Traeger Grill Smoked Trout is a great recipe for cooking smoked, fresh trout! Butterflied trout are soaked in a brine before smoking, for peak flavor!
We sure have been having fun trying recipes on our Traeger grill! Our most recent adventure involved brining and smoking trout that we received from a very nice, generous neighbor!
I found the original recipe on the Traeger app, and thought it sounded wonderful, so off I went into the kitchen to check this recipe out! WOW! This was some good tasting smoked trout! My husband (a trout-lovin’ guy) said it was some of the best trout he has ever had!
With very minimal prep work, and a “hands off” smoking time on the grill, this recipe was also SUPER EASY! Brine the fish, then smoke it on the pellet grill. BOOM! Yummy smoked trout! Here’s how to make Traeger smoked trout:
Scroll Down For A Printable Recipe Card At The Bottom Of The Page
Prepare The BRINE Mixture
Salting meats as a way to preserve food has been around for many, many years. Throughout history voyagers, travelers or armies used to preserve their meats in salt so they could survive on long voyages or trips, even with a lack of refrigeration.
Nowadays brining is a “thing”. When you brine meats, it’s typically done using a salt, water, and seasoning combination, but using far less salt than our ancestors. Brining infuses meats with lots of flavor, and can also help tenderize the meat, in a fairly short amount of time.
To make THIS brine for Traeger smoked trout, place water, salt, brown sugar, black pepper and soy sauce in a LARGE covered container. Whisk the ingredients together until sugar has dissolved. THIS will be your brine!
Prepare The Trout
The trout will need to be cleaned and gutted, with the head removed. Butterfly cut each trout almost all the way down to the tail, and then spread it out. You want the trout to be able to lie flat while being smoked on the grill.
NOTE: The recipe as written (in the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post) is for 4 trout. Since it was only my husband and I eating, I smoked only TWO trout, but used the regular amount of brine.
Place the butterflied trout into the brine, and position in the brine so that it is covered. You might find it easy to weigh the fish down with a heavy plate, to keep it under the brine. Cover the container, and then let the trout brine in the liquid for 60 minutes in the refrigerator. Turn the trout over, halfway through the brining time.
Dry The Brined Trout And Then Get Them On The Traeger
Once the fish has brined for 1 hour, remove each fish from the brine and pat dry with a paper towel. Get both sides as dry as possible before you put them onto the grill.
Preparing Traeger Smoked Trout Is EASY!
Fill your pellet hopper with fresh pellets (we used mesquite). Start your Traeger by turning it on and waiting 4-5 minutes (with the lid open) until it is smoking, and a fire has been fully established. Turn the temperature gauge to 225°F., and let the grill preheat (with the lid closed). This might take anywhere from 10-15 minutes.
Once pre-heated, quickly brush vegetable oil over the grill grates with a pastry brush. This helps to help prevent the fish skin from sticking to the grill. Place the patted dry trout directly onto the oiled grill grate, with the skin side down. Close the lid on the grill.
Smoke the trout for 1½ – 2 hours until the fish starts to flake and the fish turns slightly opaque in color. You don’t even need to mess with them once they are on the grill. NOTE: Cooking times can vary a bit, due to ambient temps of each smoker, and the thickness of the trout. The length of time will obviously depend on the thickness of the trout you are using. Ours were done in 1½ hours! See how beautiful they looked? Oooh…
Time To EAT Some Traeger Grill Smoked Trout!
Remove the trout from the Traeger once they are fully cooked, and transfer them to a baking sheet and bring them indoors! They smell really good about this time. De-bone each fish, and then serve this tasty Traeger grill smoked trout. You can serve this smoked fish hot or cold, however you prefer it. It has GREAT flavor!
Thanks for reading. I sure do sincerely hope you enjoy this recipe for Traeger grill smoked trout. My husband is already asking for me to make it again… ha ha! Lucky for us, our sweet neighbor just gave us even MORE frozen trout this week. Yippee!
Looking For More TRAEGER Recipes?
You can find all of my recipes in the Recipe Index, located at the top of the page. A few of my Traeger recipes you might enjoy checking out include:
- Traeger Roasted Chicken
- Grilled Chocolate Lava Cake (Traeger)
- BBQ Baby Back Ribs (Traeger)
- Traeger Roasted Turkey Breast
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Recipe adapted from: https://www.traegergrills.com/recipes/seafood/smoked-trout
↓↓ PRINTABLE RECIPE BELOW ↓↓
Traeger Grill Smoked Trout is a great recipe for cooking smoked, fresh trout! Butterflied trout are soaked in a brine before smoking, for peak flavor!
- 4 medium trout (approx. 8 ounces per fish) , cleaned and head removed
- ½ gallon water
- ⅛ cup salt
- ¼ cup brown sugar (light or dark)
- ½ Tablespoon black pepper
- 1 Tablespoon soy sauce
To make brine: Place water, salt, brown sugar, black pepper and soy sauce in a LARGE covered container. Whisk ingredients together until sugar has dissolved.
Remove fish head. Clean and gut each trout. Butterfly cut each trout almost all the way to the tail, and then spread it out. Do not slice all the way through the bottom skin. You want the trout to be able to lie flat when smoking. Place the butterflied trout into the brine; make sure each fish is covered. You might need to weigh the fish down with a heavy plate, to keep them under the brine. Cover container, and let fish brine in liquid for 60 minutes in refrigerator. Once fish has brined for 1 hour, remove fish from brine and pat dry with a paper towel. Get fish as dry as possible before you put them onto the grill.
Start Traeger by turning it on and waiting 4-5 minutes (with lid open) until it is smoking, and a fire has been established. Turn temperature gauge to 225°F., and let grill preheat (with lid closed). This might take anywhere from 10-15 minutes. Once pre-heated, quickly brush vegetable oil over the grill grates with a pastry brush. This helps to help prevent the fish skin from sticking to the grill. Place trout directly onto oiled grill grate, skin side down. Close the lid. Smoke trout for 1½ - 2 hours until the fish starts to flake and turns slightly opaque in color. You don't need to mess with them once they are on the grill. Remove trout once they are fully cooked; transfer to a baking sheet. De-bone each fish, and then serve. You can serve the trout hot or cold, however you prefer it.
NOTE: Cooking times can vary a bit, due to the ambient temps of each smoker, and thickness of the trout.
Here’s one more to pin on your Pinterest boards!
