Quesadilla Calories

Mexican food is adored by all of us due to the unique taste and preparation method that is inimitable. One such unique Mexican food recipe is quesadilla. 'Queso' means cheese in Spanish, while quesadilla is a cheese recipe in which cheese is filled inside a flour or corn tortilla and cooked until it completely melts. We can call it a 'stuffed Mexican pancake' or a toasted sandwich made of corn tortillas and cheese filling. Quesadilla is generally served with sour cream and guacamole. Due to the ample amounts of cheese that is incorporated in its preparation, calories in quesadilla can be a cause of concern for many people. Before getting to know more about the calories, let's just have a quick look at the preparation method for quesadilla.

Quesadilla Recipe

A lot of variations can be done with its cheese filling, but cheese and corn tortilla are the two essential ingredients for a basic quesadilla recipe. These variations include addition of different kinds of meats and vegetables to the basic cheese filling. Here is a simple quesadilla recipe that will help you learn how to make quesadilla.

Ingredients

• Grated cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese
• Large corn tortillas
• Sliced mushrooms
• Sliced black olives
• Diced fresh tomatoes
• Chopped green onions
• Boneless pieces of chicken breast
• Apple cider vinegar
• Diced avocado
• Olive oil
• Lettuce
• Salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

Procedure

Add teaspoon of olive oil in a cast iron skillet and spread it all over the bottom of the pan. Now heat up the tortilla, flipping its sides after about every 10 seconds. Now take generous amounts of grated cheese on top of these tortillas without letting the cheese to spill in the pan. Now add all the mentioned vegetables and pieces of chicken breast in a thin layer, on top of the cheese layer. Now lower the heat and cover the pan. When the cheese just starts to melt, flip the sides of the quesadillas and cook it well until it starts to turn golden brown in color. Now remove them from the pan, drizzle some apple cider vinegar, pepper and salt on top of it and cut into medium-sized wedges. You can serve them with sour cream, lettuce sauce and guacamole

Quesadilla Nutrition Facts

Here is a brief chart that describes the nutritional information about the above mentioned chicken cheddar quesadilla recipe. Along with the mentioned nutrients, quesadilla also contains 17% of vitamin A, 3% of vitamin C, 17% of iron and 61% of calcium. This chart shows us that the calories are 580, which is the reason why it gets 5 points in the weight watchers points list. Remember the higher the points in the weight watchers points list, the lower is the nutritional value of that food recipe. Along with the amount of cheese, the calories also depends on the other ingredients that are added in quesadilla.

Nutrition	Amount	Daily Value (%)
Calories	580	-
Calories from fat	279	-
Total fat	31 g	48%
Saturated fat	21 g	105%
Cholesterol	104 mg	35%
Sodium	1240 mg	52%
Total carbs	41 g	14%
Dietary fibers	2 g	8%
Sugar	2 g	-
Protein	33 g	-

Steak Quesadilla Calories
Steak quesadilla is made of pork sirloin steak or other meat steaks along with mozzarella cheese, mushrooms, tomatoes, avocado, green pepper and several herbs like rosemary, clove, cilantro and olive oil. All these items raise the calories to a whopping 620, which also includes 28% fat, 70 mg cholesterol and 39 g total carbs. This also shows us that the number of calories in quesadilla is closely related to the type of meat that is used for making quesadillas.

Chicken and Cheese Quesadilla Calories
The recipe that I have mentioned earlier in the article contains about 520 calories. It is observed that the calories increase when chicken thighs are used instead of chicken breast. On the other hand, we also observe that grilled chicken quesadilla calories are relatively less, 410. Which means, a few modifications in the preparation method of quesadilla can reduce its calories to a significant extent. You can also use spinach tortilla instead of corn or wheat tortillas.

We can certainly say that quesadilla is not very healthy for people who are suffering from high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity and various cardiovascular diseases. They can try a few other healthy Mexican recipes or like I said earlier, modify the preparation methods of quesadilla and enjoy them, for sure. For instance, reduce the amount of cheese, avoid adding meats, etc. Rather than olive oil, you can plainly heat the tortillas, which will certainly reduce the calories.