’s price	380 sq in	15 lb	Bob Vila: best small grill, top score for temperature control, up to 750°F. Not for overnight cooks.

1. Traeger Woodridge Pro: the holiday smoker

This is the one to buy if the main job is a turkey, a ham or a pork shoulder that cooks for hours. AmazingRibs gave it its Best Value Gold Medal, and both Smoked BBQ Source and Taste of Home named it best for beginners. The 24 lb hopper has a sensor that tells you when pellets run low, and Smoked BBQ Source found it burned about 1 lb of pellets an hour at 225°F and held steady on long cooks, including pork butts and hams (Smoked BBQ Source). Taste of Home said it was still working well after a year (Taste of Home).

The honest downsides: it is weak at searing. Set to 500°F, Smoked BBQ Source measured the grates under 300°F, and AmazingRibs topped out at 480°F. There is no lid gasket, so some smoke leaks, and AmazingRibs found the ash and grease cleanup messy and the Wi-Fi setup fiddly (AmazingRibs). AmazingRibs listed it at $1,149.99 in January 2026.

Good for: low-and-slow holiday meats, big families. Not for: steak nights that need a hard sear.

2. Weber Searwood 600: smokes and sears

Smoked BBQ Source and Taste of Home both named the Searwood 600 best overall. Smoked BBQ Source found it heats fast and recovers quickly after you open the lid, and Taste of Home said its temperature barely moved (Smoked BBQ Source, Taste of Home). It has 648 sq in of cooking area, a 20 lb hopper and Weber’s app (AmazingRibs).

The downsides: the front and side shelves cost extra, the settings aren’t intuitive without Wi-Fi, and Taste of Home found the strongest smoke setting charred some food. Taste of Home listed it at $999 at Weber in September 2026.

Good for: one grill that smokes a turkey on Thursday and sears burgers on Saturday. Not for: the biggest crowds; it has less space than the Traeger.

3. recteq RT-B380 Bullseye: small, hot and steady

Bob Vila named the Bullseye best small-capacity pellet grill, and it got a perfect 5 out of 5 for temperature control, the best in that test. It runs from 200 to 750°F, hotter than anything else Bob Vila tested, and has a stainless build (Bob Vila).

The catch: 380 sq in and a 15 lb hopper. Smoked BBQ Source says that hopper isn’t meant for overnight cooks, Bob Vila found it burned pellets faster on long cooks and was hard to assemble, and this base model has no Wi-Fi (Smoked BBQ Source). It fits a turkey or a ham, not both at once.

Good for: small patios, couples, searing. Not for: a 20 lb turkey plus a ham.

From the real chef: the number decides, not the clock

In a restaurant kitchen nobody trusts the timer on a big roast. The probe goes into the thickest part, away from the bone, and the number decides. For a turkey that number is 165°F, the USDA safe temperature for all poultry. A raw (fresh) ham needs 145°F and three minutes of rest. A precooked ham from a USDA-inspected plant only needs reheating to 140°F (FoodSafety.gov). Then let it rest before you carve. A good pellet grill holds the heat steady; a leave-in thermometer tells you when it’s done. You need both.

Pellet grill FAQ

How much pellet does a long smoke use?

About 1 lb an hour at 225°F on the Woodridge Pro in Smoked BBQ Source’s test. Across the models they tested, it ranged from 0.3 to 1.6 lb an hour at 225°F, and 2 to 4.5 lb an hour at high heat.

How big a hopper do I need for an overnight cook?

Bigger than 15 lb. Smoked BBQ Source says a 15 lb hopper isn’t built for overnight cooks, while a 21 lb hopper ran 8+ hours without a refill in their budget test.

Can a pellet grill sear a steak?

Some better than others. The Woodridge Pro’s grates stayed under 300°F when set to 500°F in Smoked BBQ Source’s test. The Bullseye goes up to 750°F, and the Searwood is the better searing pick of the two big ones.

The bottom line

For holiday turkeys and hams, buy the Traeger Woodridge Pro. If you want one grill that also sears, get the Weber Searwood 600. On a small patio, the recteq Bullseye is the steadiest little grill Bob Vila tested.

Tester-proven. Bear-approved.

Sources

• Smoked BBQ Source: The Best Pellet Grills & Smokers We’ve Tested (updated Oct 29, 2026)
• Smoked BBQ Source: The Best Budget Pellet Grills (May 8, 2026)
• Taste of Home: Best Pellet Grills (updated Sep 8, 2026)
• Bob Vila: Best Pellet Grills (Jul 3, 2026)
• AmazingRibs: Traeger Woodridge Pro Review (Jan 12, 2026)
• AmazingRibs: Weber Searwood 600 Reviewed (2024, specifications)
• FoodSafety.gov: Safe Minimum Internal Temperatures

Prices are the ones the testers listed on the dates shown; prices change often. America’s Test Kitchen, Wirecutter and Serious Eats pellet grill tests weren’t readable when this guide was written, so nothing here is attributed to them.