Secrets to a Great Quesadilla

The Quesadilla is a wonderful meal to make for your family. Why? Because it is simple enough for the kids to enjoy, tasty enough to be looked forward to, and you can fill it with enough ingredients to make it a complete meal. Making sure to use the techniques in this article, your quesadilla can be memorable and moved right into the rotation for weekly dinners.

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Are There Really Secrets to a Great Quesadilla?

Yes, and no. These are just little tweaks I have found to make sure our quesadillas come out super tasty. I have made a lot of quesadillas over the years, and they used to be just okay. Like a standard dish that was just fine for dinner. Now, with just a few tweaks and extra steps, these quesadillas are worth sharing with friends proudly.

Ingredients & Equipment

Ingredients

• Tortilla: We use burrito-sized tortillas to make our quesadilla. This gives a restaurant-sized quesadilla which is usually enough for one per person as a meal. They are also big enough to easily assemble with less risk of everything falling out.
• Chicken: One of the secrets. Shred chicken from a grocery store rotisserie chicken and toss with fajita spices. The roasted meat is great and using cooked chicken saves a step without sacrificing flavor.
• Vegetables: I usually use a mix of bell peppers, jalapenos, onions, and corn. Nothing too fancy, but I take a few steps to ensure the vegetables are tender and cooked before adding them.
• Cheese: Shredded Mexican-style cheese works wonderfully on here, but any shredded cheese will do.
• The Sauce: Quesadilla sauce is a must as it adds a layer of flavor and moisture to the middle of the ‘Dilla, making it that much more special.

Equipment

• Large Skillet: I use a great big skillet to assemble and cook the quesadillas. This way I can make 2 at a time and speed up the process. to check if your skillet can handle two at a time, place a full tortilla in the bottom of the pan. If it lays flat, you can cook two at a time!
• Large Spatula: A flipper to flip the quesadillas. Bigger is better when you are flipping loaded tortilla, but we will go over the proper technique to keep everything inside!

Quesadilla Prep Secrets

Cooked Vegetables

For the longest time, I put raw vegetables in the quesadilla and didn’t think anything of it. I didn’t notice that the flavors didn’t meld well. It always tasted like a quesadilla with vegetables, not a vegetable quesadilla, if you get my meaning. One day I decided to roast the vegetables and it was a game-changer. The vegetable flavors softened and melded with the overall flavors and greatly improved the taste of the whole dish.

Quesadilla Sauce

Have you ever wondered why the Taco Bell Chicken Quesadilla is so good? The secret isn’t in the cooking technique or fancy ingredients, it is in the sauce. The orangish sauce on the quesadilla makes it worth buying, and you can add some to your dinner to make it worth eating.

1. Grab 1 packet of Taco sauce, you know from the drawer we all have of sauce packets.
2. Combine with 1/4 cup mayonnaise and mix well. Add more sauce if it still tastes like mayo.
3. Add a thin layer to the tortilla before the cheese to greatly enhance your quesadilla flavor.
4. Enjoy!

Cheese on both sides

There are 2 tricks to keeping your loaded quesadilla loaded with ingredients through the cooking process. The first trick is putting cheese on both faces of the inside of the quesadilla. So that means:

1. Start with cheese on the bottom, after quesadilla sauce if you are using it. Sprinkle heavily.
2. Layer in all of your other ingredients; usually meat and veggies.
3. End with a layer of cheese again.
4. Close the tortilla.

The cheese layer on each face of the tortilla melts into a “glue” to keep everything in place. It’s not foolproof but it works pretty well when combined with “The Flip!”

Seasoned Chicken

Whatever chicken you’re using, chunk it up first and stir fry it with some fajita or taco spices. This way you are seasoning from the inside out and it gives the inside ingredients a nice layer of tex-mex flavor.

Also, whatever chicken you are using, make sure it is dry when you add it. There is nothing worse than a soupy quesadilla…

Cooking the Quesadilla

Medium heat

Since everything in your quesadilla is already cooked, there are only two goals for cooking; melt the cheese and brown the tortilla. Medium heat will achieve both successfully with a low risk of burning the tortilla or any cheese that escapes. Since you are building it in the pan, well-balanced heat is crucial to the pace of cooking.

The flip!

Once your quesadilla is built and closed, how the heck do I flip this thing? I promise, if you flip this like a burger or pancake, you’ll lose a lot of contents into your pan. If you do the following, everything should stay put:

1. Once the bottom layer is crispy and brown, lift the open edge with your spatula.
2. pinch both ends of the tortilla shut with your fingers and lift the quesadilla straight up, with the folded edge hanging down.
3. Rotate the quesadilla 180* and lay it back down on the untoasted side. Press gently and let the remaining side toast.
4. Enjoy!