Chipotle Chicken Quesadillas
This post may contain affiliate links. Read my full disclosure policy.
These quesadillas are filled with gooey melted cheddar, shredded chicken and a smoky chipotle-tomato sauce.
Crisp flour tortillas stuffed with gooey melted cheddar and tender shredded chicken, all smothered in a sweet, smoky, and savory chipotle sauce—these could easily claim the title of the world’s best quesadillas! Think of them a gourmet twist on my classic chicken quesadillas—I’m a fan of those too, particularly for kids, but these are truly in their own league. The recipe is adapted from Curtis Stone, one of my favorite chefs and cookbook authors.
“Sweet Lord these were amazing!”
What You’ll Need To Make Chipotle Chicken Quesadillas
- Red onion, garlic, and scallions: These aromatics form the flavor base, adding depth and a slight sweetness to counter the heat of the peppers.
- Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce: Provide a smoky, spicy flavor that is the signature of these quesadillas. They add heat and a rich, complex taste. See the FAQs to learn more about these peppers.
- Tomatoes: Offer a fresh, acidic, and slightly sweet component that balances the smokiness of the chipotle peppers and also adds moisture to the sauce.
- Honey: Adds sweetness to balance the heat from the chipotle peppers and the acidity of the tomatoes.
- Cooked shredded chicken: Serves as the protein base; you can use leftover or rotisserie chicken and either white or dark meat based on your preference.
- Cilantro: Brings a fresh, herbal element that brightens the dish and pairs well with the other flavors.
- Flour tortillas: Act as the casing for the quesadillas, holding all the ingredients together. They crisp up when cooked, adding a satisfying texture.
- Shredded sharp cheddar cheese: Melts into the quesadillas, adding a rich, creamy texture and a tangy flavor that complements the spicy and smoky elements.
- Jump to the printable recipe for precise measurements
Step-by-Step Instructions
Begin by cooking the red onions and garlic in olive oil.
Add the diced tomatoes and minced chipotle peppers.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce are typically small peppers, often red jalapeños, that have been dried, smoked, and then preserved in a spicy, smoky tomato sauce. You can usually find them in the Latin section of most supermarkets. If you’re looking for more ways to use them, try my chipotle honey vinaigrette and black bean and corn salad.
This recipe uses six peppers, including the seeds, which might sound like a lot, but it doesn’t make the quesadillas overly spicy. However, if you are sensitive to heat or making these quesadillas for kids, you might want to use fewer peppers.
For the crispiest texture, quesadillas should be assembled and cooked just before serving. However, the chicken mixture can be prepared up to two days in advance, cooled, covered, and stored in the refrigerator.
Yes, the cooked quesadillas can be frozen for up to three months. To serve, defrost them in the refrigerator and then reheat, wrapped in foil, in an oven preheated to 350°F (175°C) until hot, which should take 15 to 20 minutes.
You May Also Like
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.
- Note: The nutritional information does not include the optional ingredients.
- Make-Ahead/Freezing Instructions: For the crispiest texture, the quesadillas should be assembled and cooked just before serving. However, the chicken mixture can be prepared up to two days in advance, cooled, covered, and stored in the refrigerator. Leftover quesadillas can be frozen for up to three months. To serve, defrost them in the refrigerator and then reheat, wrapped in foil, in an oven preheated to 350°F (175°C) until hot, which should take 15 to 20 minutes.
Nutrition Information
Powered by 
- 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.
See more recipes:
Comments
Add a Comment
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Just made these YUM!
Excellent quesadilla recipe!! Would be interested to know if canned diced tomatoes could be used as a substitute. I’m good with doing prep work, but seeding and dicing the tomatoes felt particularly laborious. Results were great, but I couldn’t do this one in a pinch.
I’ve used canned tomatoes and it came out great
These are incredible – we don’t think you can get any better, even at a good restaurant. Last night being Cinco de Mayo we thought we would go to our local Mexican restaurant but having made these a couple of times decided we would stay home and make these and once again they did not disappoint!
jenn! you’ve done it again with another fantastic recipe! my 2yo son was scarfing them down while chugging milk and wiping sweat off his brow!
I have always loved chicken quesadillas. I will no longer order them at a restaurant because this is the best quesadilla I’ve ever had hands down. I randomly found your site last week and have made 3 meals, both my husband and I have loved them. I don’t love spending time in the kitchen but when the recipes actually turn out this good I’ve minded a little less
Made these this week. HUGE HIT!!!! Even though it’s just the two of us I made the full recipe and froze some for a quick week night dinner. I even dropped some off to my son who is away at college an hour away. We ALL love the sweet, spicy and smoky flavor of these quesadillas. I also love how specific and easy your directions are. Since I found your site I am averaging 3-4 of your recipes per week. They’ve all gotten 5 stars!!!
Simply delicious!
I love this !
Hi Jenn,
Are there any other meats that would go nicely here? If so, what cuts? I was thinking maybe pork or beef. Thanks!
I think either would work nicely here. Please LMK how they turn out if you try them with another protein! 🙂
Hi Jenn,
I tried it with carnitas (pork) instead of chicken and it came out great! I got a lot of compliments. The only thing is that these are huge; do you think it would mess up the recipe if I make them on a smaller tortilla next time I make them? Thanks for another great recipe! I’m cooking my way through your website and both cookbooks! ❤️
Glad they came out well! It won’t mess up the recipe at all; you’ll just need more tortillas. 🙂
These are delicious and easy to make.
These are so delicious, that I can’t stop telling people about them. Easy to make and unbelievably tasty. Highly recommend this recipe!
I made this tonight! It turned out so delicious… your website and book are my go to! The quesadilla had a subtle heat and a little sweet! Thank you for sharing this recipe!
This meal was amazing. I was disappointed that we ran out of leftovers. This was more delicious than something I would purchase at a Mexican restaurant. My kids mentioned that they were a bit too hot. We are going to reduce the heat, but that does not reduce my rating. We are going to make this recipe again with enough to freeze! Thank you!
I’m a little confused when you say these aren’t spicy at all. I’ve added chipotle peppers to chili and it was so spicy we couldn’t eat it. I’ve even cut back to one. How is this not spicy. It sounds delicious but I’m a little nervous to try all those peppers.
Hi Virginia, I don’t find these to be spicy, but if you’re nervous about it, it’s no problem at all to cut back on the peppers.
I don’t know if it’s the different brands, or where you live. I love chipotles in adobo sauce and I agree with you. I start with one and add more to taste. I live in NM and let me tell you, I can eat HOT! The little cans I buy only have 2, maybe three chiles in there. Can’t wait to try this recipe, but I’m only going to start with one.
These quesadillas are AMAZING. I use this for meal prepping and make 4x the recipe at one time. I use low cal tortillas, part skim cheese and rotisserie chicken breast meat from Costco. I put the quesadilla together, wrap in in foil and stock my freezer full of them. So so so so good. Thank you for the great recipe!
Jenn, made these tonight and they will be added to the rotation.
Congrats on your cookbook. I received my copy yesterday and we’ve already marked “to-do” recipes. Lovely cookbook. I posted about it on my FB page, encouraging my friends to check it out as well as your website.
Best of luck with the cookbook and stay well.
❤️
Made these chipotle quesadillas tonight and they were fabulous! Will make again
This was the second meal I ever cooked by myself. It is a pretty easy and really tasty recipe! I added some canned corn to it.
Savory! Quite a bit of chopping needed but boy it’s worth it. The taste was amazing and plenty of leftover for the next day’s lunch or snack. My family loved this with plenty of sour cream.
Big hit with my son and 5 other Marines that stayed with us this Memorial weekend. I doubled the recipe. They ate like a dozen quesadillas and then I saw them eat the leftovers out of the fridge.
I’m very familiar with chipotle peppers and while I do like them, I typically use them sparingly so I was flabbergasted when the recipe called for 6 of them! BUT since I have enjoyed so many of the recipes here I decided to make the recipe exactly as written. So glad I did. They were absolutely delicious. The honey called for must cancel out some of the heat from the peppers because they were not overpoweringly hot or spicy like I was worried they might be.
My husband went on and on about the fabulous dinner.
Oh, and to those worried about the honey making them too sweet…not the case. You really don’t even notice the honey.
Thanks for yet another fabulous recipe.
This is just one of your recipes that my family absolutely loves. I would like to make this as a meal for a friend who’s about to have a baby, and am wondering if there’s a way to freeze this, even if I freeze the components separately and have her warm and assemble them when she’s ready to eat the meal. Thank you!
Hi N.W., The cooked quesadillas can be frozen for up to 3 months (see the bottom of the recipe for freezer-friendly instructions). You could also cook and freeze the chicken mixture.
Very nice recipe for quesadillas! The cook times and portioning were spot on. I did not find it too spicy at all. There is a nice smoky heat that gently follows your first bite, but it is not overwhelming. I do know each person will have their own palate, and what is spicy for some might be perfect for another. I loved this recipe and even added hot sauce to my portions afterwards. Definitely will do again.
This is my third time making this, and it’s always delicious. The first time I didn’t really measure the chipotles and used the whole can – way too much, so now I make sure I measure the 1/3 cup.
I don’t usually have cooked chicken but this time just cooked some seasoned breasts in the airfryer and then chopped them up, worked great.
We realized we don’t like the flavor of chipotle peppers in adobo after I made this dish. I like adobo salt and ground chipotle peppers but not chipotle peppers in adobo apparently. My husband threw it out.
So you rate a recipe one because you don’t like the flavor of an ingredient?
I had previously tried another sites’s recipe, but my husband was neutral about it. Since he orders chicken quesadillas almost every time we go out, I was hopeful he would like this, and indeed, it was delicious! Now, with your recipe, Jenn, we no longer have to rely on restaurant quesadillas. I’m not a big fan of tomatos, so I followed a suggestion in one of your reviews and substituted salsa for the diced tomatoes, and that worked well.
I made these last night and they were AMAZING!!! The chipotle and the honey was a great balance. Will definitely make this again!
The best part about these quesadillas is that you can make the chicken mixture the day before (and just assemble the day of the meal) and you can freeze the quesadillas for lunch/dinner to have later on one of your busy days. I reduced the honey in half (personal taste). The quesadillas are smoky so if you aren’t a smoky fan perhaps reduce the adobe sauce.
Sweet Lord these were amazing! I was out of tomatoes so I used salsa instead and added queso cheese as well. So insanely good!
Hot damn these are delicious! I love that they just use a rotisserie chicken. I can prep the filling ahead of time and then make dinner quickly. I also often make them as an appetizer when having a get together. Do yourself a favor and make these soon!
We love this recipe and it’s quick and easy. Have passed the recipe on to many friends.
Thanks
Dana
This was our first Once Upon Chef Recipe. I love it so much that I make a huge batch of the first 7 ingredients plus the salt. I freeze it in portions then when it’s Quesadilla night I thaw it and add the shredded chicken and move on from there. The step by step instructions for every recipe is what keeps us coming back to this site for inspiration. No recipe is too much for us anymore, we are confident in the kitchen.
My family loves these quesadillas. I didn’t make any changes to the recipe. The balance between sweet, spicy and smoky is perfect. I need to improve my technique in flipping them. A wedge of quesadilla and a side salad makes a great dinner
Another family favorite and one that started me using rotisserie chicken for so many other recipes! It’s so easy to whip up for a Friday or Saturday night meal to chow in front of the TV. Full of flavor and spice and oh so tasty! 🤤
I love this recipe! The only thing I do differently is that I do not put honey in it because it was too sweet for me. Other than that it’s one of my all-time favorites and my family loves it so much!
So yummy, spicy, quick and easy! This goes great with a simple margarita and chips on the side!
This is my go-to recipe for chicken quesadillas. My husband and I both love it so much. Just like all your recipes this one has so much flavor. I really like the taste of the chipotle pepper and honey. That’s such a great combination. I’ve never tasted quesadillas like this before. This recipe is definitely a keeper. Thanks for sharing!
This was the first recipe we used from Jenn and it certainly did not disappoint. Easy to make and delicious flavors- a little bit of kick with the Adobe peppers. Yum! Thank you 🙂
Thank you Jenn! You continue to please my family through multiple recipes of yours…to many to mention. This was our latest today. I have your cookbook and looking forward to the new one too!
Amazing recipe! I’ve been getting into cooking more recently and this was very easy to follow and tasted FANTASTIC! I’m not a spicy fan, so I used less pepper and utilized more of the sauce the peppers are in and it was a DELIGHT! I’ve made several times. Thanks Jen for a great recipe once again!
Excellent! No more need to be said
I am a huge fan Jenn but I found this recipe too spicy! I had never used chipotle peppers and was convinced after your comments that they were more smokey than hot….not so. I won’t be making these again but will go on and try another one of your tasty recipes.
Try using the chipotle peppers in a jar. They are found in the international section of the market. You can use as little as you like. I use only about a TBSP or less
Excellent! The honey cuts some of the heat from the chipotles but the flavor remains.
I tried it and as with the majority of your recipes, it was delicious! Thank you.
Amazing! What a simple and great dish. Thanks again Jenn 🙂
These are absolutely divine. I will absolutely be making these again. I had a bit of leftover of the chicken mixture after making the quesadillas. I had it on a bed of spinach for a salad the next day—that was incredible too!
A must! Quick and simple and delish. It was a hit for dinner. I love it.
Really good, my husband says I could serve those in a restaurant. Thanks
Hi! Wondering if we can substitute steak for the chicken? Not sure how this would affect the flavor?
Sure, Sylvia, this should work with steak. Just make sure to season it with salt and pepper. I’d love to hear how they turn out if you try them!
Hi Jenn!
I just made these quesadillas and I love the flavor! I am just wanting more of the flavor in each bite. I’m wondering if you have any suggestions? When cooking these, I boiled my chicken breasts and then shredded them and seasoned them with salt and pepper before adding them to the mixture. I am wondering if I could maybe cook the chicken differently so that the chicken itself has more flavor? Maybe a brine or a marinade? I would love to hear your thoughts!
My other thought is that I may have cooked off too much of the tomato liquid. I cooked the mixture for closer to 30 minutes than 20, because it seemed like there was a lot of liquid! But, once I added the chicken, the mixture seemed too dry.
Yes, I do think you likely reduced the sauce too much. Also, I like to use a store-bought rotisserie here as I think it adds more flavor than your standard chicken breasts. Hope that helps!
Oh my goodness I made this today and I couldn’t believe I was capable of making something so delicious except it’s not really me, it’s THIS RECIPE. Thank you Jenn!! I’m a loyal fan.
P.S. The sour cream is a must. It complements the flavours perfectly. I tried having salsa and guacamole (also with Jenn’s recipe) on the side but they were completely unnecessary and even detracted from the flavour of the quesadilla.