Move over, pulled pork. It’s time for this spicy BBQ pulled chicken to get its shine. Smoked and shredded with jammy red onions and grilled inside tortillas with pepper jack cheese, these smoked chicken quesadillas will make you forget all about the other white meat.
How to Make Chicken Quesadillas on a Pellet Grill (Step-By-Step Photos)
The recipe starts by smoking spicy BBQ seasoned chicken thighs over red onions at 225ºF for about an hour. Then the heat is cranked up to 350ºF, BBQ sauce is added, and the chicken is covered for another hour or so to finish in the BBQ braise. This creates fall apart chicken and jammy onions to go inside grilled flour tortillas with your favorite melty cheese.
Want to go a non-BBQ flavor direction? How about hot honey or classic Tex-Mex (taco seasoning + enchilada sauce)?
Once the chicken is shredded, it’s left on the smoker for 10-15 minutes at 350ºF to thicken the sauce and get some extra caramelization around the edges. That’s just enough time to get the tortillas and cheese ready before assembling the quesadillas.
While you can make the quesadillas on a griddle or in a pan, I recommend tossing the tortillas straight on the grill grates. You may need to utilize the top rack to make room for all 12 tortillas at once.
The quesadillas will gradually turn a golden brown color as they crisp and bubble almost like puffy baked tacos. And at that point, the quesadillas are ready to be pulled off the smoker and served.
Pro tip: Unless you pop the tortillas on a sheet pan like I did for my shredded beef tacos, you will have some melted cheese drip between the grill grates. Pop some foil underneath for easy cleanup.
Tips for Serving
Serve ’em whole or slice into triangles, the choice is yours and yours alone. I think ranch, sour cream, or something like this BBQ ranch are great dip selections. For something with an extra kick to it, I can never get enough salsa macha.
As far as sides go, you’re not going to have much room left on the grill with all 12 quesadillas going. So I would go with sides you can make indoors instead of something like smoked beans.
Think potato salad, green salads, corn salad, or pretty much any type of salad. But let’s not forget about the child inside all of us that would be fine with some potato wedges, fries, smashed potatoes, or chips of some kind.
Let me know what you come up with for serving in the comments. You can ask any questions you have about the recipe there as well. Otherwise, you can print or save the full recipe card below and fire up the smoker. Until next time.
Traeger Smoked Chicken Quesadillas
Pellet smoked and shredded spicy BBQ chicken with pepper jack cheese inside grilled flour tortillas.
Ingredients
- 1 large Red Onion, quartered and thinly sliced
- 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
- 2 1/2 pounds Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs
- 1 Tablespoon Yellow Mustard
- 1 Tablespoon Chipotle Chili Powder
- 2 teaspoons Kosher Salt
- 1 teaspoon Garlic Powder
- 1 teaspoon Black Pepper
- 1 teaspoon Ground Cumin
- 1 1/2 cups BBQ Sauce
- 12 Flour Tortillas
- 1 pound Shredded Pepper Jack Cheese
Instructions
- Preheat your pellet smoker to 225ºF, using the Super Smoke setting or a similar feature if your smoker has one.
- Toss the sliced onion with 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet. Set aside.
- Rub the mustard over the chicken thighs before seasoning with the chili powder, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and ground cumin. Once the chicken is evenly coated in the rub, place the chicken thighs on top of the red onion in the skillet.
- Place the skillet on the smoker and cook for 1 hour.
- After 1 hour on the grill, pour the 1 1/2 cups of BBQ sauce over the smoked chicken in the skillet and tightly cover with foil.
- Increase the temperature of your smoker to 350ºF and cook for 60-75 minutes until the chicken easily shreds with forks.
- Shred the chicken and cook for 10-15 minutes uncovered while you grate the cheese and prepare the tortillas.
Assembling the Quesadillas
- Place the tortillas directly on the grill grates and top each with 1 1/3 oz of cheese. Close the lid for a few minutes to melt the cheese before adding the shredded chicken to one side of each tortilla. Use tongs and a spatula to gently fold the other side over to seal.
- Close the lid and cook for 10-15 minutes longer until the tortillas start to turn a crispy golden brown.
- Serve with sour cream, BBQ ranch, or your choice of dip.
Notes
You can swap the seasoning for your favorite BBQ rub or any flavor and use a different sauce or braising liquid (tinga, birria, buffalo, etc.) to change up the style of chicken.
To minimize cleanup, you can put a foil liner or piece of foil underneath the grill grates when finishing the quesadillas on the smoker. You will inevitably have some cheese melting run off.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1 quesadillaAmount Per Serving: Calories: 535Total Fat: 24gCarbohydrates: 44gFiber: 2gProtein: 37g