Egg and Cheese Quesadilla

By Ali Slagle

Updated April 7, 2026

  • Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.
Media 1 of 1
Ready In
10 min
Rating
4(247)
Comments
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With its soft, gooey inside and toasted outside, this egg and cheese quesadilla is as satisfying to eat as it is fun to make. The trick is to use the barely set eggs and melted cheese to secure the fillings to the tortilla, so that when it’s time to flip, the whole quesadilla cleanly moves together. As the tortilla toasts, add another round of cheese and sprinkle some on the perimeter so it melts into a crisp, brown, lacy edge. If you’d like to add chopped vegetables like peppers, onions or kale, sauté them in the butter before adding the eggs.

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Ingredients

Yield:1 serving

  • 2 large eggs 

  • Salt

  • ½ tablespoon unsalted or salted butter

  • Scant ½ cup grated Cheddar or Mexican cheese blend (scant 2 ounces)

  • 1 (8-inch) flour tortilla

Ingredient Substitution Guide

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    In a small bowl, beat the eggs and a pinch of salt with a fork until homogenous. 

    1. Step 2

      In a medium nonstick skillet — one that snugly fits your tortilla — melt the butter over medium heat. Add the eggs and swirl the pan so the eggs fill the skillet. Using a spatula, pull the eggs in toward the center and, while holding the spatula in place, tilt the pan so that the egg runs to the empty skillet. Repeat this until the surface is nearly set but still shiny, about 1 minute.

    1. Step 3

      Sprinkle evenly with half of the cheese, then top with the tortilla and press to adhere. Put your hand in the middle of the tortilla. Flip the skillet so the tortilla is now on your hand, egg-side up. (Keep your arm away from the hot skillet, but otherwise nothing scary will happen because everything is adhered to the tortilla.) Place the tortilla, egg-side up, back in the skillet.

    1. Step 4

      Sprinkle the remaining cheese on one half of the eggs, making sure to sprinkle some on the edge to crisp. Cook over medium until the tortilla is golden brown underneath, just a minute. Fold the tortilla in half, slide onto a plate, sprinkle with salt and cut into wedges.

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Ratings

4 out of 5
247 user ratings
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Comments

Geri

Ah been making these for years for breakfast.. much easier wisk eggs in small bowl. Add cheese and mix. Melt butter in frying pan. Place tortilla in buttered pan and top with egg mix (and perhaps some canned refried beans as extra). Place second tortilla on top. When bottom tortilla starts to brown flip and cook other side to golden flip on plate and cut in half and serve hot plain or top with salsa, cilantro, fresh diced tomato, sour cream, chopped green onions, etc.

Egg

If you don't want to grab the tortilla from the skillet, you can slide it onto a plate, put a second plate over that, flip and then slide it back into the skillet. Or just use a spatula!

Los armadillos

This has been a breakfast staple of my family for years and we call them armadillos.

Bug

As someone whose breakfast diet is heavily dependent on egg & tortilla combinations, I am grateful to Ali Slagle for developing this ingenious technique. It is nearly impossible to keep the eggs from falling out of the tortilla any other way! (the eggs do kind of get loosey-goosey during the last bite, but stay in place much much better). Also, the proportions are good. Make sure you cook the eggs enough before you put the cheese & tortilla on, or the trick won't work).

Michelle Fellows

When our daughter was an infant our babysitter would make this with egg, cheese and refried black beans, with corn tortillas. Thole family ate them up! This reminds me of those quesadillas and for certain, add black beans or refried black beans, or really any other bean, smashed if you prefer, and then its more protein!

Lynne

I call these "eggadillas". Delicious!

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