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Weeknight-style Crispy Chicken Tinga Quesadillas. Chicken seasoned up with smoky chipotle chiles and enchilada sauce, then mixed with cheese, stuffed into tortillas with rice, and oven-baked. Each baked quesadilla is crunchy on the outside and spicy and cheesy inside. Serve with a creamy, salty, garlic honey-lime crema sauce, and a mix of your favorite toppings for the best flavor. These come together easily and are so delicious. The perfect crispy, no-fuss quesadilla that everyone loves!
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When it comes to Mexican-style food, we love it to be spicy, cheesy, and usually saucy, plus crispy. But it does depend on what the recipe is. When it comes to a really good quesadilla, it’s all of the above.
Since Cinco de Mayo is this Friday, I think this could be a fun, easy, and delicious recipe to share. We love Mexican night in our family!
A few important things to note. Instead of just cooking the chicken in a skillet with spices, I decided to sear the chicken and simmer it with enchilada sauce and chipotle peppers. I wanted an extra saucy chicken with some spice. Kind of like I make my crockpot tinga tacos and my 30-minute tinga tacos.
With almost all quesadilla variations I make you’ll notice two things, there’s always rice and plenty of cheese! Oh, and typically peppers too. These have all three.
And then, these are baked, not pan-fried. Quesadillas can be a little tedious to make for the whole family. Standing at the stove and flipping isn’t the most fun. So I usually bake my quesadillas instead of pan-frying them, just like I do with my tacos. Only, I use flour tortillas for my quesadillas. They always turn out so delish!
Details
Cook the chicken in a skillet with an onion. Then add the peppers, the enchilada sauce, chipotle chiles, and seasonings. Cook until the sauce coats the chicken.
Now the rest is just assembly. I take flour tortillas and layer them with cheese, chicken, peppers, rice, cilantro, and then more cheese. The key is to rub the outside of the tortillas with olive oil. This will crisp them up in the oven until they are golden and crunchy on top.
While they’re baking, I make a simple lime garlic sauce with yogurt, mayo, lime zest, and a drizzle of honey.
Then, I love a fresh mango salsa to balance the spices out.
Once they’re baked up, just serve as desired with sauce, avocado, and mango salsa. I always do lots of fresh cilantro on top as well!! Yum!
Looking for more simple Mexican recipes? Here are a few favorites:
Slow Cooker Chipotle Chicken Tortilla Soup with Salty Lime Chips
Cauliflower Al Pastor Quesadillas with Lime Smashed Avocado
Mushroom Al Pastor Tacos with Garlic Lime Special Sauce
Healthier Homemade Crunchwrap Supreme
Crispy Chipotle Chicken Tacos with Cilantro Lime Ranch
Lastly, if you make these Crispy Chicken Tinga Quesadillas, 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!
Crispy Chicken Tinga Quesadillas
Ingredients
- 1 pound boneless chicken breasts or thighs, cubed
- 1 yellow onion, chopped
- 1 poblano pepper, sliced
- 3/4 cup red enchilada sauce
- 2-3 chipotle peppers in adobo, finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 4-6 flour tortillas, warmed
- 2 1/2 cups shredded Mexican cheese
- 1 cup cooked rice
- 1 cup fresh chopped cilantro
- 1 mango, diced
Garlic Lime Sauce
- 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt or sour cream
- 3 tablespoons mayo
- 2 teaspoons lime zest, plus 2 tablespoons lime juice
- 1 clove garlic, grated
Instructions
- 1. Preheat the oven to 425° F.2. In a large skillet, add the olive oil, chicken, and onion. Set over medium-high heat. Cook 5-8 minutes, until the chicken is seared. Add the poblano pepper, enchilada sauce, chipotle chiles, oregano, cumin, and salt. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer until the sauce thickens, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat.3. To assemble, layer the cheese, chicken, and rice on one half of a tortilla. Then sprinkle over more cheese and cilantro. Fold the tortilla over to cover everything. Arrange on a baking sheet. Rub each quesadilla with olive oil. Bake for 10 minutes, until crispy and the cheese is melted. 4. Meanwhile, make the garlic lime sauce. Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Season with salt. 5. Toss the mango with lime zest. Serve the quesadillas topped with garlic sauce, mango, avocado, and cilantro.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Did you make this recipe? Please rate & comment below.
I made this recipe tonight and it was a hit! I followed it to the letter without tweaking…even though I’m not always a fan of adobo. The chicken is sooo good and the garlic lime sauce is a perfect topping! My husband was eating the chicken out of the pan before I could get it in the tacos LOL. I will definitely make this again. Thank you T!
Lol love to hear this Lori!! Thanks so much for trying this recipe and sharing your review:) xT
Oh wow !! I made these tonight with my 9 year old we inhaled them ; followed the recipe to the T ; absolutely delicious; i have learned not to alter your recipes coz you are definitely the expert; thank you so much for sharing your awesome recipes God Bless you; now you’ve spoiled me I look at someone else’s recipes and I’m like Tieghan probably makes it better 🙊😂
Thank you so much for trying out this recipe! Hope you enjoyed it 🙂 xT
10/10!!! So easy to assemble and my family says they are the best quesadillas they’ve ever had!!!! Thanks again for another amazing recipe!
Hey Marisa! Thanks so much! So glad you loved the recipe! xT
Another great one from HBH! We really enjoyed this dinner and will definitely make it again.
As usual, I’d like to say how much I enjoy Teighan’s content and how she always seems very happy to see that we do what works for us.
With that said, I strayed from the recipe pretty far this time because in our home, some are allergic to mango, cilantro tastes like soap (it’s genetic, haha), and two littles expect the cook to take it real easy on the spiciness. So, no mango or cilantro, an adobo hot sauce on the side for the spice lovers, and they were made kinda like little quesadillas since I had some nice fresh 4-inch flour tortillas from the Mexican market down the road. Personally, I preferred topped mine with plain sour cream and a drizzle of the hot sauce, though the garlic lime sauce was tasty too. SO DELICIOUS!! Thanks for another great one and teaching this old dog lots of new tricks Tieghan!
Hi Melissa,
Happy Friday!!🫐🍓 I love to hear that this recipe was enjoyed, thanks a lot for your comment and making it! Thanks for sharing what worked well for you! xT
Made these for dinner last night and they were absolutely delicious. My son said they were restaurant worthy!
Hey there,
Thanks so much for making this recipe and your comment! So glad to hear that it turned out well for you:) xT
This sounds amazing! Could the chicken be cooked in the crockpot and shred it?
Thanks so much Melissa! Sure, that would work well for you! Let me know if you give this recipe a try, I hope you love it! xT
This is one of my favorite recipes. I made a mistake the first time I made it and added the chopped mango to the sour cream lime sauce. It was SOOO good. Im sure it’s good separately but we loved my mistake.
I only make your recipes now and my family loves them all. We haven’t had one “dud”. Thank you!!
Hey Kerrie,
Love to hear that this recipe was enjoyed, thanks so much for making it and your comment! Thanks for your kind message and trying so many recipes! Have a great Wednesday! xx
These are absolutely insane!!!! Also very easy especially if you have left over rice.
Hi Kerry,
Happy Monday!!🇺🇸😎 I appreciate you making this recipe and sharing your feedback, so glad to hear it was a winner! xT
Tieghan, thank you for this recipe! I’m not a fan of mayo so I wasn’t sure about the sauce, but it was actually great and paired so well with the quesadillas! It was super delicious, and flavors in these quesadillas made it feel like eating out at a Mexican restaurant! I made these for my fiancé for his birthday, along with one of your sweet potato fries recipes, and he loved it! Instead of the mango salsa, I made my mom’s traditional pico de gallo. Definitely bookmarking this one! 🥰
Hi Cameron,
Happy Monday!!🇺🇸😎 I appreciate you making this recipe and sharing your feedback, so glad to hear it was a winner! xT
These were good when I made them for dinner but tasted AMAZING the next day as leftovers for lunch. I will skip the mango next time, it didn’t do anything for me.
Hi Amanda,
Happy Friday! I am thrilled to hear that this recipe was a winner, thanks a lot for making it and sharing your review!🍓🍑 xT
Really, really good!! Loved baking the tortillas. I didn’t have a mango so skipped it and used the entire can of red enchilada sauce – A++!
Hey Steph,
Fantastic!! I appreciate you making this recipe and your comment, love to hear that it turned out well for you!🍒🥭
These were delicious! Definitely going to be a repeat dinner for us. I used some of the adobo sauce from the chipotles and just used a smidge less enchilada sauce.
Hi Katie,
Happy Memorial Day weekend!🇺🇸 I love to hear that this recipe turned out well for you, thanks a bunch for making it! xx
These are delicious!! I guessed some of measurements to accommodate the metric system. To any Aussies making this recipe I used the full 375g of enchilada sauce from old el paso (for 1kg of chicken breast as I doubled the recipe). I also used the jalapenos from old el paso but I could have bought fresh ones if I had time to look.
The lime sour cream sauce was the cherry on top. So much flavour and it was sooo easy to make. My son went back for a third serving, these will be on regular rotation at our home.
Thank you so much for trying out the recipe! I hope you loved it! xT
I loved these! They are definitely going into our meal rotation. I have never put rice in a quesadilla or baked them in the oven but now I am hooked. Thank you!
Hey Caitlin,
Happy Memorial Day weekend!🇺🇸 I love to hear that this recipe turned out well for you, thanks a bunch for making it! xx
Loved these! I made Mexican rice instead of plain rice for an added boost. Wondering if it’s possible to freeze and reheat?
Hey Kaitlyn,
Fantastic!! 🍇🍌 I love to hear that this recipe turned out well for you, thanks for making it and your comment! Sure, I don’t see why not! xx
Made these last night and my husband and I really enjoyed them. My husband said to keep the recipe and make them again.
Hi Jacque,
Happy Friday!!😎 I love to hear that this recipe was a hit, thanks for making it and your comment! xx
Made this for dinner tonight – delicious!!! I used Siete almond flour tortilla’s instead of
flour tortilla’s – really good!
Hey Nina,
Happy Friday!!😎 I love to hear that this recipe was a hit, thanks for making it and your comment! xx