Should I wrap smoked baked potatoes in foil?

No. Foil traps steam, which gives you a soft, boiled-tasting skin and blocks the smoke entirely -- the two things this recipe exists for. Cook the potatoes naked on the grates with oil and coarse salt. Save the foil for holding finished potatoes in a cooler if dinner is running behind.

What internal temperature should a smoked baked potato reach?

205 to 210°F in the center. That is the range where the starch granules fully swell and the interior turns light and fluffy instead of dense and waxy. It is the same trust-the-thermometer habit that makes brisket work: a potato at 195°F looks done from the outside but eats undercooked.

Can I smoke baked potatoes at the same temperature as my brisket or ribs?

Yes -- that is the best reason to make them. At 225°F plan on about 2 hours, at 250°F about 1 hour 45 minutes, and at 275°F about 1 hour 30 minutes. The potatoes do not care what temperature the pit is running as long as they hit 205-210°F internal, so just slide them onto a spare patch of grate during the last stretch of your main cook.

How do I store and reheat leftover smoked potatoes?

Refrigerate leftovers in an airtight container for up to 4 days. Reheat in a 375°F oven or on the grill for 15 to 20 minutes to re-crisp the skin -- the microwave works in a pinch but leaves the skin soft. Leftovers also make outstanding breakfast potatoes: dice, crisp in a skillet, and top with a fried egg.

Smoked Baked Potatoes on a Pellet Grill: Crispy Skin, Fluffy Inside

Name: Smoked Baked Potatoes on a Pellet Grill: Crispy Skin, Fluffy Inside
Prep time: PT10 minutes
Cook time: PT2 hours
Total time: PT2 hours 10 minutes
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: American BBQ
Ingredients: 6 large russet potatoes (10-12 oz each), scrubbed; 2 tbsp olive oil (or melted beef tallow or bacon grease); 1 tbsp coarse kosher salt; 1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper; Butter, sour cream, shredded cheddar, crumbled bacon, and sliced chives, for serving

Smoked baked potatoes on a pellet grill are the side dish that costs you nothing: no extra prep window, no second appliance, no timing gymnastics. The smoker is already running for the brisket or the ribs -- the potatoes just move in, ride the same heat for a couple of hours, and come off with crackling salted skin, a light smoke flavor, and the fluffiest interior a russet can produce. If you have been baking potatoes in the oven your whole life, the pellet grill version is a quiet, permanent upgrade.

Like everything worth cooking on a pellet grill, this is brand-agnostic -- Traeger®, Pit Boss, Camp Chef, and Z Grills all do the job identically, because the recipe is nothing more than steady heat, a little smoke, and a target internal temperature.

Why Russets, and Why the Skin Matters

Russets are the only serious choice for a baked potato. Their high starch and low moisture content is what produces that dry, fluffy, butter-absorbing interior; waxy potatoes like red or Yukon Gold stay dense and creamy no matter how you cook them (great for potato salad, wrong for this).

Buy large, evenly sized potatoes -- 10 to 12 ounces each -- so they finish together. Then give the skin the two things it needs:

Oil. A thorough rub of olive oil crisps and browns the skin. Melted beef tallow or bacon grease is the pitmaster upgrade, and if you are cooking these under a brisket, a little drip-catching is a feature, not a bug.
Coarse salt. Be generous. A well-salted, crispy russet skin stops being the wrapper you tolerate and becomes the part people fight over.

Prick each potato a handful of times with a fork before it goes on. It vents steam and takes five seconds.

Temperature and Timing: Match Your Main Cook

This recipe has one genuinely useful feature: it bends to whatever your grill is already doing.

Grill Temp	Time	When to Use
225°F	~2 hours	Riding alongside a brisket or pork butt
250°F	~1 hour 45 min	Alongside ribs
275°F	~1 hour 30 min	Alongside chicken, or potatoes-only cooks

The times are estimates; the finish line is not. A smoked baked potato is done at 205-210°F internal -- the fluffy zone. That is the range where the starch granules fully gelatinize and swell, turning the interior light and dry enough to drink up butter. At 195°F a potato looks done and squeezes soft, but the center still eats dense and waxy. This is the same lesson brisket teaches: trust the thermometer, not the clock. An instant-read like the Thermapen One settles it in a second or two -- the probe should slide into the center like it is going into softened butter, with the readout in the 205-210°F window.

Start checking at the 90-minute mark at 225°F, earlier at higher temps. There is no penalty for probing a potato repeatedly, so check as often as you like.

The Cook, Start to Finish

Scrub the potatoes and dry them completely. Wet skin steams; dry skin crisps.
Prick each one 6 to 8 times with a fork.
Rub all over with oil, then season heavily with coarse kosher salt and black pepper.
Place them directly on the grates -- no foil, no pan -- with space between each potato.
Close the lid and leave them alone. No flipping, no rotating; the convection heat of a pellet grill cooks them evenly on all sides.
Pull at 205-210°F internal, rest 5 minutes, then split lengthwise, squeeze the ends to pop the potato open, and fluff the inside with a fork.

Do not wrap the potatoes in foil at any point during the cook. Foil steams the skin soft and shuts out the smoke -- it deletes both reasons this recipe exists. The one good use for foil is after the cook: wrapped and tucked into a dry cooler, finished potatoes hold hot for a couple of hours while a stubborn brisket finishes its rest.

Pellet flavor barely matters here, which is liberating -- whatever is in the hopper for the main cook is the right answer. Hickory and oak leave a noticeable smoky note on the skin, and fruit woods are subtler; the full breakdown lives in our wood pellet flavor guide.

Loaded Potato Ideas

A properly fluffed smoked russet needs nothing but butter and salt, but "needs" is doing a lot of work in that sentence:

The classic: butter, sour cream, sharp cheddar, crumbled bacon, chives.
BBQ loaded: chopped brisket or pulled pork, cheddar, BBQ sauce, pickled red onions -- turn the side dish into dinner.
Steakhouse: butter, blue cheese crumbles, cracked pepper, a few crispy fried onions.
Tex-Mex: chili or smoked queso over the top, pickled jalapeños, cilantro. If you are already smoking queso for the party, one skillet covers the chips and the potatoes.
Breakfast-for-dinner: leftover potato, split and crisped, topped with a fried egg and hot sauce.

For a full smoke-day spread, these share grate space happily with appetizers like jalapeño poppers -- everything runs at the same temperature, which is the pellet grill's whole party trick.

Final Thoughts

Smoked baked potatoes are the definition of free value: ten minutes of prep, zero attention during the cook, and a side dish that tastes like it was planned instead of tacked on. If you are new to the grill, they are also a forgiving way to practice the probe-for-tenderness habit that every big cook depends on -- our first cook guide pairs well with a trial run. After that, the rule is simple: if the smoker is on and there is empty grate space, there should be potatoes on it.

Explore more: First Cook Guide | Wood Pellet Flavor Guide | All Recipes