Whenever I can’t think of something for breakfast or lunch and I don’t want to spend a lot of time cooking, this egg quesadilla is my old standby.
It has only four ingredients – eggs, corn tortillas, cheese and a red chile paste of some type – all of which can be found in my refrigerator at any time. This quesadilla takes about 15 minutes making it a quick & easy breakfast or lunch. All you need to do is fry up an egg (you get to break the yolk), spread a couple of tortillas with the red chile paste, place on a griddle with cheese and fried egg and cook until tortilla is crispy and cheese has melted. It’s quick & easy, very tasty, and provides an ample amount of protein.
Egg Quesadilla with Red Chile and Cheese
A delightfully spicy breakfast with your favorite chile paste and cheese heated between two corn tortillas.
“*” See Kitchen Notes for more information or links to special ingredients.
- 2 corn tortillas
- Your favorite Red Chile Paste*
- 1 egg
- a touch of butter or oil
- ~4 slices Cheddar cheese
Heat a little butter or oil in a small skillet over medium heat.
- When hot, crack an egg into the pan, poke the yolk 2 – 3 times, and swirl to make the egg as round as possible.
- Cook the egg, flipping once until the yolk is cooked.
While the egg is cooking, start heating a cast-iron griddle or skillet over medium heat.
Spread one side of each tortilla with red chile paste. Amount of paste depends on its heat factor, how hot you want your quesadilla, and the type of paste. Just because not to add too much, otherwise, you’ll have a very messy quesadilla.
- Place one tortilla, paste side up, on the hot griddle. Top with 2 slices of cheese, the cooked egg, 2 more slices of cheese and the second tortilla (paste side down).
Cook the quesadilla until the cheese melts and the bottom tortilla starts to get crispy. Flip and cook the other side in the same manner (melted cheese and crispy tortilla).
- Remove from the skillet and let rest for a couple of minutes. This gives the cheese time to set a bit and be less runny.
Cut in half is you want and enjoy!
Red Chile Paste – It’s best if you use a paste rather than a sauce. Sauces or salsas are VERY messy in this quesadilla. We like to use gochujang (Korean chili paste), NM red chile paste, aji panca chile paste, or Jamaican Jerk. Sometimes, we forgo the paste and use chopped green chile. It’s a little messy, but well worth it.
As you can see from all of my breakfast recipes, we really love breakfast. Because we eat a good breakfast every morning, I do try to mix thing up quite a bit between sweet, savory, and spicy. As you can see, this egg quesadilla is one of my spicy breakfasts. Below are a few more spicy quesadillas that you can serve for breakfast, lunch, and even dinner.
Another eggcellent dish! Happy New Year
Thanks Carole! 🙂
I love how beautifully simple this is and egg needs to start appearing in my quesadillas!
Thanks Kelly! I hope you are doing well!
Even if you hadn’t mentioned it, I would scream “breakfast” seeing this egg quesadilla! I cannot believe it’s so simple and quick to prepare ! (once one has made your delicious tortillas of course!). I must test it with my Indian chapatti maybe… or simply learn making tortillas from you!
Thanks so much Sissi! That bucket of gochujang that you gave me last year has become my favorite chile paste for these quesadillas. It used to be Jamaican jerk but the gochujang replaced that. I’ve put a huge dent in the gochujang and will be buying more soon. Now that I know what it is, I’m seeing it everywhere, 🙂
I haven’t made quesadillas very often, but when I do, I love them. What an easy and delicious variation this is!
Thanks so much Adina!
This is one perfect breakfast for me!
Thanks Raymund!
One of my favorite meals!
Mine too. 🙂
This is a staple in our household for a lazy breakfast too, MJ. Mom likes using a tomato and chilli jam tho, its sweeter. Although I was reading that I should have more chilli in my life, like straight up chilli. Its meant to help with digestion and a whole range of things. Will try your version next time. 🙂
Hope you are having a great start to your week my friend. Hugs from the Whitsundays in Australia. xo
I have a jar of tomato and red chile jam in the refrigerator. I definitely am going to try your mom’s egg quesadilla. It would be a nice sweet complement to the more savory egg quesadilla and that I make. Thanks for the comments and hope you are having a wonderful week as while. Hugs back at cha.
What a great idea! I’ve never made an egg quesadilla, but love savory breakfast dishes like this. Thanks!
Thanks Amy! This does make a spicy little savory breakfast. 🙂
Oh wow an egg quesadilla is such a great idea, I would love one now! Maybe more for lunch, not sure I could handle chile in the morning lol. But may give this a go this weekend!
A little chile in the morning is a GREAT way to start the day. 🙂 Hope you enjoy and Thanks Evelyne!
I rarely plan for lunch and then find myself overly hungry. A quick quesadilla and egg would certainly brighten my day! A scrumptious and protein packed lunch!
Perfect lunch for just those situations. Thanks so much Deb!
I made these for dinner MJ and they were wonderful even at that time of day. Your presentation is lovely.
YAY!!! So glad you enjoyed them! And yes, I had a lovely plate from you know who to help with the presentation. 🙂 Thanks so much Susan! Looking forward to getting the garden going so we can get back to our wall chats. 🙂
Simple and yet full of flavor…nice!
Thanks Karen!
I have never had a egg quesadilla…they do look very delicious and perfect for any time of the day…even GREAT for a post workout snack.
These would be a great post workout snack. Bobby teases me because anytime I’m out of ideas, I always end up making these no matter what time of day. 🙂 Thanks Angie!
You could sweet talk me into one of these right this minute. Simple, delicious and good for us – you make good food!
That’s some spicy talk you got going on there Maureen. Don’t tempt me into sweet talking ya. 🙂 Thank so much!!!
So simple BUT soooo delicious! Great idea MJ. Going to this a try this weekend. Sharing of course!
Thank you so much HWC! Hope you like it!
I love recipes that don’t have exact measurements! Particularly when they look as good as this one. This is SO tasty — really good dish. Thanks!
No exact measurements…Yep…I see a lot of that going on with your recipes as well. 🙂 Thanks John!