Learn How to Smoke Nuts - Easy Recipe (2024)

Learning how to smoke nuts is one of the easiest things to do on the grill. The options for the spices, seasonings, and butter or oil are virtually limitless. I really enjoy giving these out as gifts!

🍽️ Why This Works

Perfect for Gifts – I make large batches around the holidays and package them up for friends and family as gifts.

Customizable – While I chose a store-bought seasoning blend for this recipe, it is easy to make your own and use it. I’ll provide some options below.

Great Snack – Grabbing a handful of nuts is a good, healthy option for when you get hungry. Mix it up by making these smoked nuts!

🥜 Ingredients

📝 Ingredient Notes

Nuts – Grab a bag of unsalted mixed nuts to start. I use the Costco version as it is relatively inexpensive and you get a large container. The seasoning typically adds some salt, so start with an unsalted nut mix, otherwise it can become too much.

Seasoning – I used some Dizzy Dust by Dizzy Pig. It is delicious and adds some amazing flavors. Alternatively, make your own. Here are recipes for an all purpose rub, homemade coffee rub, beef rib rub, and a pulled pork rub. If you have some leftover rub from another recipe, this is a great opportunity to use it.

Butter – A bit of butter will melt in the pan and will add a very light coating on the nuts. This also makes it easier for the dry rub to adhere. It adds a wonderful, buttery flavor that is scrumptious! You won’t need much!

Disposable Aluminum Pan – It is much cheaper to buy these in bulk. You’ll use them for a lot of grilling and smoking recipes, so save a couple of bucks and get a pack.

Ziploc Bags – It is much easier to add the seasoning and melted butter to a large Ziploc bag and then mix it up to get a nice even coating.

Wood Chunks – You’ll need some wood. I used Hickory for this recipe as it was a bit more robust. If you have any questions on what would will pair with what recipe, check out our free wood pairing printable reference guide.

🔥 Instructions

Step One: Prepare the grill. This is a smoking recipe, and you’ll want to set up the grill for indirect heating.

• For a kamado-style grill, like the Big Green Egg, add the plate setter to divert the heat.
• For a gas grill, turn off the center burners so the heat source is not directly under the pan.
• For a charcoal grill, move all the charcoal to the opposite side, away from the pan

Step Two: Heat the grill to 250°F.

Step Three:

🧑‍🍳 Prepare the Grill

I set up the Big Green Egg for a Hot Smoking. I added the plate setter (feet side up) and try to get the temperature stabilized at 250 degrees.Some hickory wood that I wanted to use for the smoke was soaked and added to the coals.

It’s just a pet peeve of mine, but adding chunks of wood to the BGE with the plate setter in place can be a pain!I used the ash tool to carefully lift the edge of the plate setter and the grate to provide enough room to stick another few chunks of wood in after the first ones burned away.

It would have been easier to use the hickory wood chips, but I feel like these can burn away way too quickly.

🥜 Recipe Preparation

I included two recipes below. The first was a Dizzy Dust flavoring from Dizzy Pigin Manassas, Virginia.The second was a sweet and salty mix.

Some moisture is required for the flavoring to stick to the nuts.For the Dizzy Dust nuts, I soaked the nuts and seeds in water for about 10 minutes. For the sweet and salty mix, the butter and vanilla extract provided the moisture.

Mix the ingredients together and carefully pour them into a plastic Ziploc bag. Add half a pound of the nut mixture to the bag and shake it to evenly coat the nuts.

Now for the fun part!

Use a disposable pan and poke holes in the bottom to allow the smoke to penetrate.I used an old pair of scissors and poked several holes in the pan. It was easy to do, but did make a lot of noise.

Just make sure you tell your spouse what you are doing before she questions your sanity! Trust me!

Now for the fun part! Use a disposable pan and poke holes in the bottom to allow the smoke to penetrate. I used an old pair of scissors and poked several holes in the pan. It was easy to do, but did make a lot of noise.

🔥 Smoking Instructions

Open the Ziploc bag and pour the nuts into the disposable pan. I found that about ½ pound of nuts was enough to have good coverage in the pan, but not too much for the smoke to easily flavor them. You also don’t want too many, as it will make it difficult to stir them around.

Close the lid of the BGE and monitor the temperature and the smoke. I left these on the grill for two hours, stirring once and adding a few extra wood chips.

⏲️ Smoking Time

You want the nuts to take on a nice toasty brown coloring. Depending on the temperature of the grill, it will take anywhere from 90 minutes to three hours.

When you remove them from the grill, let them rest for a couple of hours before eating.When they are fresh off the grill, they will still be a bit soft. Letting them rest gives them the opportunity to harden up.Soggy nuts just aren’t fun!

Which recipe did you like better? Do you have your own recipe that is your family favorite?

Ginny mentioned afterwards that these will be great to add to the Christmas baskets she makes for my job as a lot of my younger staff don’t reach for the cookies and sweets as much (I certainly don’t have that problem). Small bags made up will be perfect for those health conscious folks.