Cheese Quesadillas for Two

August 2025

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated, May 2023

Quesadillas have been called Mexican grilled cheese sandwiches and this test of the techniques described in this Cook's Illustrated article live up to that description. The magazine article describes several variations with more complex fillings than the simple cheese filling used here. I hope to try some other fillings and I'll try to amend this post with comments.

The recipe is for two quesadillas but we found that one satisfied our dinner appetites. Four ounces of Monterey Jack cheese was grated then spread over half of a large, 10", flour tortilla. The tortilla was folded over the cheese and pressed to seal. Vegetable oil (¼ cup) was heated in a 12-inch nonstick skillet. The tortilla was cooked in the oil until both sides were browned. It was then placed on a wire rack lined with paper towels, sliced into wedges, and served. Total time was about 20 minutes! 

This was a good and very quick dinner. The quesadillas were crispy on the outside with warm gooey cheese on the inside. The recipe called for the cooked quesadilla to be sprinkled with salt. We didn't do that and found it to be salty enough from the cheese. We ate the cheese quesadillas with refried beans and avocado mixed with fresh salsa.

Filling 2: a combination of ham, Gruyère cheese, and Swiss cheese made a nice quesadilla. The mild cheeses, though, did not hold up well next to the strong flavor of the ham, but that's probably okay.

Filling 3: Chicken, Mushroom, and Poblano Quesadillas I made a few changes to the ingredients: I used 1 instead of 2 poblano chiles, medium rather than sharp cheddar cheese, and omitted canned chipotle chile in adobo sauce. Sliced cremini mushrooms, diced poblano chile, and water were cooked until almost dry then oil and salt were added and the mixture cooked to brown the mushrooms. Shredded rotisserie chicken, cheddar and Monterey Jack cheese, cumin and salt were added to the cooked mushrooms then used to fill the quesadillas before cooking them as described above. It took about one hour to prepare these quesadillas and the recipe made enough for 4 dinners for the two of us. The result was more filling and more suitable for a dinner than cheese quesadillas. They were tasty perhaps a little bland so it might be worth increasing the poblanos.