Easy Recipes Using Pulled Smoked Chicken

Looking for creative ways to use leftover pulled smoked chicken? These easy recipes are perfect for quick meals, from tacos and sandwiches to soups and salads. Whether you’re cooking for a crowd or meal-prepping for the week, these dishes are simple, delicious, and packed with smoky flavor.

Whenever we fire up the Kamado Joe for chicken, I almost always want leftovers.

Why smoke just enough chicken for one dinner when the Kamado is already hot?

Leftover smoked chicken is basically meal prep with better flavor. Pull the meat from the bones, stash it in the refrigerator, and you’ve already done the hardest part of tomorrow night’s dinner.

And that little bit of smoke can make recipes that normally call for plain cooked or rotisserie chicken even better.

Start with our Kamado Joe Smoked Chicken, then turn the leftovers into one of these easy meals!

1. Smoked BBQ Chicken Mac and Cheese

This one isn’t theoretical — we already make it.

Smoky chicken, BBQ sauce and creamy mac and cheese were pretty much destined for each other. If your leftover chicken isn’t heavily sauced, this is one of my favorite ways to use it because you can control exactly how much BBQ flavor goes into the finished dish.

Get the Smoked BBQ Chicken Mac and Cheese Recipe →

2. Smoked Chicken Salad

Use leftover smoked chicken anywhere you’d normally reach for rotisserie chicken.

Chop it and mix it with mayo, celery, seasonings and whatever else you like in chicken salad. The smoke gives basic chicken salad a ridiculous amount of flavor without doing anything extra.

Get the Rotisserie Chicken Salad Recipe →

3. Smoked Chicken Tetrazzini

Creamy sauce, pasta, mushrooms and cheese are pretty forgiving when it comes to what kind of cooked chicken you use.

Substitute chopped smoked chicken in our Chicken Tetrazzini and you’ve got an entirely different dinner without cooking another piece of meat.

Get the Easy Chicken Tetrazzini Recipe →

4. Smoked Chicken Pot Pie

This might be one of the best destinations for leftover smoked chicken.

Creamy filling, vegetables, flaky crust and little bits of smoky chicken? Yes.

Get the Chicken Pot Pie for Two Recipe →

5. Alabama White Sauce Smoked Chicken Sliders

This one almost writes itself.

Warm up shredded smoked chicken, pile it onto slider buns and add Alabama white sauce. A little slaw or pickles on top and dinner is done.

Get the Alabama White Sauce Chicken Sliders Recipe →

6. Smoked Chicken and Dumplings

Instead of starting with raw chicken, use leftover smoked chicken and add it toward the end. You’ll still get all that creamy Southern chicken-and-dumpling goodness, but now there’s a subtle smoky flavor running through it.

We’ve actually got two ways to make this one:

7. Smoked Chicken and Broccoli Casserole

Rice + broccoli + creamy casserole + smoky chicken = weeknight dinner without starting from scratch.

Just substitute your leftover smoked chicken in our casserole.

Get the Brown Rice Broccoli Casserole with Chicken Recipe →

8. Smoked Chicken Couscous

This is exactly what leftover recipes should be: throw cooked chicken into something easy and call dinner handled.

Our lemony pearl couscous with peas and Parmesan already works with cooked chicken, so leftover smoked chicken is perfect here.

Get the Couscous with Peas and Chicken Recipe →

9. Smoked Chicken Fried Rice

Cold rice and leftover smoked chicken are a pretty great refrigerator clean-out combination.

Get the rice crispy, add vegetables, egg and seasonings, then toss the chopped smoked chicken in toward the end so you’re only reheating it.

10. Smoked Chicken Quesadillas

Chicken + cheese + tortilla.

We’re not overthinking this.

Add peppers, onions, jalapeños, corn or whatever needs using up. Cook until the tortilla is crispy and the cheese is melted.

11. Smoked Chicken Nachos

Spread tortilla chips over a sheet pan or cast-iron skillet, add shredded smoked chicken, beans, jalapeños and plenty of cheese.

Bake them inside — or put that cast-iron skillet right back on the Kamado Joe — until everything is hot and melty.

12. Smoked Chicken Pizza

BBQ chicken pizza is the obvious choice, but leftover smoked chicken also works with Alfredo sauce, bacon, onions, mushrooms or traditional red sauce.

This is also a good excuse to use up leftover homemade pizza dough.

13. Smoked Chicken Philly Sandwiches

Instead of cooking fresh chicken, warm sliced or chopped smoked chicken with peppers and onions, pile it onto the bread and melt cheese over everything.

Use our Chicken Philly as the starting point.

Get the Chicken Philly Sandwich Recipe →

14. Smoked Chicken Gyro Salad

We’ve already built a leftover chicken recipe around this idea.

Swap smoked chicken for the gyro chicken, then load it onto romaine and spinach with cucumber, tomato, peppers, red onion and tzatziki.

Get the Leftover Chicken Gyro Salad Recipe →

15. Creamy Smoked Chicken Pasta

A creamy pasta sauce is one of the easiest places to hide — I mean use — a refrigerator full of leftover chicken.

Garlic Parmesan, cream cheese, Alfredo or a simple Parmesan cream sauce all work especially well with smoky chicken.

Try it with one of these:

16. Smoked Chicken Soup

Don’t forget the bones!

After pulling the meat from a whole smoked chicken, use the carcass for stock. Then put some of that chicken back into the finished soup.

You’ve already got a couple of recipes that are easy to adapt:

17. Smoked Chicken Southwest Rice Bowls

Rice, smoked chicken, black beans, corn, peppers, cheese, salsa and sour cream.

Set everything out and let everybody build their own, or use our Southwest Chicken Skillet as your starting point and simply substitute your already-cooked smoked chicken.

Get the Southwest Chicken Skillet Over Rice Recipe →

18. Smoked Chicken Avocado Wraps

Cold or reheated smoked chicken is perfect for a quick wrap.

We’ve already got the framework with our Grilled Avocado Chicken Wrap, so this is an easy leftover swap.

Get the Grilled Avocado Chicken Wrap Recipe →

19. Smoked Chicken Enchiladas

Shred the chicken, mix it with cheese and a little enchilada sauce, roll it into tortillas, cover with more sauce and cheese and bake.

This is especially good when you’ve only got a couple cups of chicken left because the rest of the ingredients stretch it into a full meal.

20. Smoked Chicken Loaded Baked Potatoes

Bake some big russets and load them with butter, smoked chicken, cheddar, sour cream and green onions.

Add BBQ sauce if that’s the direction your smoked chicken is going.

Simple. Cheap. Very hard to screw up.

Smoke Once, Eat More Than Once

This is one of my favorite reasons to cook a whole chicken — or two — on the Kamado Joe.

We’re already lighting charcoal, getting the temperature settled and spending a few hours smoking dinner. Throwing on an extra chicken doesn’t add much work, but it can knock out several meals.

Start with our Kamado Joe Smoked Chicken, eat it fresh the first night, then pull whatever is left from the bones.

Tomorrow’s dinner is already halfway done.

And if there happens to be enough left for Smoked BBQ Chicken Mac and Cheese, I know where mine is going.