This year, we’re not doing the whole taco bar thing. In fact, there are. no. tacos. on this year’s cinco de mayo menu! But, there are steak quesadillas! I’ll be honest with you – when I was thinking about the menu and I put steak quesadillas on, I thought, “Hailey, nobody needs a recipe for steak quesadillas! It’s steak and cheese and tortillas!” But, I actually really loved how the steak came out and 100% need to share this recipe!
Now, the good news is: steak quesadillas are so super easy to make. The even better news: They’re delicious. It’s really a win-win, isn’t it?
Because they are so simple, the ingredients in these quesadillas become so important to getting it right. Let’s start with the steak. You want very thin (you could get a thicker piece and pound the crap out of it) chuck steak. You also want the steak to be very marbled. And not the kind of marbled that you’re just going to cut all the fat off of! You want the fat. It’s the flavor. If you cut off the fat, you’re throwing out the flavor. Don’t throw out the flavor. Then you’ll hate this recipe and I’ll just have to say, “Sweetie, I told you, don’t throw out the flavor!”
So, my point is. Pick a steak with a lot of marbling throughout, not ones with just a few big chunks of fat that you’re going to want to throw away. Also, don’t throw away the big chunks of fat.
The rest of the ingredients are so simple: a medium onion diced, olive oil, salt, pepper, cumin and apple cider vinegar. But the real secret….are you ready?
Take the meat out of the fridge 40 minutes before you want to start cooking and thoroughly salt it. I mean. More salt than you think you need, k? You want the meat at room temp and to sit in that salt for a while so you get a more tender meat. There’s nothing worse than biting into a quesadilla and not being able to bite easily through the meat.
Once you’ve prepped the meat, it all comes together so quickly. You toss one tortilla down on a hot pan, top it with some cheese and the steak mixture, pop on the other tortilla, brown it, flip it, brown it again, and then slice that bad boy and serve it with guac and salsa!
So easy! We served these quesadillas as an appetizer along side a chips & salsa grazing board.
Decoration details:
- Blanket table cloth (runner option I love but didn’t arrive in time)
- Palms and cactus from Ikea; ranunculus from Trader Joe’s
- White Flag banner
- Ice Bucket
- Pitcher for flowers, old from Pottery Barn, similar here
Steak Quesadilla Recipe
Ingredients
- 1.5 lb thin cut chuck steak
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tsp cumin
- 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- salt, pepper to taste
- tortillas
- 3-4 c shredded cheese mozarella or pepper jack is our preference
Instructions
- Remove steak from refrigerator at least 40 minutes prior to making the quesadillas and salt generously.
- Cut steak into bite-sized pieces; dice onion.
- Heat olive oil in sautee pan over medium high heat.
- Add steak and onion to sautee pan, until cooked through.
- When the steak starts to brown, add cumin, apple cider vinegar, salt and pepper to taste.
- When the steak has finished cooking, heat a clean pan over medium heat.
- Place tortilla on heated pan, top with cheese to almost the edges, and top with some of the steak mixture (just about 1/4 cup mixture per quesadilla. you can do more or less depending on how many you want to make!).
- Top with another tortilla; flip when bottom tortilla has browned to your liking. When other tortilla has browned, remove from pan and slice. Repeat with remaining tortillas.
