Oven-Baked Chicken and Cheese Quesadillas

These chicken and cheese quesadillas are baked in the oven for the ultimate easy button spin on the classic recipe. With endless possibilities for customizing, you’re going to find yourself coming back to this recipe for both an easy dinner or lunch again and again!

There aren’t a whole lot of recipes that can beat a good ole classic chicken and cheese quesadilla! This recipe takes the classic that we know and love and utilizes the oven for an even easier, hands-off spin. It’s quick, reliable, and as tasty as can be!

Looking for more easy chicken recipes? You’re in luck – we’ve got a bunch! These ground chicken tacos are crunchy and delicious, this sheet pan quesadilla is made with the tastiest avocado cilantro sauce, and this chicken enchilada casserole takes another classic and transforms it into an easy, weeknight meal.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• It’s easy and hands-off – besides actually assembling the quesadillas, the oven does all of the work for you! You’ll set the temperature, pop the assembled quesadillas onto a sheet pan and into the oven, set a timer, and then let the oven do its thing.
• It’s a classic – chicken, cheese, and tortilla? Yes please. There isn’t much that’s more comforting and delicious than a good ole crispy quesadilla.
• It’s customizable – while the classic is obviously a home run, know that there are ways to make this recipe your own! We’ve listed some ideas below.

Recipe Ingredients for Air Fryer Quesadillas

As with a traditional stovetop quesadilla, you don’t need a whole lot to make a chicken and cheese oven quesadilla! Find ingredient notes (including substitutions and swaps) below.

• Taco seasoning – feel free to buy taco seasoning or make your own! If you want to make your own, our taco seasoning recipe is easy and delicious.
• Chicken – you’ll need about 2 cups of cooked and shredded chicken for this recipe. You can either purchase and shred a rotisserie chicken, grab a container of pre-cooked and shredded chicken (a lot of stores offer this!), or throw a pound of chicken breast in either the slow cooker or Instant Pot to make your own batch of slow cooker shredded chicken or Instant Pot shredded chicken.
• Shredded cheese – feel free to grab any cheese you love for this recipe. Cheddar, Colby Jack, and Monterey Jack will all work, though Colby Jack and Monterey Jack will make for a gooier quesadilla. If you really want a gooey, picture-perfect cheese-pull quesadilla, grab a block of Monterey jack or Colby jack and shred it yourself!
• Flour tortillas – any flour tortillas you love will work here! The ones we used were about 7 inches in diameter, so keep that in mind when looking at filling amounts (if yours are much larger or much smaller, you’ll need to adjust the amount of filling you use).

A full ingredient list with exact amounts can be found in the recipe card below.

Recipe Variations and Modifications

• Add caramelized onions – caramelized onions make EVERYTHING better. They’re rich, slightly sweet, totally delicious, and would make for a great quesadilla add. Simply layer them on top of the chicken (before the last cheese layer).
• Add green chiles – if you like a little spice, try mixing a can of chopped green chiles in with the shredded chicken and taco seasoning!
• Top with pickled onions – pickled onions are another personal favorite and would make for a delicious quesadilla garnish.
• Change up the dipping sauce – we made a creamy salsa dipping sauce for this recipe, but there are a lot of dipping sauces that would be delicious. A spicy jalapeno ranch or salsa verde would both be dynamite.
• Use a different protein – feel free to swap the shredded chicken for shredded beef, shredded pork, or shredded turkey. This is a great way to use up any leftovers you have in the fridge!
• Make it dairy-free – though dairy-free cheeses don’t typically melt as well as regular cheese, you could absolutely use a bag of dairy-free shredded cheese to make this recipe dairy-free. You’ll also want to use either a dairy-free sour cream or switch up the sauce entirely.
• Make it grain-free – Siete makes delicious grain-free tortillas (the almond flour and cassava variations are our favorites) that you can use in place of the flour to make the recipe grain-free.
• Make it gluten-free – we used gluten-free flour tortillas for this recipe, so if you can find them at your local grocery store, that’s a great option. If you can’t, you can use Siete grain-free tortillas or corn tortillas in their place!