Quesadillas with Steak and Spicy Ranch

These Quesadillas with Steak and Spicy Ranch are the perfect way to use up leftover steak. They're cheesy, gooey, flavorful, and super fast. Serve them with a heaping spoonful of guacamole, extra spicy ranch, and fresh pico de gallo.

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• Why We Love These Steak Quesadillas
• Ingredient Notes and Substitutions
• Step-by-Step Instructions
• Frequently asked questions
• Suggested Side Pairings
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

Why We Love These Steak Quesadillas

• They're easy: We make these steak quesadillas when we have leftover steak, and they come together so quickly and easily.
• They're delicious: I'll admit that I'm a sucker for Taco Bell's cheap, crappy quesadillas, but these are so much better (and fresher). They're cheesy, creamy, spicy, and so so good.
• They're versatile: We keep these steak quesadillas pretty simple, but you could stuff them with whatever you want—beans, rice, veggies...you name it!

Looking for more easy Mexican-inspired (but heavily Americanized) meals? Try our sweet potato quesadillas, mahi mahi tacos, or philly cheesesteak tacos.

Ingredient Notes and Substitutions

Cooked Steak: You can use whatever kind of cooked steak you happen to have on hand. We love to make this recipe with leftovers. Thinly sliced flank steak is a favorite for this recipe—try our Traeger flank steak if you need the perfect recipe to use in this steak quesadilla (you don't have to make it on a Traeger...a regular grill works fine too).

Cheese: We use shredded monterey jack cheese. Mexican quesadilla cheese and colby-jack are good substitutes that melt super well.

Ranch Seasoning Mix: We use a packet of ranch seasoning mix as a base for the spicy ranch sauce. Any brand works. You could also make your own. Don't follow the instructions on the packet, though. We do our own thing with it.

Sour cream or plain greek yogurt: This is also for the spicy ranch sauce. We tend to use greek yogurt because we always have it on hand and it's just a little healthier than sour cream. You can use whichever you prefer—they taste roughly the same when it's all said and done.

Mayonnaise: This is also for the spicy ranch. If you don't like mayonnaise, you can omit this and replace it with all greek yogurt or sour cream.

Lime Juice: Fresh lime juice works best, but bottled lime juice is a good substitute.

Hot Sauce: Use whatever kind of hot sauce is your favorite. Cholula is good in this, as is Frank's RedHot (which gives the sauce more of a buffalo-y flavor). We tend to use whatever is in our pantry at the time.

Flour Tortillas: We use medium-sized tortillas (not the taco size, but not the burrito size either) for this recipe, but you can use whatever size you prefer. If you follow a gluten-free diet, you can substitute corn, cassava, or almond flour tortillas (I've made these often with almond flour tortillas).

See recipe card for full ingredient list and amounts.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: Add sour cream, mayonnaise, ranch seasoning, lime juice, and hot sauce to a small mixing bowl or food processor and mix until combined.

Step 2: Add a small amount of butter (about ¼th tablespoon) to a large pan over medium heat and allow it to melt.

Step 3: Place a tortilla flat in the pan. Spread the sauce evenly on one half of the tortilla, then top that half with cheese. Add steak to the other half of the tortilla.

Step 4: Cook until the cheese is melted, then fold the cheese side of the tortilla onto the steak side and remove it from the heat.

Step 5: Repeat steps 2-4 with remaining quesadillas. Cut in thirds or halves, if desired, and top with extra spicy ranch sauce, pico de gallo, and guacamole.

Suggested Side Pairings

Need a recipe to pair with these quesadillas with steak? Try these:

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📖 Recipe