Quesadillas might be one of my favorite foods. That and pizza. Why? Because you can put just about anything inside and the outer crispy tortilla shell somehow makes everything a million times better.
For this quesadilla I took the classic flavors of a Hawaiian pizza and stuffed into a tortilla for a quick weeknight fix. I added some red pepper flakes because I like things a little spicy, but you could easily leave those out. Other ingredients that would taste yum in this are: red onions (instead of the green), fresh jalapenos (instead of the red pepper flakes), or green peppers.
These little gems are pretty rich and creamy, so I suggest pairing them with something light and full of fiber. This simple black bean salad would be AWESOME with the quesadillas and is pretty fast to whip up.
Enjoy!
Hawaiian Ham Quesadillas
Hawaiian Ham Quesadillas
Servings 9Ingredients
- 8 oz. cream cheese ($1.87)
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella ($0.92)
- 3 sliced green onions ($0.35)
- 1/8 tsp red pepper flakes, optional ($0.02)
- 15 oz. can pineapple chunks in juice ($1.14)
- 1/2 lb. smoked ham ($3.27)
- 8 8-inch four tortillas ($1.79)
Instructions
- Allow the cream cheese to come to room temperature before you begin. Combine the cream cheese, shredded mozzarella, sliced green onions, and red pepper flakes in a bowl. Stir until well combined.
- Drain the pineapple chunks as much as possible. Roughly chop them into smaller pieces. Roughly chop the sliced ham into small pieces. Add both to the cheese mixture and stir to combine.
- Place 1/4 to 1/3 cup of the filling in each tortilla and spread to cover half of the surface. Fold the tortilla in half to close. Cook each quesadilla in a skillet over medium heat until brown and crispy on both sides.
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Nutrition
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Step By Step Photos
Make sure the cream cheese is room temperature before you begin so that it’s soft enough to stir. Combine the cream cheese with the mozzarella, sliced green onions, and red pepper flakes. Stir to combine. I actually used about 1/4 tsp of red pepper, but listed 1/8 tsp because I know I like things quite a bit hotter than most!
Roughly chop up the ham. It doesn’t have to be any particular size or shape, just make it into bite-sized pieces.
Drain the pineapple as much as possible so that your quesadillas don’t get soggy. I also cut the pineapple chunks into slightly smaller pieces because they were kind of large.
Add the chopped ham and drained pineapple to the cheese mixture.
And mix it all together. The residual moisture from the pineapple will make the mixture softer and much easier to spread. I call this the “yum-yum mix” because it’s SO GOOD.
I used “fajita style” tortillas, which are about 8 inches across. Add about 1/4 to 1/3 cup of filling to each tortilla and spread it over one half of the surface. The filling is pretty rich from all of the cream cheese, so you don’t want to over fill them.
Cook the quesadillas in a skillet over medium heat until they are golden brown and crispy on each side.
Don’t forget to flip ’em.
Be warned. These are VERY ADDICTIVE.
If you want a less “creamy” quesadilla, you can change the ratio of cream cheese to mozzarella. Use 4 oz. of cream cheese and 2 cups of mozzarella. This will give you more of a classic melty cheese filling.
Got some marinara laying around? I bet it would be good for dipping these in!
Loved the Hawaiian ham Quesadilla, I had the ingredients I need except green onion, i substituted it with onion powder,
it was delicious! thank you.
I used fresh pineapple and cheddar cheese and loved it! Will keep this one for later!
This recipe is incredible. The creaminess is unreal but not too rich because it’s nicely cut with the sweet pineapple and salty ham. I ended up substituting Canadian bacon for the ham because I already had it on hand. Also used crushed pineapple (drained really well) so I didn’t have to do any extra chopping. Served this with the black bean salad as suggested and it was a perfect, well-balanced meal.
Hi! First off: I love your recipes! They are easy and tasty and just wonderful!
I grew up with the metric system and am still surrounded by it, but now I am trying to learn ounces, pounds etc and trying to convert them in my head. I noticed, however, that you mix ounces and pounds in your recipes, which makes total sense as ounces are more granular. But one thing confused me: isn’t 0.5 pounds the same as 8 ounces? Why do you, in this recipe for example, write 8 oz for the cream cheese and 0.5 lb for the ham? Does it have something to do with the type of ingredient or is it just arbitrary? I really just ask out of curiosity :)
Anyway, I truly love your recipes! Keep it up!
I usually use ounces or pounds depending on what the package had it listed as, which is sometimes quite arbitrary. :) Sorry for the confusion!
Great recipe! I tried it and got tons of compliments…definitely a keeper :)
This is a go-to weeknight meal for me. I make a batch of the “yum-yum mix” and then just add it to a tortilla and heat it up when I want one of the quesadillas, instead of making all of the quesadillas at once. I also use an 8oz can of drained crushed pineapple instead of the chunks.
The “yum-yum mix” is actually quite versatile. I like it on bagels!
So, I tried this last night substituting fresh pineapple for canned and ricotta cheese for cream cheese. It was awful! I don’t know what I did wrong but the pineapple had a horribly bitter aftertaste. It was so bad that I had to throw it out.
What did I do wrong? Is there some cardinal rule of pineapple I broke? Help!
Maybe it wasn’t quite ripe? I’ve never had a bitter pineapple before. :(
We used fresh pineapple and it was delicious! Easy to make and used up some Easter ham.
I had this experience too! They’re so bad even my husband can’t eat them. It’s the first time a budget bytes recipe has let me down. I used fresh pineapple too because it was in sale—it’s definitely not bitter though.
I used fresh pineapple as well and it was awful. I ate the pineapple on the side as well and it was delicious. I think it may just be fresh pineapple warm. My husband almost threw up when he tasted it. I was so sad. the recipe sounds soooo good. I will try it with canned next time. This is the first recipe i have made off here that was bad….i should not have deviated and stuck with canned not fresh
FYI fresh pineapple has enzymes that break down protein so you don’t want to mix it with dairy (learned that after making a smoothie with fresh pineapple and yogurt, bitter and awful) in canned pineapple the enzymes are inactivated which is my guess for the issue
Awesome
This is the first recipe of yours I have tried as I am trying to learn to cook and this looked easy. It was and very tasty though I put too much cream cheese so they were a bit bland. I can’t wait to try more!
Fantastic Recipe! I’m the only one in my family that likes Hawaiian, so this is a prefect compomise, I don’t need to take up a whole pizza! Just make my own quesadilla.
I made this this week and it was amazing!
Can the Hawaiian Quesadillas be frozen? Just wondering…
Thanks.
Hmmm, I’ve never tried to freeze anything with cream cheese, so I’m not quite sure about this one.
I have frozen these before and they turned out well. :) We ate them relatively quickly though…maybe within a week or 2, so not sure beyond that!
These are wonderful! I used a shredded cheese mix I had lying around and served it with BBQ sauce. I’ve tried them with and without jalepenos, either way, it is easy and delicious! Thank you so much will be making all the time.
Add some marchino cherries and ditch the red pepper flakes if you want a real sweet treat that the kids will go crazy for. I’ve also added toasted almond slices with the cherries.
delish!
Just got done making this…. yummmmm. Will make again!! Thanks! You always have great ideas.
I skipped the red pepper flake and added cinnamon to mine. SO GOOD! These will become a regular.
made this for dinner tonight and it was a MAJOR hit!! will definitely be making it again!
Trying this tonight and so excited!
Just made this for lunch and it was super tasty! I bet grilled pineapple would be fantastic in here but as is is great for a quick tasty treat! I am a beleiver! Thanks for the post
Just made this for lunch and it was super tasty! I bet grilled pineapple would be fantastic in here but as is is great for a quick tasty treat! I am a beleiver! Thanks for the post
That looks really tasty. The pineapple and ham should go well together.
These are awesome!! thank you!
This would taste great with the mango pepper jelly I have in the fridge!
Erica – I froze one over night and then cooked it the next day (because I was worried about the cream cheese separating too) and it worked well! I’m not sure if the amount of time that it is frozen would make a difference, though.
Hi Beth! I tried this one too, I liked it a lot, and my boyfriend too! It will be on our “easy dinners for busy days” book :)
I’m glad you came back home!
Have a good day! Amelie xx
These were awesome! Great change from regular quesadillas.
How would these do in the freezer? Would the cream cheese get all weird?
BEST dinner ever!! I love quesadillas & always have pineapple on my pizza so this was a perfect fit. I don’t eat ham so I used honey smoked turkey deli meat and it was awesome!! Thanks :)
OK, so I made these. OMG. I decided to do an “eat down the fridge” approach, so I made some further adjustments. I substituted some ingredients: whole grain tortillas, shallots instead of green onions, diced jalapenos, and as earlier threatened–fake ham. I was aiming at using the 3 oz pkg of cream cheese I had in my fridge. I wanted to get that out of there. Anyhoo…I made these. And did I mention OMG? OMG. So good. Proves your theory right. All ingredients become magically delicious when put in a crispy tortilla wrapper!
Im going to make these tonight. I will try sauteeing some fresh pineapple to get some caramelization going on. My fellow foodie bff and i lovvve your blog! This is the first food blog that i have really loved since you ” keep it real” lol.
For those who like the hot stuff I immediately thought about adding sliced jalapenos to this. The hot and spicy combination would be incredible.
Came across your blog yesterday and I’m loving it. I have an on again off again relationship with cooking and this site reignited the love. I tried this recipe last night and while it was good and pretty inexpensive, it was much sweeter than I thought. I didn’t have any pepper flakes and I was hesitant to use jalapeños. But I used a bit of picañte sauce beside the dish and it was a little improved. Next time I’ll try with more peppers and the more mozzarella variant. Keep doing what your doing here and please come out with a cookbook!
I love your blog so much! I’ve been a regular reader and the recipes look great, but this one may be just the one to get me up and off my duff to actually make it. I’m a vegetarian so I’m going to substitute the ham with “fake meat”, which is (believe it or not)pretty good, generally. I’ll let you know how it goes. Thanks for the great idea, here. I’m already hungry for dinner, and I just finished breakfast! :-)
This looks amazing! I don’t think I’ve ever had pineapple in a quesadilla, but it’s definitely something I need to try now.
IMHO what you need is Pineapple Tidbits instead of Pineapple Chunks. I use Tidbits in just about any recipe I use because as you said, the chunks are too big. I am gonna try this but my hubby is not keen on hot pineapple sooooo are you going to freeze these? It will take me while to eat an entire recipe!
Oh my God! I know what I’m picking up at the grocery store the next time I’m there!! Inspired by an earlier post of yours, I’ve often made ham and spinach and cream cheese quesadillas, but it just never occurred to me to go Hawaiian. Thanks!
These sound amazing and so versatile. I think I might like the marinara and mushroom. I fact, I’ll make both cuz my son is a BIG eater! As always, thank so much for all your efforts and fabulous recipes on this blog. You’re my hero!
I’m cursing my dinner in the oven because it’s not this. I might have to make a second dinner…
That is very funny. I agree.
Hrm… Trade the pineapple for Mushrooms and add that marinara, you’ve got flatbread sliders.