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These Black Pepper Chicken and Bacon Quesadillas with Avocado Basil Ranch are the perfect cheesy quesadillas to enjoy for lunch or dinner. Spicy, roasted lemon pepper chicken folded up with homemade creamy basil ranch dressing, honey mustard, arugula, sun-dried tomatoes, and crispy bacon. This colorful chicken quesadilla is simple to make, wholesome, and delicious. Use leftover grilled chicken, rotisserie chicken, or make my roasted lemon pepper chicken. Everyone will love this fresh chicken quesadilla!
We’re taking things back with these yummy quesadillas. Some of you may remember that quesadillas are one of the main reasons I began to love cooking so much. I used to make them ALL THE TIME for my brothers when I was in high school.
The quesadillas really did ignite my love for cooking and sharing food with the ones around me.
When my brothers and I were in school, they’d often get out around 12 or 1 pm to go snowboarding in the afternoon. I know that sounds not right for kids in middle school, but we grew up in a mountain town and that’s what kids on the snowboard/ski teams usually did Monday through Friday.
By the time they got home from the mountain around 4;30, they’d want food before dinner. Somehow I started making them chicken quesadillas and the meal really stuck. I’d make them almost every day. I loved how happy and excited they would all get.
I rarely make quesadillas now, but anytime I do, they always bring back happy memories.
But these?! These are a game-changer, so delicious and hands down my favorite. It’s the basil ranch dressing that really does the trick. When paired with chicken, cheese, and creamy honey mustard, they are so yummy!
Details
Start out by making the basil ranch dressing. It’s very creamy and easy to make with fresh basil, cilantro, and then the usual ranch ingredients. Mayo, buttermilk, chives, Worcestershire, garlic, onion powder, cayenne, salt, and pepper.
I’ll usually toss in a jalapeño too. YUM.
Blend everything up in a blender or food processor until creamy – super easy to do. This really adds all the flavor!
Next, make the quesadillas! The recipe calls for already-cooked chicken. You can use whatever you have on hand. Or just make my roasted lemon pepper chicken.
It’s simply chicken (I like to use thighs, but breasts are good too), tossed with olive oil, cajun seasoning, and black pepper. Then roast the chicken up and finished with lemon zest. I gave you the recipe in the notes section. So you can either make the lemon pepper chicken, or as I said, use leftover chicken or rotisserie chicken.
You’ll need tortillas, cheese (I love to use gouda and cheddar, or fontina and cheddar), arugula, chicken, sun-dried tomatoes, pickles or pepperoncini (or both!), and crispy bacon. Then, the dressing, and honey mustard too.
Assemble everything into the tortillas. Then cook each quesadilla up in a skillet until the cheese is super melty! You can also use a panini press, which is fun.
I serve these topped with avocado plus extra basil ranch and some honey mustard. The honey mustard is not needed, but we sure love it!
Looking for fun family dinners? Here are my favorites:
Sheet Pan Honey Buffalo Chicken with Broccoli
Cheesy Green Chile and Avocado Rice Quesadillas
One Skillet White Chicken Chili Bake
Skillet Chicken Fajitas with Creamy Jalapeño Verde Sauce
Cauliflower Al Pastor Quesadillas
Lastly, if you make these Black Pepper Chicken and Bacon Quesadillas with Avocado Basil Ranch, be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Above all, I love to hear from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every comment. And of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!
Basil Ranch Chicken and Bacon Quesadilla with Avocado
Servings: 4 quesadillas
Calories Per Serving: 436 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Ingredients
Basil Ranch Dressing
- 1/2 cup plain greek yogurt or sour cream
- 1/3 cup mayo
- 2 tablespoons buttermilk
- 1 cup fresh basil
- 1/2 cup fresh cilantro
- 1/4 cup fresh chopped chives
- 2 teaspoons Worcestershire
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
- kosher salt and black pepper
Quesadilla
- 4 large tortillas
- 1 1/2 cups shredded gouda and or cheddar cheese
- 1-2 cups baby arugula
- 1-1 1/2 cups grilled chicken, sliced (homemade in notes)
- 1/2 cup sliced sun-dried tomatoes
- 1/4 cup chopped dill pickles and or pepperoncini
- 6 slices cooked bacon, crumbled
- 1/2 cup honey mustard (homemade in notes)
- 1 avocado, chopped
Instructions
- 1. To make the dressing. Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Taste and adjust the salt and pepper.2. To assemble, layer cheese, arugula, chicken, sun-dried tomatoes, pickles, and bacon on one half of a tortilla. Drizzle over the basil ranch and honey mustard, then sprinkle over more cheese. Fold the tortilla over to cover everything.3. Heat a drizzle of olive oil in a skillet, add 1 quesadilla, and cook 2-3 minutes per side until crisp and golden brown. Serve warm with avocado and additional basil ranch.
Notes
Honey Mustard: In a bowl combine: 1/4 cup dijon mustard, 1/4 cup honey, 1/3 cup mayo, 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or to taste), kosher salt, and black pepper, whisking until smooth.
Roasted Lemon Pepper Chicken: Preheat the oven to 425° F. In a baking dish, toss 1 pound of chicken breasts and or thighs with 3 tablespoons olive oil, 1-2 tablespoons cajun seasoning, and a good pinch of black pepper. Bake the chicken for 20-25 minutes, until lightly charred and cooked through. Finish with the zest of a lemon. Thinly slice or shred.
Served this to guests last evening and we all rated it a 5/5! I love how quickly it all came together ahead of time and then I simply had to layer and cook! The blend of flavors was perfect, especially with the delicious basil ranch dressing. Can’t wait to make this again for family or another group of friends! Thanks Tieghan 😋
Hey Debby,
Happy Friday!!☀️🐰 Thanks so much for making this recipe and sharing your feedback, love to hear that it was delish! xT
Could you put the chopped avocado inside before heating up?
Hey Corrianne,
Sure, I don’t see why not! Let me know if you have any other questions, I hope you love this recipe! xx
Hello! I was a bit hesitant to make this one when I first went over all of the different flavours involved….BUT I trusted your expertise. Boy, was this a winner!! One more delicious recipe of yours on our rotation 🙂 Thanks Tieghan! Well done! X
Hey Candace,
Love to hear this!! Thanks so much for making this recipe and sharing your feedback, so glad to hear it was enjoyed! xx
I gave this recipe a 10 out of 10! The basil ranch is amazing and totally pulls this dish together. I cooked the chicken and the way you recommended, but I did not have the ingredients or the time to make the honey mustard. I also added pickled jalapeños instead of pickles (your recipe, the tequila, lime, pickled jalapeños). So good! I will be making this again.
Hey Emily,
Wonderful!! Thanks so much for making this recipe and sharing your comment, so glad to hear it was a winner! xT
This is delicious!! The combo of the basil ranch dressing, honey mustard and cajun chicken were amazing! I used a smoked gouda and liked that flavor a lot. I also served it with your grilled jalapeno with peach quinoa salad. https://www.halfbakedharvest.com/peach-quinoa-salad/
Thanks so much Bridget!! I love to hear that this recipe turned out well for you, thanks for making it! xT
Made this for dinner last night and my husband absolutely loved it!!! This will become a regular in our rotation! Thank you!!!
Hey Kara,
Wonderful!! Thanks so much for making this recipe and sharing your comment, so glad to hear it was a winner! xT
Delicious and super easy!!
Hey Karen,
Happy Wednesday! ⛅️🌈 I’m so glad to hear that this recipe worked well for you and I appreciate you giving it a try! xx
Great recipe but warning it does come with a lot of dishes and prep work!
Otherwise it’s very filling and super flavorful!!!
Opted out of dill pickle and didn’t use buttermilk, chives, and replaced fresh for dried Basil in the ranch. Still amazing final product!
I followed Tieghans roasted lemon pepper chicken recipe to put inside the quesadillas and the chicken came out PERFECT!
Again great recipe if you have time and wanna change things up!
Hey Bella,
Happy Tuesday!! Thanks so much for giving this recipe a try and sharing your feedback, I love to hear that it was delish! xT
These were great!!!!! I made these as burrito/wraps because non-dairy cheese doesn’t melt that well (real smoked guoda for the hubs) and they were phenomenal. Had the leftover basil ranch with carrots the next day. Definitely a kepper
Thanks so much Courtney! So glad to hear that this recipe turned out well for you and thanks so much for trying it out! xx
These were so good!! My whole family loved them. And we really liked both sauces and all of the toppings. Thanks for another amazing recipe Tieghan
Hi Susan,
Perfect!! So glad to hear that this recipe turned out well for you, thanks for making it!xx
Very good. We liked it better with diced fresh cherry tomatoes and without the honey mustard sauce which, to our taste, overwhelmed the other flavours.
Hey Shelley,
Fantastic!!🐣 Thanks so much for making this recipe and sharing your comment, so glad to hear it turned out well for you! xT
Loves these. Used pepperincini as it called for and made the Cajon chicken and homemade honey mustard based on the notes. Definitely a hit. The green sauce made enough for maybe 8 quesadillas, but not a bad thing having too much of it! I’ll freeze the rest for another day! Even my two year old loves them!
Hey Jenna,
Happy Monday!! So glad to hear that this recipe turned out well for you, thanks a bunch for trying it out! xx
I made this tonight for my husband and me. I am vegetarian so in place of the chicken I crumbled and seasoned tofu and baked it first. The basil ranch was the star, I used one avocado in place of mayo and I did need to thin with some water in order to get it blended smooth. It makes a lot and I can’t wait to use the leftovers. As you said, the sun dried tomatoes (which I diced very small) and the dill pickles (I used dill relish, only a half teaspoon per quesadilla) somehow works. Thanks for another fun and easy recipe.
Hey Jennifer,
Awesome!! Thanks so much for making this recipe and so glad to hear it worked well with the tofu! Thanks for giving it a try! xx
These were delicious—a big hit with the whole family. The only drawback was by the time I got done making all the components—make the two dressings, make the chicken, make the bacon—I felt like I had already made dinner and I hadn’t actually made dinner yet! An “easy” dinner took a long time. But everyone loved them, so it was worth it. I felt like the pickles and honey mustard were unnecessary—it gave the quesadillas a burger vibe, and overpowered the other flavors. The basil ranch dressing was fantastic. We liked that everyone could pick and choose their fillings to customize their quesadilla. Definitely try them—but make sure you account for the prep time all the components take.
Hi Doris,
Thanks so much for making this recipe and sharing your thoughts, so glad to hear that they were enjoyed! xx
Another amazing recipe! Love all these flavors together and the crispiness of the tortilla with the yummy herbs in the sauce… so delicious! I’ve already adapted it with shrimp instead of chicken and it was perfect.
Hi Michelle,
Amazing!! So glad to hear that this recipe was a hit, thanks so much for making it! xT
Made these for dinner last night and they were so delicious! The dill pickles added such a great flavor! And the honey mustard with the ranch – yum!! Will be making these again!
Hi Donna,
Happy Sunday!💐 I really appreciate you making this recipe and sharing your feedback, so glad to hear it was a hit! xT