Grilled Stacked Quesadilla
You have likely scrolled past a variation of this viral recipe on TikTok or Instagram, and for good reason. The Grilled Stacked Quesadilla is a show-stopping dish that delivers maximum flavor with serious stage presence. It bridges the gap between an effortless weeknight dinner and the ultimate party food, making it just as perfect for a casual family gathering as it is for a high-energy game day crowd.
While it looks like a gourmet creation from a trendy food truck, it is surprisingly simple to make. The secret to its success is all in the preparation. While prepping your ingredients takes up the bulk of the time, building those towering, cheesy layers is half the fun—and the crispy, smoky payoff fresh off the grill makes every single second completely worth it.
Substitutes and Variations:
I used a combination of ground beef and ground pork to make these quesadillas. You could use chorizo or venison or ground chicken or ground turkey. The main thing to be cautions about fat content. You want to be sure there is enough fat to allow it to caramelize on the grill without drying out to much. While it might be tempting to add something like bell peppers to the mixture, I wouldn’t recommend it unless you make very very small pieces. Bell peppers have a lot of moisture in them and shrink as they cook and release that moisture. This can lead to soggy tortillas, or making the stacks fall apart as they lose the mass inside.
Suggestions for Sides:
These are great with some Avocado Tomatillo Sauce and tortilla chips. If you want more of a feast then make some cilantro lime rice and slow cooker black beans. Cilantro lime rice is super easy to make. You just make a batch of rice (lone grain, jasmine, basmati, and brown rice all work) as you normally would. Then when the rice is done you mix in about 1/2 cup of chopped cilantro and a tablespoon of lime juice per two cups of uncooked rice.
Tools that may make this recipe easier:
I would strongly suggest that you use metal skewers for this recipe. These stacked quesadillas are quite hefty and you need to be sure the skewers won’t break. Just use caution when you go to flip them and use metal thongs or a pot holder.
Now Let’s Get Cookin’!
Grilled Stacked Quesadilla
Ingredients
- 1 lb Ground Beef
- 1 lb Ground Pork
- 8 Burrito Sized Flour Tortillas
- 2 cups Monterey Jack Cheese shredded
- 1 cups Cheddar Cheese shredded
- 1 15oz can Refried Beans
- ½ Yellow Onion fine diced
- 2 tbsp Taco Seasoning see recipe below
- ¼ cup Cilantro fine diced
- Cooking Spray
Instructions
- Preheat your grill to high
- In a large bowl, mix ground beef, ground pork. onion, taco seasoning, refried beans, cheeses and cilantro into a fully combined mixture.
- Stack the tortillas and cut the rounded edges just enough to get the largest square of tortilla you can (about 1 inch of each side).
- Divide the meat mixture into 7 equal portions. Lay one tortilla down and add portion of the meat mixture. Use a spatula to press the mixture evenly, all the way to the edges of the tortilla. Repeat 6 more times and then place last tortilla on top of the stack.
- Cut the stack into 4 equal slices and the turn them on their side so you can see the layers of meat and tortillas. Push the metal skewers through the bottom layer and then cut to make four evenly sized cubes of quesadilla. Spray all sides liberally with cooking spray.
- Grill on each side for about 5 minutes. Try not to move the stacks around too much or you will lose the grill marks.
Notes
I love to link up my posts to lots of blogs around the internet – check out this Ultimate Handy Linky Party List to find some of the places I share to!
Estelle Forrest self-published this cookbook after a lot of playing around in the kitchen. You can purchase your own copy here:
AVAILABLE IN PRINT OR KINDLE eBOOK VERSIONS
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