Chipotle Chicken Quesadillas
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These quesadillas are filled with gooey melted cheddar, shredded chicken and a smoky chipotle-tomato sauce.
Crisp tortillas filled with gooey melted cheddar and shredded chicken in a sweet and smoky chipotle sauce — these are the best quesadillas! The recipe is adapted from the website of Curtis Stone, one of my favorite chefs and cookbook authors.
What you’ll need to make Chipotle Chicken Quesadillas
What gives these quesadillas such distinctive flavor is the canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. They’re small peppers (usually red jalapeños) that have been dried and smoked, and they come in a spicy, smoky tomato sauce.
You can find them in the Latin section of most supermarkets. The recipe calls for six peppers, seeds and all. I know that might seem like a lot, but the quesadillas aren’t all that spicy. However, if you’re making them for young children you might want to cut back a bit.
How to make Chipotle Chicken Quesadillas
Begin by cooking the red onions and garlic in olive oil.
Add the diced tomatoes and minced chipotle peppers.
And cook until the liquid is gone and the mixture is thickened.
Stir in the shredded chicken, salt, honey, green onions and cilantro. Keep the filling warm while you prepare the quesadillas. (Note: the chicken mixture can be made up to two days ahead of time.)
Heat a flour tortilla on a griddle or in a sauté pan. Cover the entire tortilla with cheese and spread the filling over one side.
When the cheese is mostly melted, fold the tortilla over the filling into a half-moon shape.
Cook until crisp and golden, a few minutes per side. Repeat with the remaining tortillas. Serve immediately with sour cream and lime wedges, if desired.
I altered the recipe primarily by increasing the ratio of chipotle-tomato sauce to chicken (for more intense flavor), increasing the honey (to add a bit more sweetness), omitting the avocado (I thought it was unnecessary and muted the other flavors), and decreasing the amount of cheese and filling in each quesadilla (to make them easier to eat).
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Chipotle Chicken Quesadillas
These quesadillas are filled with gooey melted cheddar, shredded chicken and a smoky chipotle-tomato sauce.
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large red onion, chopped (about 1½ cups)
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- ⅓ cup minced chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (you'll need about 6 chilis)
- 4 vine-ripened tomatoes (about 1¼ pounds), seeded and diced
- 3 scallions, thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2½ cups cooked shredded chicken (white and/or dark meat)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ cup chopped cilantro
- 6 10-inch diameter flour tortillas
- 4 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
- Sour cream, for serving (optional)
- Lime wedges, for serving (optional)
Instructions
- In a large sauté pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute more. Stir in the chipotle peppers and tomatoes. Cook until most of the liquid from the tomatoes has evaporated and the mixture is thickened, stirring often, about 20 minutes. Stir in the scallions, honey, chicken, salt and cilantro. Keep warm.
- Heat a sauté pan over medium heat and spray lightly with nonstick cooking spray. Lay a tortilla in the pan and heat until hot to the touch but not crisp (air pockets may form). Flip the tortilla over, then sprinkle ⅔ cup of the cheese evenly overtop, being careful to keep it off the pan. Spread a generous ½ cup of the chicken mixture over half of the tortilla. When the cheese is mostly melted, fold the tortilla over to cover the filling and form a half-moon shape. Cook until the tortilla is crisp and golden and the cheese is melted, adjusting the heat as necessary, a few minutes per side. Repeat with the remaining tortillas. Let the quesadillas rest a few minutes to allow the filling to set, then cut into wedges. Serve with sour cream and lime wedges, if desired.
- Note: If you have a large griddle, use that to make the quesadillas so you can make a few at a time. Also, be sure to serve your quesadillas hot of the pan (or off the griddle), otherwise, they’ll get soggy and the cheese will harden. If this does happen, you can pop them in a 350 F degree oven to heat them up, but they won’t be as crisp and gooey as they are fresh. The chicken mixture can be made up to 2 days ahead, cooled, covered, and refrigerated.
- Note: The nutritional information does not include the optional ingredients.
- Freezer-Friendly Instructions: The cooked quesadillas can be frozen for up to 3 months. After defrosting in the refrigerator, reheat them, wrapped in foil, in a 325°F oven until hot, 20 – 30 minutes.
Pair with
Nutrition Information
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- Serving size: 1 quesadilla
- Calories: 694
- Fat: 45 g
- Saturated fat: 19 g
- Carbohydrates: 39 g
- Sugar: 11 g
- Fiber: 3 g
- Protein: 34 g
- Sodium: 1383 mg
- Cholesterol: 121 mg
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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This was ridiculously good, and very easy! Perfect blend of flavors! We had some nice Jersey tomatoes, which really made it special. Will definitely be making this again!
My wife works in Washington DC during the week, and usually comes home Thursday night. I try to have something nice for her when she gets home, and your weekly email is often my source. Thanks Jenn, love your stuff!
Our favourite chicken quesadillas! Love the chipotle peppers.
Are you supposed to deseed the peppers?
No, no need to remove the seeds.
This is the first recipe I tried of yours. WOW! Fantastic.
Thank you so much for sharing.
Oh my gosh, these are THAT good! I make quesadillas all the time, but these are special. The chipotle peppers are just the right touch, and the honey is the secret ingredient (I only added 1 tbs instead of 2). So excited to have this recipe. Thank you.
I cooked and loved the Peruvian style roast chicken and green sauce, used the left over chicken to make this dish – huge success. The green sauce worked well with both dishes and just about everything!!
I recently came across your site and have already successfully cooked 5 of the dishes and will continue to cook more. Your clear directions and videos make cooking easy!!
A big thank you Jen, from me and my husband.
These are amazing!!
Made it and everyone loved it! The prep took me a while. I shredded my own cheese though, but all so worth it! Delicious, love the chipotle peppers flavor. It adds such dimension to the sauce. I also cooked my chicken breasts by chopping them into medium size pieces and then shredding them. Will definitely be in the dinner rotation, and possibly for Super Bowl weekend! Always love your recipes!💕
Hi! I’d like to make these for myself (vegetarian) and my meat loving son. Could I mix 1/2 the mixture with a can of black beans and 1/2 with chicken? Or would you recommend something else for the vegetarian version?
Thanks so much!
Hi Missy, I think that would work really well! I’d love to know how the vegetarian version turns out!
Had some leftover rotisserie chicken. Made this for dinner tonight and it’s delicious. Added avocado which gave a creaminess to the quesadillas. Will definitely make again!
We made this recipe a few weeks ago and are making it again today. The only two things that we did differently, and will continue to do, was using two full cans of adobo chilis (and all of the sauce in the cans) and using 4 Tablespoons of honey. We ate this for a few days straight and raved about it with every bite!
Delicious. I made them exactly as the recipe instructed and they’ll be my go to now. I thought the addition of the honey seemed strange but it worked perfectly.
Excellent! The Chipotle in Adobo really complimented these quesadillas! My husband labelled it “comfort food”!
These are the best quesadillas! My go-to recipe for the past 2 years.
These were delicious! Didn’t have honey so I used 1 tbsp brown sugar, which was the perfect sweetness for me.
These are THE BEST. I made a double batch to freeze expecting the recipe would be great. Used more dark chicken meat than I normally would and I’m glad I did. Flavor is so much better. Used canned diced tomatoes because it was handy. Used sweet onions because I prefer them. Froze them individually when they cooled and they make the perfect light lunch or quick dinner. Just thaw a bit and reheat in a dry pan.
Yes Barb girl! I’m here for that tip!
This has been a go to recipe for me and my partner. Once we had leftover filling but no tortillas – ended up using crunchy taco shells for chipotle chicken tacos which were even better than we were expecting!
I love that these come together so quickly and are really flavorful. We enjoy spice, and the smoky chipotles were perfect. I was also happy to be able to use a couple of tomatoes from my garden since we’re a little overwhelmed with them right now. Thanks for another delicious recipe!
We absolutely love these! We made them a couple of weeks ago and we have been thinking about them ever since. Instead of the chipotle peppers, we used some chipotle salsa which turned out really well but a little sweet… I’ll cut back on the honey next time. Excellent recipe!
These were very flavorful and easy to make, but I found them way too spicy. I went with 4 peppers and thought it would be OK, but it was still too hot. I don’t usually mind a little heat, but I think I will try 1-2 peppers next time. I did use a different brand, not sure if that makes a difference.
Hi Jenn,
The chipotle chicken quesdilla recipe looks delicious, like all your recipes! I have what may be a stupid question: If you make the chicken mixture ahead and refrigerate it, do you need to warm it up before adding it to the tortillas?
Thanks for your help and awesome recipes!
Not a stupid question! Yes, I’d warm it up a little before assembling the quesadillas. Hope you enjoy!
This is super yummy. Easy, quick. Used GF corn tortillas. Delightful. Thank you.
These are so so good! I served them with lime wedges, sour cream, extra cilantro and my favorite taco sauce. They were restaurant quality and by far the best quesadillas I’ve made at home 🙂
I try to follow recipes as written to leave a review but when I made these, I didn’t have any chipotle peppers in adobo on hand. In place, I used a small can of diced green chilies, cumin powder and chipotle pepper chili powder which made the filling sweet and mild. Definitely making these again and will use the peppers in adobo! And I’ll grab a rotisserie chicken to save time 😀
This is my second time making this recipe and I made two slight changes. 1) My family thought it was a little too sweet the first time so I cut the honey by 1/2. 2) My can of adobo chilies had 9 in it so I used them all because I hated to waste the ingredients. We like spicy food and it was perfect. I make a full recipe and freeze the leftovers. These reheat very well.
My husband suggested you maybe creating a soup recipe using these same flavors. 🙂
So flavorful! This has become my family’s “go to” quesadilla recipe!
ALWAYS add fresh herbs at the very end. Cooking them is useless and cancel their flavour completely. So Cilantro: away from the heat.