Ground Beef Quesadilla
Published 2/20/2022
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Make a ground beef quesadilla using taco-seasoned beef, tons of cheese, and your favorite toppings!
Simple Ground Beef Quesadillas
Quesadillas are a fan favorite in my family. They’re quick, flavorful, and so easy to make! Lately, we’ve been enjoying quesadillas with ground meat. I’ve been loving ground beef quesadillas because they’re flavorful and yummy.
Our ground beef quesadilla recipe combines hamburger and taco seasoning, a little tomato paste, and black beans. Then, it’s layered with cheese, a tortilla, and more cheese! Fry it up on the stove, and your crunchy, perfect beef quesadilla is ready to eat.
Why you’ll love it!
- Customizable
- Kid-Friendly
- Protein-Packed
- Easy to Freeze
Featured Ingredients
- Ground beef: our ground meat of choice is beef! We used 85/15. If you have a different ground meat on hand, feel free to use that.
- Taco seasoning: any kind of taco seasoning words — homemade or store-bought.
- Black beans: black beans adds more fiber and protein plus a bite.
- Flour tortillas: we’re huge fans of using flour tortillas for quesadillas. If you’re looking for a different option you can try whole wheat. We don’t recommend corn becaue it isn’t suer durable.
- Sour cream: sandwiches use mayo, quesadillas use sour cream!
- Cheddar cheese: we kept things simple with shredded cheddar cheese, but feel free to use a blend such as Mexican, Colby Jack, etc.
- Olive oil: olive oil is used for frying to get it nice and crispy.
Simple
Cheese Quesadilla
Sometimes simple is best. Here’s a quick recipe for a cheese quesadilla. In this post, we’ll teach you how to make a cheese quesadilla, plus how to stuff it and make it your own!
How to Make a Beef Quesadilla
Cook Meat
Add ground beef into a skillet and cook until browned. Then, add taco seasoning, tomato paste, water, and black beans and mix to combine.
Cut Tortilla
Place an XL tortilla on a cutting board. Then, use a pizza cutter or sharp knife to make a slice from the outside of the tortilla to the center.
Assemble Quesadilla in quadrants
Spread sour cream on top of the entire tortilla. Then, assemble the filling in quadrants.
Add 1/4 cup of ground beef to 1 quadrant, 1/4 cup of shredded cheese to the next, 1/4 cup of ground beef in the next after that, and 1/4 cup of shredded cheese after that.
Fold Quesadilla
Fold the first quadrant in the bottom right up by folding the ingredients onto each other. Then, fold over, and down creating a triangle-shaped quesadilla.
Fry
Add olive oil to a nonstick skillet or grill pan and heat over medium/high.
Place one quesadilla in the grill pan and place a heavy pan on top of the quesadilla. Cook ground beef quesadilla for about 3-4 minutes on each side until browned and the cheese is melted.
Toppings
A dilla isn’t a dilla without the toppings! Here are some ideas:
- Shredded cheese
- Sour cream/Greek yogurt
- White queso
- Diced tomatoes
- Fresh cilantro
- Chives
- Queso fresco
- Green onion
- Salsa
- Guacamole
Storage
While we recommend eating your quesadilla fresh, you can absolutely make one for later.
Transfer leftover quesadilla into a large, gallon-size bag and store in the fridge for up to 2 days.
Can you freeze quesadillas?
Quesadillas can easily be frozen.
- Let your beef quesadilla cool completely.
- Then, wrap it with tin foil. Remove as much air as possible and seal tightely.
- Store in the freeze for up to 3 months.
Ground Beef Quesadilla
Ingredients
- ½ lb. ground beef, we used 85/15
- 1 tablespoon taco seasoning
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 2 tablespoons water
- ¼ cup black beans, drained and rinsed
- 2 XL flour tortillas
- 2 tablespoons sour cream
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
Optional Toppings
- Salsa
- Guacamole
- Cilantro
- Sour cream
Instructions
- Prepare the ground beef. Add the ground beef to a large skillet and heat over medium/high heat for 2-3 minutes. Break the ground beef up into small pieces.
- Add the taco seasoning, tomato paste, water, and black beans to the ground beef and toss all the ingredients together. Cook everything together until the beef is cooked and the tomato paste and water turn saucey (about 4-6 minutes).
- Remove the skillet from the heat.
- Place an XL quesadilla on a cutting board and use a pizza cutter or knife to make one cut from the outside of the tortilla to the center. Flip the tortilla so the cut is on the bottom of the tortilla, facing you. You will be creating 4 quadrants in your tortilla.
- Slather 1 tablespoon of sour cream over the surface of one tortilla. Then, you are going to alternate ground beef and cheese in the 4 quadrants.
- Place ¼ cup ground beef in 1 quadrant, then ¼ cup cheese, then another ¼ cup ground beef, and then finally, ¼ cup more of cheese.
- To fold the quesadilla, fold the first quadrant in the bottom right up by folding the ingredients on to each other. Then, fold over, and down creating a triangle shaped quesadilla.
- Repeat steps 4-7 with the other tortilla. Set the quesadillas aside.
- Heat a small grill skillet over medium/high heat and drizzle 1-2 teaspoons of olive oil in the pan.
- Place one quesadilla in the grill pan and place a heavy pan on top of the quesadilla. Cook the quesadilla for 3-4 minutes on each side until browned and the cheese is melted.
- Cook the other quesadilla and then top each quesadilla with your favorite toppings and enjoy.
Tips & Notes
- This recipe is written for XL flour tortillas, if you use large tortillas instead you will most likely end up with 3-4 quesadillas.
- Feel free to add more ingredients to the inside of the quesadilla, go for it!
- You don’t need a grill pan skillet, you can use a regular skillet. We just love the grill marks the grill pan gives the quesadilla.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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