Last Updated on 17th December 2021 by

If you have never made cheese quesadillas before, you might be surprised at how easy they are to make. The trickiest part, really, is just getting the right cooking equipment for it. Flipping the quesadilla over while it is cooking can be tricky as well, but I will get to how to do that later on.

If you have a large frying pan or skillet, then that will work well. It needs to be a large enough to accommodate the quesadillas, but the best thing to use for cooking them on the stove is a tawa. That’s an Indian and Caribbean cooking plate for the stove that is mostly flat and open. It looks like a large, metal plate, and it is great for cooking anything that’s flat. If you make quesadillas regularly, then I suggest buying one. You can use the tawa for cooking large pancakes, roti, and any kind of flat bread dish.

Making Your Quesadilla

Start with flat tortilla shells. You’ll need two of these. Ideally, they should not be cracked or broken at all, but if there is some cracking, that is fine. You just don’t want them to come apart on you while you are cooking them on the stove,

Then you need your fresh ingredients. I use shredded cheese to make my quesadillas, but you can use sliced cheese as well.

What are some other good ingredients to use? You could just top with just cheese, and it would technically be a cheese quesadilla, but why not add more stuff? I say, the more the merrier. I like to add sliced mushrooms, shredded chicken, diced tomatoes, diced onions, and some seasoning. I will usually sprinkle taco seasoning inside my quesadilla, but you can use anything you like. Chilli powder, Cajun seasoning, or any kind of mildly spicy rub is a good option.

How to make chicken and cheese quesadillas on the stove? The chicken should already be cooked up for this. Nothing else needs to be cooked unless you are using some other kinds of meat in your quesadilla. Fresh ingredients work best, but you can use things like canned mushrooms and processed cheese in your quesadilla. It’s yours to make how you want, so feel free to change up any of the ingredients and use any variation of the ingredients listed in this recipe.

Here’s my recipe for making one quesadilla.

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5 from 1 vote

Making Your Quesadilla

Servings:

Ingredients

2 tortilla shells (8 inches or wider)
1 cup of shredded cheese (use more if desired)
½ cup of sliced mushrooms
½ cup of diced onions
½ tsp of taco seasoning

Instructions

Heat up the skillet or tawa on low heat.
Place one tortilla shell on a plate and sprinkle cheese all over it by hand. Cover it evenly and try to get cheese on the entire shell.
Sprinkle in taco seasoning, onions, mushrooms, and anything else you are adding.
Carefully holding on to the tortilla by two side, transfer it onto the skillet on the stove. Be careful not to touch the skillet. Rest it flat onto the skillet, being careful not to let anything fall off into the frying pan. (you can make this easier for yourself if you start with the tortilla shell on the frying pan and add your ingredients there, but the shell won’t heat up as evenly as it should this way.)
Place the other tortilla shell on top of the first one, pressing down slightly with your hands or a spatula. Be sure to press down across the entire quesadilla. One of the tricks to how to make cheese quesadillas on stove is to ensure that your two shells are sealed together. Pressing them down helps the cheese to melt onto both the top and bottom. You should keep pressing every so often just to ensure the two sides stick together.
Continue cooking on low heat until the bottom tortilla is crispy and the cheese has begun to melt. If it has melted enough, you will be able to flip the tortilla over without anything falling out. To flip your tortilla, you can use two spatulas or two sets of tongs. You want to grab the tortilla with your utensils on two opposite ends and then flip it gently but quickly over to the other side, placing it in the middle of your skillet. If you are skilled, you can flip it over with one spatula, but this increases the risk that something will fall out.
The quesadilla needs to cook on this side as well, so cook it for a few minutes until it browns. Once both sides are brown, you can take the quesadilla off the stove and place it on a cutting board.
Now, it is time to cut the quesadilla into quarter sections. You can cut it in smaller pieces, if you like. Start from one end with your knife and cut a straight line to the opposite end. Then, find the halfway mark between two of the cuts and do the same thing, cutting from one end to the opposite one. You now should have four equal portions of quesadilla.
Serve with pico de gallo, sour cream or salsa for dipping.

Modifying the Quesadilla

Cheese quesadillas are pretty simple, and you can modify the recipe in a lot of ways, adding in or taking out whatever you please to make it just like you want it, and that won’t change the way it is made. This is a versatile dish that can be made to suit anyone from vegetarians vegans to gluten free dieters and those who are lactose intolerant.

Any one of the ingredients can be substituted out for something similar. The quesadilla itself can be made using gluten free flatbread. You can use wheat or white flour tortillas as well as other varieties, and they should all cook the same way.

You can put salsa on the inside as well, and you can substitute the meat out for soy chunks or more mushrooms. The meaty texture of mushrooms makes them a great substitute for meat of any kind.

The cheese you use isn’t important, and you can even use dairy-free cheese, like dairy-free American slices or diary-free cheese spread. Look for some kind of cheese substitute that will melt well when placed on the stove, though.

The typical cheese used in quesadillas is cheddar or mozzarella, but you can use Swiss, provolone, and just about anything else. Feta cheese doesn’t work very well, however, since it has difficulty melting. I would stay away from that one.

One variation that can be made with this meal is to fry up the tortilla shells before you make your quesadilla. You can fry up the shells individually ahead of adding the ingredients. Or you can just add some oil to the frying pan and fry it with everything in it. It’s up to you how you do it. It doesn’t take much oil, though- just enough to cover the surface of the quesadilla. The tortilla fries quickly, in about 30 seconds once the oil has been well heated.

Now you know how to make cheese quesadillas on the stove, and as you can see, it’s not that difficult. There are lots of ways you can play around with this recipe and lots of different toppings you can use. You can eat the quesadilla plain as well, without anything topping it or anything to dip it in. The melted cheese and other ingredients make for a savoury, tasty meal that will fill you up and satisfy any cravings you might be having for Mexican food.

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Pauline

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I'm Pauline, a mother of four grown children, my passion for cooking stemmed from the joy i get cooking for my family. I love to try new dishes, especially when dining out but creating and sharing my own recipes is my favourite thing to do!