Dinner ideas do not come to me very often. I was pretty excited to create these BBQ Chicken & Avocado Quesadillas for my kids the other night.
(photos updated June 2016)
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In fact, when I have to come up with a dinner idea on the spot, I blank completely.
Thank goodness for Pinterest
and good bloggy friends who post yummy dinners.
Plus, dinner is much harder to photograph…
all my natural lighting from my front windows is gone
by the time I have dinner plated up.
Now if you asked me about a dessert recipe…
I could probably rattle off at least 10 decadent options for you.
And I probably have all the ingredients in my pantry to make those dessert right away.
Dessert is so much easier to photograph too.
I’m not sure why my brain doesn’t like dinner.
Maybe all the chocolate chips and homemade oatmeal cream pies have warped it totally.
It’s a good thing that my kids are very active
because there are some night when the hubby is working long hours,
that we exist on cereal, pancakes, and of course leftovers.
Let’s not forget the token chicken nuggets and mac & cheese that happens all the time too.
This easy dinner was based on the leftovers from the other night.
All day I was thinking about the chicken that we had in the fridge.
What could we do with it other than have another salad again???
For some odd reason I thought about the avocado sitting on the counter,
and suddenly all I could think about
was putting it in a grilled cheese sandwich or a quesadilla.
And do you know what? Cheese, chicken, and avocados are delicious together.
These BBQ Chicken & Avocado Quesadillas were so good that I just had to share it with you right away.
There is still chicken left in the fridge and one more ripe avocado…
can you guess what I am making for lunch again today???
(original photo from May 2012)
BBQ Chicken & Avocado Quesadillas
Yield:
8 quesadilla wedges
Prep Time:
10 minutes
Cook Time:
5 minutes
Total Time:
15 minutes
Cheese quesadillas filled with barbecue chicken and avocado chunks makes a great easy dinner recipe. This meal always disappears in our house.
Ingredients
- 4 flour tortillas
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1/2 cup shredded cooked chicken (or 6 ounce can chunk chicken breast)
- 1/4 cup barbecue sauce
- 1 ripe avocado, diced
Instructions
- Heat a skillet on medium heat.
- Stir together the chicken and barbecue sauce.
- Place 2 tortilla shells side by side in the bottom of the pan and sprinkle half of each tortilla with cheese. Top with half the chicken mixture and 1/2 of the avocado chunks. Sprinkle with cheese.
- Fold the tortillas over and cook until the bottom is golden brown. Flip the quesadillas over carefully and heat the opposite side until that side is golden brown and the cheese is melted.
- Repeat with the remaining ingredients. Cut each tortilla in half. Serve immediately. Makes 8 wedges.
Notes
- If you are using canned chicken, drain and break it apart with a fork before using.
Millican Pecan says
This sounds like a perfect summer recipe! Barbecue chicken is one of my family’s favorites, and sometimes you just need to change it up. And avocado makes everything so much better! I just printed the recipe…can’t wait to try it out! Thank you for sharing!
April says
Unlike most other comments, I made these last night to try and they wer delicious!! I only had Monterey Jack cheese and sweet honey BBQ sauce, frozen grilled chicken from Tyson, tortillas, and an avocado. It actually all went together perfectly!! Thanks for the recipe! It’s a new staple in our house!
Jocelyn says
I am so glad to hear you tried the recipe and loved it! It’s one of our favorites too!
April says
I forgot to include we used ranch as a dipping sauce cause my son wasn’t too fond of the avocado. We all ended up loving it with it.
Kathleen M says
Totally needed a different easy quick idea for tonight. I am going to grab a rotisserie chicken and make it. We have 4 kids and left over chicken is just a rare thing. Haha
Mandy says
Can you use corn tortillas instead?
Mandy says
Could you use corn tortillas instead?
Jocelyn Brubaker says
You could use them if you like. I prefer flour tortillas in my quesadillas. Feel free to use whichever you like best 🙂
Brittany says
I made these for dinner last night and they were SO good. Highly recommend to anyone looking for a quick, delicious dinner or lunch idea.
lamia says
Luck on my side or what. I had bbq cgicken left over, rioe avocados sitting in my fruit bowl and i searched quesadillas on pinterest and bang all my ingrediebts showed up. My boys will love this. Thanks. Pinterest is always a saviour.
Christie+-+Food+Done+Light says
Yum! Avocados make everything delicious. Love how they will taste in this quesadilla.
Donna says
Made these today! YUMMY! Added some caramelized onions. Definitely a keeper! Thx
Michele says
All my favorite things together. Can’t wait to give this a try.
Erin @ The Spiffy Cookie says
Love that it’s only a few ingredients and looks delicious.
Autumn says
I just tried this recipe using canned chicken and it tasted great and was quick! Kids asked me to make it again.
Molly says
I made this for lunch yesterday, well half of one as I only had 1 tortilla left, and I was certainly not disappointed (though I am disappointed now that I don’t have any more tortillas and would love to have this for lunch again!). Such a great flavor combination, yum!
I struggle with dinner ideas too, usually just circulating through the same “tried and true” recipes. I like to save the experimenting for the fun stuff!
Amie says
What exactly is BBQ chicken? The chicken in your picture looks saucy. Like a “pulled chicken” thing.
Or is it a chicken that has been barbecued and shredded?
Jocelyn Brubaker says
Yes, it is shredded chicken that has barbecue sauce on it. Sorry for the confusion. I updated the recipe to reflect that.
Carole says
Nice use of avocado. It would be super if you linked this post in to Food on Friday Series which is all about avocado this week.
Katie says
Um, perfect timing on this post! Last night, I was trying to figure out what I could do with an avocado, and then I remembered this dinner idea!! Better yet, I had leftover roasted chicken from the night before! Now, we were out of bbq sauce, but I threw some stuff together that resembled it, and it was fabulous!
Katie says
This sounds wonderful! I love making quesadillas!!!
Lizzy says
Wow,t hose look incredible!
Delightful Deets says
These look amazing! I pinned these and need to try them out, thanks for sharing!
Kim B. says
I LOVE your photography skills!! You could make cereal look gourmet 🙂 I LOVE quesidillas & never thought of adding avocado…YUM!!
Mindie Hilton says
BBQ always gets my families attention. Love how easy and I am sure tasty this would be.
The Better Baker says
Fantastic idea! Love this flavor combo…you have such great!!! ideas!!
4Sisters says
I love BBQ quesadillas, adding avocado is brilliant! I may be eating this for lunch in 4 hours 🙂
Becca @ Crumbs and Chaos
Bev says
Oh yum, that looks delicious, I am going to pin this one!
Ashley @ Kitchen Meets Girl says
I loooooooooooooooooooove quesadillas and we are always looking for new ways to make them (am I the only one who gets into a dinner rut and makes the same things over and over and over??). These look so amazing!
Dorothy @ Crazy for Crust says
Okay, we’ll you know me and avocado. I want this for dinner!
Erin says
Ha! I’m with you about dinner ideas. It’s so much more fun to bake than actually make a meal. But this does look amazing!!!
Hayley says
MMMMMM. BBQ chicken and avocado should be married. I am digging those fat chunks of avo in your quesadilla; looks SO good!
Katie says
I love all of these ingredients! What a great combination…I will be making this soon!!
Joan@chocolateandmore says
Jocelyn, I had to pin this before I even read the post. My middle child could live on quesadillas alone!
I’m with you about the whole dinner thing. The only real reason to even have dinner is to get to dessert, in my opinion.
And yes, we have had cereal for dinner before, even with hubby home and not even healthy cereal, I’m talking Captain Crunch and Fruity Pebbles, but hey, 8 vitamins and minerals has to count for something!
Thanks for sharing!
Holly says
Mmmm… these sound awesome!
Alyssa says
These look really good. Out of all the quesadilla combinations I have tried, for some reason I never tried BBQ chicken. I will have to try this sometime. Thanks!
love2dine says
Your presentation is just always so stunning and your recipes, mouthwatering
Aimee says
I love avocados, so in a quesadilla with bbq chicken? Genius!
I don’t mind dinnertime and cooking dinner, but I tend to make the same things over a course of two weeks! Especially when it comes to the slow cooker, which I use at least 4 days a week! I may change an ingredient here or there in a recipe, but I’m a creature of habit.
Which is quite the opposite with desserts. I don’t make the same dessert very often. Because like you, there are so many choices and my pantry is almost always stocked!
Terry says
These look sooo yummy. Pinning!
Tiffanee says
That sounds AMAZING!! Love the flavor combination! Thanks for a great meal idea!!