Traeger Smoked Chicken Enchilada Casserole

One of my favorite things about cooking on a Traeger grill or pellet smoker is just how easy it is, and this smoked chicken enchilada casserole is the epitome of ease. Boneless skinless chicken thighs are slow smoked then braised in enchilada sauce until they’re perfectly shreddable. Then black beans, corn, cheese, and chopped tortillas are just tossed together in the same dish, topped with cheese, and baked on the grill to finish.

All the components of a great chicken enchilada dinner without the hassle of rolling, making sides, or anything like that. Just garnish with your favorite toppings and serve!

Ingredients

I kept it simple for the chicken rub and used a hot sauce binder followed by taco seasoning. If you have a favorite Mexican or Tex-Mex chicken seasoning, feel free to use it here. I’ve used Meat Church’s Dia de la Fajita seasoning to make smoked chicken tacos and would recommend it here as well.

Chicken aside, the only other things you’ll need are enchilada sauce, beans, corn, cheese, and corn tortillas. I used a jar of Siete red enchilada sauce, but any enchilada sauce works. You can even make your own.

Flour tortillas tend to get soggy in enchilada casserole, in my experience, so stick with corn tortillas. (Save the corn for smoked firecracker chicken tacos.) We just moved from Texas to Washington, and I’ve not quite found my tortilla hook up. So don’t judge my extra thin tortillas pictured above too harshly.

With a simple recipe like this, a quality cheese makes a big difference. Buy yourself a nice block of colby jack or good cheese for melting and grate it yourself for best results.

The only other ingredient modification I’ll mention is that you can totally add veggies to the mix. You could throw some sliced onions or peppers on the grill alongside the chicken to smoke before adding to the casserole. Or for an even easier option, the whole seedless sweet peppers I used for my smoked chili. Just smoke the mini peppers whole then roughly chop and add alongside the beans and corn.

Making Smoked Pulled Chicken

I recently ran the gauntlet of trying every recommended method for making pulled chicken on the smoker. I tried hot and fast, low and slow, and a few different combinations of both.

The method I found to work the best was starting the chicken at 225ºF for 60-90 minutes, depending on the amount of chicken, to pick up some smoke and a bit of color. If you have a Traeger with the Super Smoke function, that’s an added bonus.

After that, adding the chicken to a dish with some type of sauce, covering, increasing the grill temperature to 350ºF, and cooking for another 60-90 minutes makes the chicken melt like butter. It will shred by just poking it with tongs, but I like to take a couple forks to it for a bit more precision.

By the way, if you’re looking for more sauce inspirations, I’ve made smoked chicken sandwiches with a hot honey sauce and BBQ chicken sliders using this smoke and sauce method.

Assembling and Baking the Casserole

I typically like to just chop tortillas and toss everything together, but you can totally layer your casserole if you prefer. To go that route, I’d shred the chicken in a bowl with some of the sauce before adding the corn, beans, and some of the cheese. Then add 4-5 tortillas on the bottom, followed by filling, more tortillas, filling, and top everything off with cheese. You could go with as many layers as you like.

If you go the layering route, you may find that you want a bit more enchilada sauce since the smoked pulled chicken will soak up a decent amount of the sauce in the pan. Just keep that in mind in the grocery store and don’t get caught without the sauce.

Once the cheese goes on top, 20-30 minutes on the grill should do the trick. Leave the dish uncovered to pick up a bit more smoky flavors and allow the tortillas to crisp around the exposed edges.

Serving

Casseroles ain’t very pretty, but you can zhuzh things up with a bit of guacamole, pico, sour cream or Mexican crema, and cotija cheese. And if you ask me, a meal is hardly complete without some crunch. A few tortilla chips on the side are the perfect way to add some.

I typically try to recommend other smoked sides and pairings you can make alongside the main dish, but that’s not very applicable here since this enchilada casserole has the full meal all in one. Instead, I’ll leave you with a few more Tex-Mex recipes you can make on the grill next time.

• Smoked Shredded Beef Tacos
• Drunken Beans
• Smoked Guacamole Salsa
• Our Best Traeger Queso

And that should be everything you need to know for this one. Leave any questions you have about the recipe in the comments below. Otherwise, feel free to save or print the recipe card below and get cookin’. See you next time!