Hosting Your First Backyard Cookout of the Season? A Traeger Pitmaster's Memorial Day Menu for Southern Tier Grillers

Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial start of summer, the long-awaited moment when the grill cover comes off and the backyard becomes the busiest room in the house. If you’re hosting this year — or you just want to feed your own family something memorable — your Traeger can do heavy lifting that a propane grill simply can’t touch.

The trick is planning a menu that lets you cook smart, not hard. Nothing kills a holiday weekend faster than being chained to the grill while everyone else is in the lawn chairs. This post walks through a realistic Memorial Day menu built around the Traeger’s strengths — real wood-fired flavor, set-it-and-forget-it temperature control, and the kind of results that turn casual dinners into traditions.

Start the Night Before: Low-and-Slow Smoked Brisket

If you’re going to be a hero on Memorial Day, brisket is how you do it. The good news is that the Traeger does almost all the work while you sleep, and the results are what real Texas pitmasters have been making for generations — just without having to tend a fire all night.

A 10 to 12 pound packer brisket, seasoned generously with kosher salt and coarse black pepper (the classic “Dalmatian rub”), goes on the grill at 225°F around 9 or 10 PM the night before. The Traeger’s Super Smoke mode cranks up the smoke output at low temperatures, so you get that deep bark and penetrating wood flavor that defines a real brisket. Set the meat probe to 203°F, go to bed, and the grill holds temperature within a few degrees all night.

By morning, you’ll have a brisket that needs an hour or two of rest wrapped in butcher paper before slicing. Want more detail on dialing in smoke profiles and temperature management? Our beginner’s guide to cooking on a Traeger covers the fundamentals.

Mid-Morning: Smoked Wings for the Early Crowd

People show up early on holidays. It’s a law of nature. Smoked wings are the answer — they’re cheap, they’re crowd-pleasing, and they cook fast enough that you can pop them on the grill when the first guests arrive.

Toss 4 to 5 pounds of wings with a good poultry rub (or a simple blend of salt, pepper, garlic powder, and smoked paprika) and smoke at 250°F for about 90 minutes. Then crank the Traeger up to 425°F for the last 10 to 15 minutes to crisp the skin. That high-heat finish is something a lot of pellet grills struggle with, but the Timberline’s TRU Convection system handles the temperature swing without drama.

Serve them with a couple of sauces on the side — a classic buffalo, a sweet and smoky BBQ, and maybe a honey-garlic for the kids — and you’ve bought yourself another two hours of prep time while guests graze.

The Main Event: A Second Protein for Variety

Not everyone is a brisket person. For a crowd, having a second main protein keeps everyone happy and gives people who don’t do beef (or who don’t do smoke-heavy flavors) a great alternative.

Our go-to pairing is a pair of pork tenderloins or a spatchcocked whole chicken. Both cook in about 90 minutes at 375°F, develop beautiful bark, and slice up for easy serving. Here’s how we’d time it:

• Pull the brisket off to rest around 11:30 AM
• Bump the grill to 375°F and put on the chicken or tenderloins
• Pull the wings up to the top grate to stay warm, adding cherry or apple wood pellets for a slightly sweeter finish
• Everything comes off around 1 PM for a 1:30 serving time

The Timberline’s three-tier grate system is what makes this kind of multi-protein cooking possible without a traffic jam. You’re not shuffling pieces around or holding stuff in foil — everything has a spot. If you haven’t seen the Timberline in person, our post on why the Timberline is the ultimate backyard investment walks through the engineering.

Don’t Forget the Sides — Yes, On the Grill

A Traeger is not just a protein machine. Some of the best dishes you’ll serve all summer come off the grill as sides, and they take almost no active work while the meat is resting.

Easy wins include:

• Smoked mac and cheese in a cast iron pan at 225°F for the last 45 minutes of the brisket cook
• Grilled corn on the cob, husks on, tossed on the top grate during the wing cook
• Smoked baked beans — open the can, doctor them up, let them sit on the grill and pick up smoke all morning
• Grilled peaches or pineapple for dessert, brushed with a little butter and brown sugar

This is the secret that separates backyard cooks from pitmasters — treating the Traeger as an outdoor oven and not just a grill.

A Few Pro Tips for the Big Day

A couple of things will make your Memorial Day cook dramatically smoother:

• Check your pellet supply the night before. A 20-pound bag of hardwood pellets covers most of an all-day cook, but having a spare bag on hand saves a panicked store run
• Use the Traeger app. The WiFIRE system lets you monitor temperature from your phone, so you can chat with guests without running to the grill every 10 minutes
• Preheat fully. Don’t rush it — give the grill 15 minutes to come up to temperature and stabilize before putting food on
• Let meat rest. Brisket needs at least an hour wrapped; chicken and pork need 10 to 15 minutes. Skipping the rest is the single biggest mistake new smokers make

If you’re still shopping for the right Traeger, our guide to getting the most out of your Traeger covers the model lineup and what each one does best.

More Than Just a Cookout — It’s the Season Starter

Memorial Day in the Southern Tier has a way of setting the tone for the whole summer. A great cookout brings the family together, breaks in the backyard, and reminds everyone why you put up with six months of snow. A Traeger makes that first cookout something people actually remember — and gives you an excuse to keep the tradition going every weekend through Labor Day.

Stop by our Traeger grill showroom to see the current lineup, pick up pellets, rubs, and accessories, and talk with someone who actually cooks on these grills. We carry the full Timberline series and can help you figure out the right size for your household and entertaining style.

Questions? Call (607) 748-6435 or get in touch through our contact page. We’ve been a part of backyard cookouts across the Southern Tier since 1963, and we’d love to help you pull off a great one this Memorial Day.