Cast iron griddle in a pellet grill

[Whiskeyman53]

I received a 24" reversible Camp Chef cast iron griddle as a gift and now have a couple of questions. Can I use the griddle in my pellet grill with the same outcome as if it was used on an outdoor burner? If it is fine to do so will the heat diffuser and drip tray need to be removed for each use? Any replies would be much appreciated.

[DavidNorcross]

I am not sure. I would question the ability to distribute heat to the griddle surface and then ultimately the griddle just would not get hot enough. Owned a number of griddles and while they are different they all have heat very close to the surface and it is evenly distributed. My guess is that would not give you the results you are looking for. I would be anxious to hear what others have to say.

[Uncle Bob]

I'm with DavidNorcross . Cast iron is slow to heat up in "mid air" as would be on the pellet grate. Their admired advantage is they retain heat well, but you have to get there first. You might gain some benefit from removing the pan and deflector, but probably only slight. Cold rolled steel would probably work better because it's fast where ci is slow (advantages and disadvantages), but that isn't what you were gifted. I have that same CC griddle, but run it over a 30k btu gas flame. The griddle is a good one, just depends on the environment. Griddles work well in the 350-450 degree surface temp range, depending on your experience as to where on that range you operate.

I've got a griddle on my pellet cooker, but it's configured better for what a pellet cooker does. It's a Griddle Hack, cold rolled steel, with a funnel down to the fire box to collect/concentrate the heat to the cooking surface. I set the controller to 350 and most of the griddle surface runs just over 400. Works nicely. All those surface temps I shoot with an IR gun/thermometer, a useful tool if you don't already have one.

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

I've used cast iron pans in my MAK multiple times, and they work great. Just use your grill in whatever the normal grilling configuration is. What I was doing is having the cast iron pieces in the grill while I was smoking something else or when doing a reverse sear, then they were already warm so not as long a wait to get to a searing temp.

It might not work how you are wanting, but DO NOT remove the drip tray or diffusers (unless that's what grill mode is for your unit), those are the items that provide safety and even out the heat.

If this is something you regularly want to do, it's probably better that you invest in a gas griddle because you will be burning through a ton of pellets.

[Bighorn Dave]

No reason why it wouldn't work. Then you get an added bonus of the smoke.

[jerrybell]

You are not going to see the same performance in a pellet cooker that you'd get placing this griddle on an outdoor burner. Pellet cookers, by design, provide indirect heat for cooking so you would definitely need to remove the heat deflector and drip pan to get some direct heat on the griddle. Even then, you have a burn pot that is about 4 inches in diameter sitting about 6 inches below your griddle. At similar BTU (30k to 40k per hour), the outdoor burner flame positioned just a couple inches below your griddle is going the heat faster and maintain the heat better as you start to add cold food.

[Mr. Bones]

s others above have mentioned, it is my guess (an solely that) that yer CI Griddle might have a slow, difficult time reachin desired griddle temps, if, indeed it was able to do so....

I do not know this fer a fact, as I have no comparative cooker, ;pon which to cite experience...

That bein said, It'd most likely benefit myself, an many others, were ya to be th one to Blaze This Trail, an report yer findins / results / lack thereof, back to Th Hive...

Best of Luck in yer Pellet Griddle Endeavours!!!