Skip to main content
Main

Chicken and Bean Quesadillas

Quesadillas filled with ground chicken, black beans, corn, tomato and melted cheese, folded in tortillas and baked.

By Health Canada · From Canada's Food Guide · 14 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Chicken and Bean Quesadillas

Why it works: Cumin and beans match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,188 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

Chicken and Bean Quesadillas

Serves 10
Oven190 °C (375 °F)
Time7 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. In a large pan, heat vegetable oil over medium-high heat.

  2. Add chicken, chili powder, cumin, onion powder, and garlic powder.

  3. Stir frequently to prevent spices from burning until chicken is browned.

  4. Stir in peppers and cook for 3 minutes.

  5. Add water and simmer until the water is reduced by ⅔.

  6. Use a digital food thermometer to check that the chicken has reached an internal temperature of 74 °C (165 °F).

  7. Remove from heat and stir in black beans, corn, lemon juice, and tomatoes.

Assemble and bake

  1. Preheat the oven to 190 °C (375 °F) and line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.

  2. Place tortillas onto the baking sheet.

  3. On each tortilla, spread 125 mL (½ cup) of filling on half of the tortilla.

  4. Sprinkle with 30 mL (2 tbsp) of cheese and fold over in half.

  5. Bake in the oven for 7 minutes until cheese is melted and tortilla is crisp.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

829Calories
56 gProtein
30 gFat
90 gCarbs

Counts 13 of 15 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 13 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Chicken100g cooked165
Tortilla1 medium flour (45g)140
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Black Bean1/2 cup canned (120g) drained114
Mozzarella Cheese1 oz (28g)85
Corn1/2 cup kernels (82g)77
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Bell Pepper1 medium (119g)31
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Chili1 tsp (2.7g)8
Cumin1 tsp ground (2.1g)8
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Waternot in our table0
Wheatnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Health Canada. Recipe from Canada's Food Guide.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cumin + beanstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,188 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  2. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Cumin + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,082 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Beans + corntop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,211 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Ground chicken
Provides the main protein and the browned savory base of the filling.
Black beans
Add bulk, soft texture and protein to the filling.
Mozzarella cheese
Melts to bind the filling and tortilla together and add richness.
Whole wheat tortillas
Form the crisp outer shell that holds the filling when folded and baked.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavors of the spiced filling.

The step that matters

Simmer the water until reduced by two-thirds. The water must cook off so the filling is moist but not runny; excess liquid would make the tortillas soggy and stop them crisping in the oven.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, cumin, onion, garlic, pepper, beans, corn):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Avocadofits better
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, cumin, onion, garlic, pepper, beans, corn. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesChicken BrothChicken Broth257 recipesLemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesCorn FrittersCorn Fritters203 recipes