So at some point, I’m sure everyone reading this article (unless you’re a vegetarian) has enjoyed a rotisserie chicken picked up from the store while shopping. Rotisserie chicken is consistently crispy on the outside and moist/succulent on the inside. Hence, many people are interested in producing that same result at home. Now, rotisserie kits are more commonplace for charcoal/gas grills as they produce a lot of high-temperature direct heat. All pellet grills are first and foremost indirect cookers, however, some do provide direct-flame access. So does a pellet grill/smoker even benefit from using a rotisserie?
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Pellet Grills & Rotisseries
Pellet grills/smokers first and foremost cook via indirect heat/convection as there is a heat deflector over the pellet burn pot and a fan/solid grease tray to disperse the heat fairly around the cooking chamber.
Therefore, I wouldn’t describe a rotisserie as an essential feature for a pellet grill. However, even on a pellet grill, a rotisserie has inherent benefits.
The rotation of the food on a rotisserie means it achieves unparalleled even cooking across the entire surface of the food.
Furthermore, when cooking meats/poultry, the constant rotation means that the protein is getting basted internally and externally throughout the whole cook.
Hence, rotisserie-cooked food is some of the most succulent you will ever taste, add in the light smoky flavour from the burning pellets, and well, that’s good eating.
DIY Rotisserie Kits For Pellet Grills?
A rotisserie is pretty basic really, its just a rotating shaft powered by an electric motor.
More expensive versions come with variable speed motors/settings and more use of better quality stainless steel, but really, its a simple device.
Therefore, when searching sites like Amazon etc, you will come across lots of ‘universal’ rotisserie kits for grills, that can be used on gas, charcoal and maybe even a pellet grill.
The problem with such universal kits is that once they are fitted to the grill, you cannot actually close the lid as it will hit the rotisserie kit.
That creates two problems really, first on a pellet grill, if you cannot close the grill lid, you will not get much of that distinctive light smoky flavour into the food while it cooks on the rotisserie. The second problem will be pellet consumption.
Trying to slow cook with a rotisserie on a pellet grill with the lid open is going to take a long time. Therefore, you are going to be burning a lot of pellets in the process, a lot more than when the lid is closed.
Unless you are considering some serious DIY modifications to the pellet grill lid and invalidating the pellet grill warranty in the process, you will not be able to close the lid over the rotisserie kit.
Therefore, these universal rotisseries kits are not going to produce the best result cooking with the lid open and its going to cost a considerable amount too along with the increase in pellet consumption.
Unfortunately, at this point, I’m not aware of a universal aftermarket rotisserie for pellet grills that would address the problem. Therefore, let’s look at pellet grills that either come with a rotisserie kit or are designed to accept one as an optional extra.
Pellet Grills/Smokers With A Rotisserie Kit
So below, I’ll go through the pellet grills/smokers I’m aware of that either come with a rotisserie kit or one is available for that particular pellet grill as an optional extra.
Either way, all of the pellets grills below can use a rotisserie kit and importantly, you can close the lid on the pellet grill while the rotisserie is in use.
However, I do also have one example where the manufacturer’s rotisserie kit cannot be used unfortunately. I’ll start at the lowest cost/most affordable options and move up to the most expensive/luxury options.
Green Mountain Grills Prime Grills Rotisserie
Green Mountain Grills, also commonly abbreviated as GMG, produce a selection of mid-range/premium pellet grills up to a maximum of a thousand dollars currently.
I have an article on the Green Mountain Grill pellet grill range if you’re not aware of them.
Anyway, they do offer a rotisserie kit for their Prime Daniel Boone, which is their mid-sized grill and their largest pellet grill, the Prime Jim Bowie.
Now, I need to point out two important factors. First, neither of the Prime Grills will come with the rotisserie kit as standard, it has to be purchased from GMG as an optional extra.
Secondly, the rotisserie kit will only fit the Prime (highest spec) versions of those grills.
While there are cheaper ‘Choice’ versions available, they are not designed to accept the rotisserie kit. The Davy Crockett, which is their portable pellet grill, also has no rotisserie kit available.
Broil King Regal Pellet Grills With Included Rotisserie
Broil King is mainly known for their gas grills. However, they have also now entered the pellet grill/smoker game.
I have a separate article on the Broil King pellet grill range, where I go into quite a bit of detail on the features I like about these grills.
Well, one feature of their highest specification Regal pellet grills is an included deluxe rotisserie kit, yes, in this case, the rotisserie comes as standard, its not an optional extra.
The typical price point of the Broil King Regal 400 and Regal 500 is $1,299 to $1,499. Hence they are a few hundred dollars more than the GMG pellet grills above.
However, if you read and compare my articles above on the offerings from these two brands, you will notice a few differences, such as the heavy-duty 14-gauge steel used on the Broil King Regal pellet grills.
Furthermore, the GMG pellet grills do not come with their rotisserie kit as standard. Therefore, you have to add on a few hundred dollars.
So, in reality, these GMG and Broil King pellet grills are very similar in price.
Kamado Joe Pellet Joe & The JoeTisserie? Unfortunately Not
Kamado Joe makes some of the best kamado charcoal grills on the market, and they have now entered the pellet grill/smoker game with their Pellet Joe.
As I stated in my linked article, I’m very impressed with the Pellet Joe as the first and currently only ceramic pellet cooker on the market.
Now, I was previously aware of the JoeTisserie kit for their 18″ and 24″ kamado charcoal grills. As the Pellet Joe is also an 18″ ceramic cooker, I was hoping the JoeTisserie kit was going to be compatible with the Pellet Joe.
However, unfortunately, that’s apparently not the case. I’m still trying to find out from Kamado Joe why that’s the case. Though as of this minute, unfortunately, you cannot use their rotisserie kit with the Pellet Joe.
Update: So I’ve received some feedback from Altas PMG, who are the guys who actually designed the Pellet Joe (and also the Spider-22) about the JoeTisserie kit, which they also designed, and they told me the following:
‘We designed the pellet joe to be similar in size and shape to the rest of Kamado Joe’s grills, so that meant the inside has a fairly shallow cooking area as the firebox is relatively close to the cooking surface (about 4″ away) in order to fit everything else inside the grill envelope. The Joetisserie fits the Pellet Joe, but there’s not enough space to cook anything very big, so it’s not a recommended accessory for that grill‘.
Therefore, its not that the JoeTisserie doesn’t fit the Pellet Joe, it does. The problem is there just isn’t enough space on the Pellet Joe to make it a viable accessory.
Twin Eagles Luxury Stainless Steel Pellets With Rotisserie
Ok, so the GMG and Broil King pellet grill examples above with a rotisserie kit in the most expensive scenario would set you back around $1,500.
Well, with Twin Eagles pellet grills, we are talking about a big jump up in price, I’m talking the $6k to $8K mark.
Hence, most people, including myself, can only dream of having that level of spare funds to drop on a pellet grill.
However, there are some lucky people that do, therefore, here is the best pellet grill you can get with a rotisserie, basically, its the highest specification pellet grill on the market today. You can read more about them in my Twin Eagles pellet grill article.
Now, the slightly shocking thing is, paying $6K for the built-in version or $8K for the freestanding version, you would likely hope the rotisserie kit came included.
Well, actually no, if you want the rotisserie kit on either of the Twin Eagles pellet grills, you have to pay an additional $500 for the privilege.
In other words, you have to pay as much for the rotisserie kit on the Twin Eagles as many entry-level pellet grills.
I know the Twin Eagles rotisserie kit will be made from high-grade 304-grade stainless steel etc, but still, that’s a lot of money just for a rotisserie kit.
Conclusions On Rotisserie Kits For Pellet Grills/Smokers
So as you can see above, your options for a rotisserie kit on a pellet grill designed to accept one (so you can close the lid) is pretty limited.
Now, as stated above, as all pellet grills/smokers are first and foremost indirect cookers with convection heat provided by the fan, a rotisserie kit is not as important as it is on say a charcoal/gas grill.
However, a rotisserie kit still has its benefits, constant basting of the food etc means a rotisserie still has its uses on a pellet grill/smoker.
That’s it! Thanks for reading, I hope you found this article on rotisserie kits for pellet grills interesting/useful. Please check out my Wood Pellet Grill/Smoker Guide to learn more about all your options. 🙂
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