How to make crispy on the outside, cheesy on the inside, completely delicious quesadillas on the stove or in the oven!! You can customize the fillings to your liking, making it the perfect family meal. If you’re a pizza fan, it’s likely that quesadillas are also top of your favorite recipe list! The word “queso” means “cheese” in Spanish and the literal translation of quesadilla is “little cheesy thing”.
How to Make Quesadillas
Quesadillas are a Mexican-style cheesy pizza or sandwich. I love them because they easily transform some cheese, tortillas, and leftovers into a deliciously filling meal.
Sometimes, I’m just in the mood for a basic melted cheese filling, but when I want to get creative, there’s no limit to what I can do with this super versatile weeknight meal or party snack. Quesadillas always fit the bill when serving a crowd/party because you can leave out a few different fillings for people to choose from depending on what they like best!
Making these quesadillas on the stovetop is super quick and easy!
- Place the tortillas in a large skillet and heat one side for 30 secs.
- Flip the tortilla and add your ingredients onto the hot side.
- Fill half with your whatever filling or toppings you prefer and then fold.
- Cook in the frying pan until golden brown on both sides (continue to flip to make sure the cheese melts).
- Cut into fours and serve!
If you’re using an oven to make quesadillas, it’s different but just as simple!
- Microwave the tortillas for 1 minute to add some moisture.
- Fill half of one tortilla with the filling or toppings of your choice and fold. Fill the rest of your tortillas and place on a cookie sheet.
- Bake in a preheated oven (350 F) until the cheese melts.
- Cut into fours and serve!
What Should You Serve With Quesadillas?
There are so many side dishes for quesadillas! Some of my favorites are slow-cooker cowboy beans, creamy Tex-Mex corn salad with green chile dressing, cilantro-lime rice, and fast and easy Greek grilled eggplant.
Freeze These Quesadillas To Have Them On Standby As Needed!
When you have a busy household, a few “on-standby” ready-to-go frozen meals can be a lifesaver! Quesadillas fall into this category, and I always have a few sitting in the freezer. They warm up really well for a quick lunch or dinner and always turn out great.
To freeze your quesadillas, flash freeze them for an hour or 2 until they’ve frozen and then place them into a freezer bag with a label noting the contents and date. You can easily reheat them in the microwave or place them in the oven to heat up once they’ve thawed out.
Why Are Your Quesadillas Soggy?
If your quesadillas are soggy, you could be using too much butter or oil to fry them. You may find that they’re nice and crispy initially, but once they’ve been sitting, they start to moisten. This is because the butter or oil starts to come out and create moisture. Try using less butter and a non-stick pan to prevent this from happening!
How Do You Pronounce “Quesadilla”?!
If you’ve been asking yourself this question throughout this whole post, wonder no more! It’ll also come in pretty valuable next time you’re out in a Mexican restaurant and saying the word underwater because you’re not sure you’re saying it correctly (we’ve all been there!). The correct pronunciation of “quesadilla” is cay-suh-dee-yuh. Now all you have to do is commit that to memory!
Quesadillas are genuinely the best meal. My picky eater can have only beans and cheese in hers, my son, who doesn’t like chicken, can have all the veggies and the cheese, and then the normal people ( Mike and I) can enjoy amazing chicken quesadillas! There are so few meals that my whole family will happily eat like this one.
Happy cooking!
Love,
Karlynn
How To Make Quesadillas
Ingredients
- 4 large flour tortillas
- oil
Quesadilla Fillings
- cooked chicken breast
- shredded cheese sharp cheddar. Monterey Jack
- cooked black beans canned is fine, drain them
- cooked corn
- lettuce
- black olives
- fresh chopped tomatoes, drained
- sliced fried mushrooms
- red and green peppers, cooked or fresh
Instructions
Stove Top Method
- In a large skillet, heat 1 tsp of oil over medium-high heat.
- Place the tortilla flat into the pan and heat one side for 20-30 seconds, flip, then sprinkle on your ingredients onto the now hot side .Fill half of one tortilla with your choice or toppings then fold the top of the tortilla over the full half.
- Place a lid on the frying pan and cook until each side is golden brown, flipping to make sure that the cheese melts.
- Cut the quesadillas into fours to serve,
Oven Method
- Preheat your oven to 350 °.
- Place the tortillas between two damp paper towels and microwave on high for 1 minute, this will add some moisture that you need for the oven baking method.
- Fill half of one tortilla with your choice or toppings then fold the top of the tortilla over the full half. Fill the rest of the tortillas with desired fillings and then place the quesadillas on a cookie sheet.
- Bake the quesadillas in the preheated oven until the cheese has melted and they are stuck together nicely.
- Cut the quesadillas into fours to serve,
Notes
- Calories are an estimate only, everything depends on what ingredients you use.
- The ingredients do NOT COOK in these tortillas. Make sure that everything is the proper texture (for example the peppers are only going to be soft if you cook them beforehand)
Nutrition
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Jillian says
These are better than any quesadilla’s I’ve had in restaurants. They are soo good and my kids love them, which to get them BOTH to love the same thing, well it’s a challenge … like a how to grow food on Mars challenge. Thanks so much! This has gone into my weekly rotation and I can’t see how it will ever leave. Highly recommend!
Arachne says
mmm! I love these, esp with sour cream and salsa.
We make them sometimes when we are camping too, in the cast iron pan on the cookstove.