Traegerized Chili Egg Bake

I have a 3000 square foot house with ONE 24-inch oven. Who designs a house that large with a 24-inch oven? Well someone in 1963 did. Ugh.

The night before Easter I prepared all of my dishes. I am the kind of entertainer who gets everything ready in advance so I can relax for the actual event. On our menu for Easter Brunch was Creme Brule French toast,  a Chili Egg Bake, fruit and bacon. I Traegered the bacon the day before and got the rest of the dishes ready that night.
Easter morning I turned on the oven and began to put the dishes in and realized there was no way all four casserole dishes were going to fit in the oven. What was I going to do?
My Traeger. Would it work? Maybe. I took the chance.

Here is the finished product. It came out perfect. In fact, the egg bake I put in my oven had to be left in the oven longer because it just wasn't baking fast enough.
I was concerned that the eggs may be a bit too smokey for some of my guests, but everyone agreed it was good. It must have been because the egg bake I put in the oven was almost untouched (thus my lunch for the next three days).
I usually put only a few of my dishes onto the Traeger because I worry about the possibility of smoke damage, but my Emile Henry did just fine.

Here is the recipe so you can try it yourself.


Good luck.

Green Chili Bake
Heat oven or Traeger to 350
12 eggs (beat)
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Stir in:
4 cups grated cheese (I used cheddar, but you can use one of preference)
3 cups cottage cheese
2 4 ounce cans chopped green chiles
Place in greased 9x13 baking dish for 35-40 minutes. Let sit for 10 minutes before serving.

I was given this recipe by a co-worker, Mrs. Bailey

BBQ Dedication

I am a big fan of  pulled pork. I admit it was one f of those things I am kind of known for. Yep, mine is that good. Good pulled pork takes dedication. It isn't hard, but it takes time. The great thing about a Traeger is you can't really ruin anything. My Traeger makes me the chef I am.

I used some pork roasts this time around. These were rubbed and sat in the fridge until the magic hour. I used a throwaway pan because later I would use the same one to pull the pork in and serve it. When I enterain the easier the better.

This was the magic hour. This is a.m. As in the middle of the night.

Smoking in the middle of the night. I had a picture of my trusty Traeger at 3:00 in the morning, but since it was so dark it didn't turn out well.

Here it is shredded.

We doctored this up with Sweet Baby Rae's BBQ sauce. It is our favorite. My husband's aunt was here from Arizona. We had a big dinner of pulled pork, beans, coleslaw (I am good at this one too), corn and more. The good news is we had plenty left over for BBQ pork pizza later in the week (of course it was also cooked on my Traeger). Darn now I am hungry.

Traegerized Bacon

I had several questions and comments about bacon and my Traeger. I am not lying when I say this is the best bacon ever. If you really want to go big buy butcher bacon, you know the thick kind that has the perfect amount of fat? Opps, had to wipe off my keyboard from the drool. I don't get to the butcher as often as I like (and I can't afford to buy from there all the time) and cheap pre packaged bacon comes out awesome as well. Let's just say you can't go wrong with bacon. Traegers have a way of making even the cheapest mean good.

Butcher Bacon

 Cheap Bacon

*Google images for the pictures.

Now I firmly believe a Traeger is way safer than any other grill/smoker etc., because it does not have a direct flame. When I used gas I cringed every time I hit the ignite button because I was scared something would happen. It doesn't help that my brother is a fire fighter and tells me all kinds of stories about BBQ fires. Guess what he uses to grill? Yep. A Traeger. In fact, his station buys a pallet of pellets every summer to split up amongst themselves because most of them own Traegers. The station even has one. I am pretty sure they are the outdoor cooking implement of choice when it comes to this group.
Anyway, you can put bacon directly on the grate of your Traeger. This is how I used to do it. The only problem with it is sometimes if falls through to the cover dealy thing below. If you ask me that is a waste of bacon. HOWEVER, I am no longer a fan of this because I have had a fire on my Traeger. I'm not going to lie it was scary.
I knew I needed to clean my Traeger. The fire box was most likely full of ashes, the grill grate had a lot of build up on it and the chimney was pretty gunky too. I figured bacon can make a mess so I would do the bacon THEN clean it really well. It was a hotter than Hades that day at 104 degrees and while I can't prove it I think this played a part in the fire.
I placed the bacon directly on the grate. This was cheap bacon and full of fat. The smoker was on high and the temp was around 475. The next thing I knew I had fire coming out my smoke stack. Because my grill was covered in gunk it quickly caught fire as well. Luckily I had a ton of baking soda on hand and I was able to put it out quickly. My Traeger was cleaned thoroughly and is no worse for the wear. It was scary and I don't want it to happen again which is why I now put my bacon on a cookie sheet covered in tin foil. This is pretty simple to clean in that you simply wait for the grease to harden and throw away the tin foil. I admit I liked it better when the grease ran into my bucket...now that was easy!

The bottom line is you can grill bacon directly on your Traeger. I would make sure your grill is clean and that you don't walk away from it. As with any outdoor cooking always be prepared with a fire extinguisher, baking soda, etc. Just ask the firemen they will tell you the same.

Steps to Perfect Traeger Bacon

1. Fire up your grill to high. A good temp is 350 or more.
2. Place your bacon on the grill or on a tin foil lined cookie sheet.
3. Shut the lid and wait for 15 minutes. Check progress after ten minutes. It is important to note opening and closing your lid messes up your temperature so you want to avoid doing it as much as possible.
4. Pull your bacon when it is to your liking.You know how some people love wiggly bacon? Some like it crispy?  I can't give you exact times because conditions vary with weather as well as thickness of bacon, etc.

Once your bacon is finished serve it up. Here is a list of what I do with my bacon.

BLTs     Crumbled up for salads     Put it in baggies and pull out for breakfast sandwiches     Just eat it    
Taking it camping (so much easier than trying to do it in the wild)     For pizza      For hamburgers
Dipped in chocolate (yep I said it)     Added to any sandwich    

Summer Steak Salad

Salad greens (I like Romaine)
Grated cheddar cheese
Dice Tomatoes
Traegerized bacon cut in pieces
Chopped red onions (I put these on the side since some people don't eat em')
Steak cut into bite sized pieces (Traegerized of course)
Ranch dressing (I use Greg's available at Costco)

I serve this with bread or rolls and that is it. Simple summer salad. We could eat it almost every day. You can use chicken too, but we tend to be big red meat eaters around my house.