Go ahead and admit it. Your life is crazy busy and multiple times per week you find yourself scrambling for ideas when dinnertime approaches.
Going out sounds expensive, cooking sounds time consuming, and yet your stomach’s demands are getting louder and louder.
These 15 Minute Chicken Guacamole Quesadillas are built for those days when you want something fast and good. They don’t require obscure ingredients or new kitchen gadgets, and you can easily make them while using minimal brain power. Perfect! Best of all, you’ll be pleasantly surprised how good this meal can be despite being designed for speed and efficiency.
Chicken Guacamole Quesadillas Recipe
The key to making these quesadillas muy rapido is to have the chicken cooking in the background while you are chopping up the fixings.
So first things first, add some seasoning to a bowl along with a dollop of olive oil. The chicken seasoning isn’t crucial here so feel free to just use what you have available. I’m using:
1 Tablespoon crushed New Mexican chile
1/2 teaspoon chipotle powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
freshly cracked black pepper
1 Tablespoon olive oil
Chop up a chicken breast into bite-sized pieces and combine well with the seasoning.
Briefly saute 2-3 Tablespoons of chopped onion in a dollop of olive oil and then add the chicken.
Cook for 3-5 minutes per side or until the chicken is cooked through.
Meanwhile, it’s time to get those fixings ready. And despite this recipe being called Chicken Guacamole Quesadillas, it’s actually a freshly chopped Pico de Gallo that is the hidden star here.
We’re using the same ingredient ratios as in our Authentic Pico de Gallo post but here we’re making a double batch.
So that’s 2 tomatoes, 1/2 onion, 1 jalapeno, 20 sprigs of cilantro, 1 lime, and 1/4 teaspoon of salt.
Keep in mind that you can always start small on the jalapeno and add more after taste testing for heat. I had a larger jalapeno for this batch and ended up using only half of it and that was plenty of heat. I also added another pinch of salt and squeeze of lime to this batch.
While you’re chopping up ingredients for the Pico it’s easy to set aside what you’ll need for an instant batch of Basic Guacamole.
This is the easiest Guacamole recipe in the world but it has a genuinely authentic flavor and it’s a perfect addition to these express queasadillas:
1 Avocado
2-3 Tablespoons finely chopped onion
Juice of a half lime
1/8 teaspoon of salt (plus more to taste)
I’ll put instructions for both the Pico de Gallo and Guacamole in the recipe box below.
By now the chicken is done. Briefly heat up two tortillas in a wide skillet. Add the chicken and plenty of cheese to a single tortilla and top with the other tortilla. Cook for a couple minutes on each side or until the tortillas turn golden brown.
To keep this recipe as efficient as possible we are only putting the chicken and cheese inside the tortillas, and then topping them with the guacamole and Pico de Gallo.
While this does create a nice contrast between the piping hot cheesy chicken on the inside and the cool, fresh toppings on the outside, it’s mostly done for speed i.e. it gives you time to chop up the fixings while the quesadilla is cooking. Of course, you are welcome to put some of the fixings on the inside as well.
These are delicious as is, but of course a few drops of hot sauce never hurts. For me that means Valentina, but this is definitely optional.
And there you have it. An express version of Chicken Guacamole Quesadillas with a Pico de Gallo kicker. So good!
Give these a try next time you find yourself wondering why nothing sounds good for dinner. They’re easy to make and the reward is substantial when you consider how quickly they can be made.
Buen Provecho.
15 Minute Chicken Guacamole Quesadillas
Ingredients
- 1 chicken breast
- 2 flour tortillas
- 1 cup cheese (Monterey Jack)
- 1 tablespoon crushed New Mexican chile (or your choice of chili powder)
- 1/2 teaspoon chipotle powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- freshly cracked black pepper
- 1-2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2-3 tablespoons chopped onion
For the Guacamole:
- 1 avocado
- 2-3 tablespoons finely chopped onion
- 1 lime
- 1/4 teaspoon salt (plus more to taste)
For the Pico de Gallo:
- 2 tomatoes
- 1/2 onion
- 1 jalapeno
- 15-20 sprigs cilantro
- 1 lime
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Chop a single chicken breast into bite-sized pieces and combine with the seasoning ingredients in a bowl. I used 1 Tablespoon crushed New Mexican chile, 1/2 teaspoon chipotle powder, 1/4 teaspoon salt, freshly cracked pepper, and 1 Tablespoon olive oil.
- Saute 2-3 Tablespoons of chopped onion in a drizzle of oil over medium high heat for a few minutes. Add the chicken and cook 3-5 minutes per side or until done. Set aside until needed.
- For the Pico de Gallo, give the tomatoes, jalapeno and cilantro a good rinse. Peel the onion. Finely chop the 2 tomatoes, 1/2 onion, and jalapeno into 1/4" sized chunks. Finely dice the cilantro. Combine the tomato, onion, jalapeno and cilantro in a mixing bowl. Add 1/4 teaspoon salt and the juice of a 1/2 lime. Mix together well and taste for seasoning, adding more salt and lime if necessary.
- For the Guacamole, finely chop 2-3 tablespoons of onion. Use the back of a fork to smoosh the onion until it turns translucent. Add onion to a bowl along with the avocado flesh, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, and the juice of a half lime. Mush and mix well. Taste for salt level, adding more if necessary.
- Briefly heat up two tortillas in a wide skillet. Add the cooked chicken and plenty of cheese to a single tortilla and top with the other tortilla. Cook for a couple minutes on each side over medium heat or until the tortillas turn golden brown.
- Cut the quesadilla into quarters and top with Guacamole, Pico de Gallo, and hot sauce. Serve immediately.
Notes
Still hungry?!
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Diana
For me, it took a lot longer than 15 minutes. It took me 15 minutes just to make the pico de gallo. But that’s just me.
The recipe itself was perfection. Love, love, love when I’m told how much salt to put in a recipe. It all worked out. If I trust my own salt instincts, it never works out. Usually under-salted because I’m scared. In the worse-case scenarios, it has turned out over-salted. But this all worked out. The Pico, the Guac, the chicken. It was all good, It’s not quite tomato season, so if the pico didn’t shine, I would just blame it on that. But the pico did shine! Perfect recipe. On regular rotation. Gracias.
Patrick
Awesome thanks much for your note Diana, I’m so glad you found a keeper on the site.
I know, I am kind of cautious with salt too, but I think that’s one of the great advantages of home cooking. Fresh ingredients can provide so much flavor that it doesn’t take that much salt to properly season them. You’re right about the tomatoes though, sometimes if I have a struggling batch I do add more salt than usual.
I’ve made that Pico recipe at least a couple hundred times — and it gets faster every time!