Smoked Pistachios

One of my favorite snack type appetizers besides smoked Cajun crackers is smoked pistachios. I smoke a pound at a time in my pampered chef wire basket. You need a basket type to get good smoke in them. I started out just eyeballing olive oil poured over and then adding the seasoning, stirring well to coat and then smoking for an hour & a half.

You can use butter but the olive oil works for me & it’s better for you. I have made them with just garlic powder or just Cajun seasoning. I like to use McCormicks coarse ground Calif. Style garlic powder; it has some parsley in it. About any of your favorite seasoning would work.

The ones pictured here I used 2 Tbs. olive oil, 1 Tbs. garlic powder, 1 tsp. Penzey’s BBQ 3000 seasoning and smoked them for 2 hours. The oil & seasoning to me was just about right for a pound of pistachios. Smoke temp should be 170 to 175 deg.

I like the longer smoke time. I store them in a Ziploc bag & when you open it the smoke smell jumps out! I like to pop them in my mouth to get some of the seasoning then crack & eat. Give these a try, they are addictive!

In the smoker

A close up

Smokin Don