Cheese or Air Fryer Quesadilla Chicken

Our air fryer quesadilla recipe is the bomb! WAY better than on the stovetop or microwave. Oooey gooey cheese inside a crispy buttered tortilla make with 1 secret ingredient makes it the best cheap lunch idea my kids love. Leave it plain or add leftover chicken breast shredded for a heartier meal.

Air Fryer Cheese Quesadilla

We went on a run making our favorite lunches in our Ninja Foodi last week. Cheese and more cheese of all kinds are top on our list of favorite foods so we went with that and a holder of sorts.

After we made air fryer grilled cheese this was next! We fiddled around with adding different bold flavors inside to give it a kick and found the perfect amount.

Ninja Foodi Quesadilla

You can use any brand of machine you have the only difference will be the size of the basket = how large of a tortilla you can use. Small street taco sizes are fun if you have little kids.

You can make a few of them and stack like pancakes for them to enjoy one or two for lunch time. It is really fun if you give them dips to use too. Using little Dixie cups I fill them with salsa, sour cream and guacamole. You’ll be a mom hero too if you go this route.

Large burrito style tortillas are more of a husband size and if your basket is large I would go with these for adults. Good if you want to add a bit of meat like our birria quesadillas.

But before you move on, LIKE our easy air fryer recipes page to get new ideas for meals and snack ideas daily! These are the ingredients we used + some room temperature butter for the outside.

Air Fryer Quesadilla Chicken

If you wanted to add meat you could do that with anything you had on hand, it just needs to be precooked. Shred or dice it up into little pieces and sprinkle in the middle with everything else. Yes, we air fry everything nowadays! Why? Well because crispy food without being laden with oil is just so amazing. Like deep fried but doesn’t sit in your stomach like a brick. 

What cheese is best for quesadillas?

The #1 cheese of choice is said to be Asiago followed by blue (which isn’t my favorite)

• If you haven’t tried Brie it’s pretty amazing
• I usually buy this Mexican blend here but shredded Colby and cheddar cheese is a good duo
• Gruyère is the really ooey gooey stringy type
• Havarti and Manchego are more unusual but yummy
• Monterey Jack
• Mozzarella
• Provolone

I personally like using a combination of a few. If I happen to have Brie, or think about getting some at the store for this it is probably my favorite but a bit pricey. If you really want to go all out, make homemade air fryer tortillas too. Let’s get started with our directions:

Air Fryer Quesadilla Pizza

If you wanted a fun tweak to things follow the same directions but only use shredded mozzarella with slices of pepperoni and spaghetti sauce instead of salsa.

Start off by buttering 1 side of your large tortilla. If you would rather you can use 2 small tortillas instead and butter 1 side of each. Preheat your air fryer to 350 degrees, once done spray a bit of non stick cooking spray inside your basket

1. Place your buttered on one side tortilla inside the air fryer basket. Put 1/2 facing down and the other open to house the cheese.
2. OR if making a larger one use 2 tortillas, one on top and one on bottom.
3. Sprinkle in your shredded cheese and add 2 tbsp of salsa if you’d like
   • I’m telling you this is a GREAT add in! Can add pre cooked meat for chicken quesadillas too
4. Fold it over like a soft taco (if using 2 small ones put the top tortilla with buttered side facing up on
5. Close the lid to your air fryer and set to 4 minutes at 350 degrees F.
6. Remove cheese quesadillas once they’re as crispy as you’d like and enjoy!

Check after minute 1 to ensure the top half hasn’t shifted. Sometimes using large tortillas it opens and you need to close again after a minute a push down on melted cheese so it stays the rest of the time.

What to put in quesadillas?

A basic version can come together rather quickly and only requires a few ingredients like tortillas and cheese. You CAN add a variety of vegetables too though like:

• diced onions and tomatoes
• thinly sliced bell peppers
• sautéed mushrooms
• add some type of protein such as cooked and diced chicken or steak for a heartier version. 

How do you make quesadillas crispy?

Use your air fryer y’all!! I kid you not this is a game changer and I bet you’ll never cook it on a pan again. We sure don’t.

Once you put that shell on top and it comes out all melted ooey gooey on the inside you’ll enjoy the best lunch or dinner ever.

How to reheat quesadillas

THIS is a game changer and WAY better than in the microwave for sure y’all. You can get it crispy again on the outside and melt the inside all at the same time. 400 F for about 3 minutes should do it.

Of course we still love making Instant Pot recipes, and continue creating new ones each week, but this is my new favorite appliance! After you enjoy this, try a few more like:

• Air fryer chicken thighs are healthy with this salty sweet rub
  • frozen chicken wings in an air fryer are amazing too
• Salmon in the air fryer comes out amazingly well, especially with this dry rub

Air fryer frozen mozzarella sticks are a fun snack too for the kiddos.

If you have a large family you can make larger batches of food and more than one you would want to purchase a rather large machine.