Transform leftover chicken into a 5-star meal in under 20 minutes with these leftover chicken quesadillas. They’re crispy, cheesy, and pack the right amount of flavor and texture!
Don’t you just hate it when you have leftover chicken in the fridge that looks unappetizing and you have no clue what to do with it? I know, I do too! I always end up with a bowl of leftover chicken every other day and I can never get myself to throw it out because it’s such a waste to throw out perfectly fine chicken.
One of my favorite things to do is wrap up leftover chicken in tortillas and cook them in different ways with different spices. Tortillas cook very fast and are also great for taking to work or eating as a snack. This is one of my favorite quick and easy recipes because it literally takes minutes to put together and makes a great lunch, dinner, or snack.
What you Will Need:
All you need for this recipe are a few basic ingredients and my guess is that you already have them in your fridge right now.
You’re going to need one cup of cooked shredded chicken. Leftover rotisserie chicken usually works best but you can also grilled a chicken breast and shred it or use any other type of shredded leftover chicken.
- Cooked shredded cooked chicken
- Shredded Cheese, Any melting cheese will do
- Sour-cream or cream cheese
- Garlic powder (optional)
- Chopped cilantro
- Flour Tortillas
I love using flour tortillas for a ton of things. I always have a few bags in my freezer so I NEVER run out of them. I get all different sizes for tacos, fajita, burritos, and what not but never actually end up using the right size for the food I’m making. I usually switch it up a bit in order to make smaller or bigger servings.
How to Make Quesadillas with Leftover Chicken
Making these quesadillas is as simple as combing all the ingredients in a bowl until fully combined.
Next spread some of the mixture onto a flour tortilla and cook for 2-3 minutes per side or until crispy.
You can do this by using only one tortilla and filling half to it and folding it in half. Or by laying one tortilla flat on the pan and filling the entire tortilla and then covering with another tortilla. Be sure to cook it until it’s super crispy and all the cheese on the inside is melted through.
Quesadilla Dipping Sauces
Serve with your favorite dipping sauce or my favorite sauces:
More Delicious Quesadillas to Try
- Chicken Quesadillas
- Shrimp Quesadillas
- Avocado Black Bean Quesadillas
- Southwest Veggie Quesadillas
- Chicken Avocado Quesadillas
- Buffalo chicken quesadillas
Quick and Easy Leftover Chicken Quesadillas
Ingredients
- 4 8-10 inch flour tortillas
- 1.5 cup shredded cooked chicken
- 1 cup shredded cheddar or Monterrey jack cheese, I used cheddar
- 1/4 cup Sour cream or cream cheese
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the sour-cream, shredded chicken, cheese, garlic powder, cilantro, salt and pepper.Mix thoroughly until well combined.
- Heat a large nonstick skillet with cooking spray over medium heat. Carefully place one tortilla on the pan, top with half the mixture and spread out evenly, top with another tortilla. Cook for 2 minutes then flip with a spatula and cook the other side for 2 minutes or until light golden and the cheese is melted. Repeat for 2nd quesadilla.
- Remove from heat and cut into 8 slices. Serve with salsa or guacamole.
Equipment
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
One 8inch flour tortilla should be about 26g of carbs. Two tortilla makes a quesadilla. Half of a quesadilla is NOT 2g of carbs. Please fix that.
Love the quesadillas – especially the crispy outside, gooey inside!! Have also made it with a chicken, salsa and cheese mixture. Cook them up the same. Really good and really easy!
Never heard of cream cheese on tortillas but i do love sour cream
Easy and delicious. I added some onion and green pepper to the mix. Topped them ofc with sour cream and salsa!! Will definitely make again. Thanks!
Was looking for a recipe for leftover chicken found your recipe for the quesadillas it was easy and delicious the family like them will certainly do this again thank you for your recipe
Easy and tasty. I added scallions and doubled the filling recipe to make them more substantial, so two quesadillas easily fed 4 for a weeknight meal. (Truthfully, it was hard for me to spread the filling as thin as the recipe suggests.) Tried with a medium salsa and a sweet/hot salsa (peach mango). The peach mango was the favorite. Would be great, easy cocktail party food — prep in advance and throw on the grill for a few minutes.
The tortillas crisped up nicely. But the filling is extremely cloying. Not sure who this would appeal to, but it’s barely Mexican. I think the cream cheese is a real problem here. Worth experimenting without cream cheese. I would add sautéed onions and a different cheese.
My husband picked up a large cooked rotisserie chicken & after deboning & removing skin I shredded the chicken using dough hook on low speed on my KitchenAid stand mixer. I mixed everything using the mixer. I didn’t have fresh cilantro so I used 3-4 tsp of dried. I made these on my electric quesadilla maker. I doubled the recipe and in addition to mixing cheese into the shedded chicken, I also added a layer of cheese over chicken mixture before closing w second tortilla shell. I greased outsides of tortillas using Pam b4 cooking & they browned perfectly. Once cooked I topped with chopped scallions and sour cream dollops. I used a large pizza cutter for cutting like a pizza. These were amazing!
I enjoyed these. They are quick to make and had all the ingredients on hand. A perfect quick and tasty meal!
Ez to make and delicious.
Made these last night perfect easy and delicious receipe for leftovers thank you
was excited to try this recipe, but cream cheese seriously does not belong in a quesdilla. the only way to eat this is to drown it in hot sauce and pretend its buffalo chicken dip in a tortilla.
loved them will make again for partys….
THESe were so easy to make AND also extremely delicious!
I added 1/4 tsp smoked paprika. I’m thinking a little bit of green onion next time.
Just made these – so easy, quick and delicious – thank you for sharing
Love this recipe, quesadillas are the best. Thanks simon.
yum! love using up leftovers for some fun dishes!
Love these quesadillas Layla! They look fantastic and this is an awesome recipe to use up leftovers 🙂
ooooh SUCH a tasty way to use leftover chicken!!! perfect!
Looks great! I love making quesadillas with leftovers, but they never look that professional. 🙂 Those grill marks are making me swoon! 😀
Your website design looks professional. Did you engage a designer or bought it?
Super ex to make with left overs and they turned out better than the original chicken dinner