How to Make Quesadillas

Learn how to make quesadillas with this easy Chicken Quesadilla recipe!

 

Estimated reading time: 11 minutes

One of the biggest challenges a lot of parents face is how to feed their family wholesome meals 3 times a day, while sticking to a budget and not spending all day, every day in the kitchen. We’ve certainly had our fair share of mealtime madness, and it’s one of our biggest motivations for sharing easy, veggie-packed meals to make your family’s mealtime easier.

This quesadilla recipe is one of our favourite go-to, fridge-clean-out recipes we love to make for dinner. It’s a great way to use up leftover chicken or veggies in the bottom of the crisper drawer, and it’s always a kid-friendly dinner. These quesadillas end up on our monthly meal plan at least once or twice, and we think they belong on yours too!

Quesadillas are a favourite dish in Tex-Mex cuisine, thanks to their simplicity and versatility. In its most basic form, a quesadilla is a tortilla—traditionally a soft corn tortilla, though flour tortillas are just as popular—filled with cheese and often other fillings, then cooked until the filling is melty and the tortilla is golden brown and crispy.

Quesadillas can be made with either one tortilla folded over with fillings inside, or with two tortillas placed one on top of the other, with fillings between them. After being cooked, they’re often sliced into triangles and served with salsa, sour cream, and other toppings.

1. It’s QUICK and EASY – It comes together in just 30 minutes with minimal effort and clean up.
2. It’s CHEESY and FULL OF FLAVOUR – It’s a perfect blend between the Tex-Mex spiced chicken, veggies, and melty cheese.
3. It’s CUSTOMIZABLE – You can easily swap out ingredients to suit even the pickiest of eaters.
4. It’s great for MEAL PREP – It’s great to make in a bigger batch and enjoy the leftovers later. The filling keeps very well in the freezer, as well. Quesadillas can be reheated on the stovetop, in the oven, or even in the air fryer.
5. It’s a BALANCED meal – Packed with protein, fibre, and veggies, it makes for a perfect lunch or dinner.
6. It’s a CROWD PLEASER – It encompasses well loved flavours and makes for a great family dinner or even party food, especially if you play around with toppings and sauces to serve with.
7. It leaves you with MINIMAL CLEAN UP – It only requires a cutting board, a knife, a skillet, and a grater and you’re ready to go.

Here at The Busy Baker we have shared so many of our favourite mealtime tips, tricks and secrets with you over the years. If you haven’t already signed up, we offer a FREE email course where we share our BEST weeknight meal tips, tricks and recipes to help you feed your hungry family without losing your sanity. Sign up for our FREE course below:

And if you’ve already taken the course, we offer 11 weeks of family meal plans for sale in The Busy Baker shop, complete with a week’s worth of meals planned for you, a grocery list ready to go, all our best mealtime tips and tricks, and an optional meal prep guide to help you get ahead of the dinnertime game. We hope you’ll check them out!!

Want to make the BEST chicken quesadillas? Here’s all our pro tips and tricks to take your quesadillas to the next level!

Using a mix of grated cheeses gives you deeper flavour and an amazing cheese pull. We love using cheddar for flavour and mozzarella for melting and stretchiness.

Using fresh lime brightens everything up and enhances the flavours way more than bottled lime juice. It also tenderizes the chicken and balances the spices.

Adding too much of the filling will make your quesadillas very difficult to flip, and eat. Most likely part of the filling will fall out leaving you with an unevenly stuffed quesadilla.

Using medium heat as you fill and toast your quesadilla will give you enough time to add the cheese, chicken, veggies, salsa, and cheese again, without the tortilla burning. It will also give you a nice brown toasty colour on the outside.

You just need a little spray in the pan when you fill and toast your quesadilla on both sides. We don’t want to fry the tortilla, just toast it and allow the cheese to melt inside.

Here are some common issues that may arise when making homemade quesadillas, along with our ideas to fix and prevent them!

Lower the heat under your skillet to make sure the cheese inside has enough time to melt as the quesadillas toast on both sides.

If you can’t flip your quesadillas easily, use less filling and press down slightly after you filled it. If you don’t add too much filling, the melted cheese will help keep everything together.

Make sure you remove the chicken from the skillet as soon as it reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit (74 degrees Celsius).

Make sure you use freshly grated cheese as it melts faster and better. To have it melt faster, you can cover your skillet with a lid for a minute to trap the heat and steam inside.

If your quesadillas are soggy, make sure the salsa you’re using is not too watery and use a smaller amount of it. You can always serve some extra salsa on the side of your quesadillas.

If you’d like more flavour in your quesadilla, add some extra cumin, or add garlic powder to the chicken and veggies. You can also add some hot sauce or even sliced pickled jalapeños to the quesadilla. If your taco seasoning is the low sodium variety, make sure you add some salt.

You won’t need much kitchen equipment to make this homemade chicken quesadilla recipe! Here’s all you’ll need (paid links):

• large skillet
• knife and a Cutting Board
• Grater
• measuring cups and spoons
• Silicone Spatula

Here’s everything you’ll need to make this Chicken Quesadilla recipe (paid links):

For the spice mix:

• 2 tablespoons taco seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon chili powder

For the chicken filling:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 pound chicken thighs
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• Juice of 1 and zest of 2 limes
• 2 bell peppers mixed colours
• 2 onions

To assemble:

• 8 large flour tortillas /corn tortillas
• 2 cups shredded cheese mix mozzarella and cheddar
• 1/4 cup cilantro chopped
• 1 cup fat-free salsa
• spray oil

If you’re looking to switch up the basic chicken quesadilla recipe and make it your own, here are some delicious ways we recommend adapting this recipe!

1. VEGETARIAN: Instead of chicken, sauté some black beans and corn alongside the peppers and onions, with all the spices and tomato paste. Feel free to add more of your favourite veggies – we love adding zucchini, mushrooms, or spinach.
2. BEEF: Use a pound of ground beef instead of chicken with the same spices and veggies.
3. SPICY KICK: Add chopped up pickled jalapeños, hot sauce, chili flakes, or a hot salsa inside.
4. LOW EFFORT: Use shredded rotisserie chicken or any other cooked chicken you have.
5. CRUNCHY KICK: Add crushed up tortilla chips inside the quesadillas for extra texture.

We hope you love making this chicken quesadilla recipe as much as we do! Let us know in the comments below, what’s your favourite quesadilla ingredients? We’d love to know!

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