The only fast food that I have truly ever enjoyed is Taco Bell. Mmmmm, love it! I don’t get to have it hardly ever now a days, but back in my youth it was always my choice meal at the mall’s food court or when traveling. And my favorite meals? Definitely a toss up between the chalupa and chicken quesadilla. Most of the time I couldn’t decide and would just end up getting one of each rather than a “meal” option.
Quesadillas are one of my favorite foods. Whenever I go out to eat at chains’ like Applebee’s or Chili’s I always opt for the quesadilla off their appetizer section as my meal. I can never make homemade quesadillas hold up quite to those standards though. Their queasdilla’s- Taco Bell’s in particular- have a much saucier filling. Mine always end up pretty dry, despite the loads of cheese I pile on. It has been my quest to make a chicken quesadilla that held up to the zesty sauciness of Taco Bell’s for a long time now and I have finally hit the jackpot!
This recipe was taken from the Enchilada Dip Roll-ups that I made a while ago. I had a bunch of leftover filling and wasn’t sure what to do with it. Well, the lightbulb went off in my head and I knew that they would make the perfect chicken quesadilla! With the heat of the skillet the cream cheese, sour cream, and shredded cheese would melt into a delicious sauce, reminiscent of what Taco Bell uses. The actual taste is not spot on where the spices are concerned, but the texture- it’s pretty darn close! I don’t think I will make another chicken quesadilla any other way now : )
- 1 (8 ounce) block cream cheese, softened
- 1 (8 ounce) container sour cream
- 1 Tb plus 1½ tsp chile powder
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp garlic powder (or 1 clove finely minced/pressed)
- 1 tsp salt
- ¼ tsp ground coriander
- pinch cayenne pepper, optional
- 2 cups shredded Mexican cheese blend
- 3 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded (or cut into tiny chunks), about 2-3 cups worth
- 1 (10 ounce) can Rotel tomatoes with green chiles, drained
- 1 package burrito sized flour tortillas
- spray oil or butter
- Beat the cream cheese in medium bowl until smooth and well softened.
- Mix in sour cream until well blended.
- Add spices, then cheese and chicken (eyeball the amount of chicken- you don’t want the mixture too loose or too dry, it should have a nice spreadable consistency).
- Add Rotel.
- Heat a skillet over medium heat. Grease pan with either spray oil or butter. Fill half a tortilla with about ⅓ cup chicken mixture. Fold tortilla over and place in skillet. Toast each side until golden brown, about 2 minutes per side. Serve warm!
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Why in god’s name would I want ANYTHING ‘just like Taco Bell’?
This looks really awesome! I love Taco Bell but don’t love not knowing what ingredients they use. Thanks so much for this!
Just made these for my teenage boys and they loved them!!! Could not get over how much they taste JUST like the real thing!!
I’m glad that you thought so! They are definitely the closest I have come to getting homemade ones taste at all similar.
FYI-You can buy the actual sauce that Taco Bell puts in their quesadillas at walmart for like $1.50.
What is the name of the sauce they put in it??
It’s taco bell brand, they’ve packaged their own sauce apparently. I’ve never bought it but have seen it at grocery stores in the mexican food sections, usually.
I’m a little perplexed by the “1 tsp garlic powder (or 1 clove finely minced/pressed)” part. In every conversion I’ve ever seen 1 clove equals 1/8 tsp garlic powder. Thus, 1 tsp garlic powder is equivalent to 8 cloves of garlic. 1 clove versus 8 cloves is a pretty huge gap. Which do you usually use?
I used garlic powder. I definitely don’t use 1/8 tsp powder to equal 1 clove, I usually use more like 1/2 tsp. But that is just me. So I guess you could technically use 2 fresh cloves if you are going to follow my train of thought with that.
The sauce that Taco Bell uses is a creamy jalapeño sauce, Kraft sells it now. Try adding really fine jalapeño bits to the sauce and it may taste a bit more like it!
The Chipotle sauce that Taco Bell puts out is pretty good too. I mix it with sour cream to dip my quesadillas in. Mmmmmm.
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