Chicken Bacon Ranch Quesadillas – Easy Lunch Recipe

Chicken Bacon Ranch Quesadillas make a quick and easy lunch with flour tortillas, creamy ranch dressing, crispy bacon bits and leftover chicken. Oh, and gooey cheese. Can’t forget that! These quesadillas are simple to make, delicious and great for the whole family!

A Quick and Easy Meal Idea: Chicken Bacon Ranch Quesadillas 

Got leftover chicken in the fridge? Try making these simple quesadillas! Better yet, use leftover grilled chicken. 

I love grilled chicken. Last night we hosted my family, and served grilled chicken, along with Cheesy Potluck Potatoes and Sweet and Sour Green Beans. Today, I have some leftovers to deal with, which is great! I know exactly what I’m making: chicken bacon ranch quesadillas. 

Since tonight’s going to be one of those busy weeknights, it’ll make the perfect quick meal for supper, plus it’s a great way to re-purpose some grilled chicken! 

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Simple Ingredients (+ Substitutions!):

• Tortillas – large flour tortillas are still my favorite, though corn tortillas are fine too. Better yet, homemade flour tortillas!
  
• Chicken – leftover grilled chicken (or any leftover chicken) is my favorite, but you can totally cook and shred some chicken just to make this recipe.
  
• Bacon – I like to cook and crumble my own bacon, though the store-bought bacon bits are just fine, too. 
  
• Cheese – shredded cheddar cheese and mozzarella is commonly what I use or you can use your favorite shredded cheese.
  
• Ranch dressing – I like to use my own homemade ranch dressing.

💡Use this recipe simply as a guide, using your own favorites! We like homemade flour tortillas, grilled chicken, home-cooked bacon, hand shredded cheese, and homemade ranch dressing; however, you can easily save time and effort and buy tortillas, bacon bits, shredded cheese, ranch dressing, and cooked chicken all from the store!

• Butter – for frying. you can also use bacon grease or avocado oil or even cooking spray; I don’t recommend olive oil since it has a lower smoke point.

Toppings:

Salsa, sour cream, ranch dressing, guacamole, any of these would make a great dipping sauce or toppings for quesadillas.

Find the full recipe on a handy little printable recipe card at the bottom of this post! 

Supplies we used

• Frying pan – large skillet or pan to make the quesadillas. I’m using my OXO stainless steel pan today. You can also use an electric griddle, panini press, Blackstone grill, or a propane or charcoal grill with grates! (Honestly, the Blackstone would probably be the preferred method for us!)
  
• Grater – use a simple grater to shred your own cheese for the best flavor and quality.
  
• Microwave bacon tray – this thing is super handy for quickly cooking some bacon for a recipe. 

And that’s about it! You may need a knife and a cutting board to dice the chicken or bacon into small pieces.

How to make Chicken Bacon Ranch Quesadillas

First, prep the ingredients. If using raw chicken, cook and shred it. Cook the bacon and crumble it into bits. Shred the cheese with a grater.

Place a large skillet on medium-high heat on the stovetop. Once the skillet is nice and hot, add a little butter (about a teaspoon), swirl it around to coat the bottom of the skillet.

Place a tortilla in the skillet and add a layer of cheese on the whole thing. On half of the tortilla, spread some chicken, bacon bits and a generous drizzle of ranch dressing. Take a spatula and flip the half with only cheese on it over on top of the other half with the rest of the toppings. Fry for a several minutes per side (flipping with a spatula) until the outside starts to turn crispy and golden brown and the cheese melts inside. Repeat the process three more times with the rest of the ingredients.

Serve and enjoy.💛

How to store leftover quesadillas

I like to make sure there aren’t any leftover quesadillas, but if you have leftovers, you can store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.

When you’re ready to reheat the quesadillas, microwaving them will be the fastest option, but they might also get soggy. Pop the quesadillas into a hot oven for a little or return to the frying pan for a little for the best tasting leftover quesadillas. We don’t have an air fryer (yet) so I can’t say how that’d work for reheating, but I’d like to think it’d work pretty well.

Tips, Tricks + Notes for Chicken Bacon Ranch Quesadillas

🥓Cook the bacon in the pan you’re planning to use to fry the quesadillas. Once the bacon is cooked, let the grease in the pan and fry the quesadillas in the bacon grease instead of butter or oil!

🫑Of course, there are other things you can add to these quesadillas like diced onion or bell peppers, black olives, mushrooms, or use your own favorite flavor combination. 

🍳Since no one likes soggy quesadillas, here’s a pro tip: when you place the pan on the stovetop to reheat, also preheat the oven to 350 degrees. As each quesadilla is finished frying in the pan, place them on a sheet pan and slide them into the hot oven to keep warm until all the quesadillas are finished! Then you can all sit down and enjoy a tasty meal at the dinner table.

📃If you don’t have quite the amount of cooked chicken or bacon or ranch or tortillas, no problem! I only use this recipe as a guide. Sometimes I have my quesadillas are packed full of chicken, other times they’re not. Making quesadillas is a great way to use up whatever you have on hand.

🔥Make these quesadillas on the Blackstone! It works wonderfully to first of all fry the homemade tortillas, cook the bacon, and even cook the chicken, then go ahead and turn those ingredients into quesadillas right away. MMM, delish.

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