Transform Cheeseburgers Into Quesadillas By Swapping A Single Ingredient

Cheeseburgers and quesadillas are two fan favorites held together by gooey melted cheese. And considering how customizable both handhelds are, it's easy to combine them into one delicious dish. All you really need to transform a cheeseburger into a quesadilla is to swap a burger bun for a flour tortilla. You'll get a decadent, meaty bite of burger smothered in gooey cheese and all your favorite fix-ins. But instead of a soft bun, the cheeseburger will be sandwiched between two crispy tortillas. Plus, you can look to easy and delicious quesadilla recipes for Mexican-inspired fix-ins to complete the culinary fusion.

Tasting Table staff and recipe developer Kate Shungu created a quesadilla burger recipe to help guide you through the transformation. According to the recipe, you'll start by forming your burger patties and grilling or pan frying them. Once the burgers are ready, you'll start to assemble the quesadillas. Butter two whole tortillas on one side, placing one tortilla butter-side down on a hot skillet, followed by a layer of shredded cheese and the burger patty, as the cheese melts, you can add any toppings and sauces you want to the open-faced cheeseburger. Then, place the second tortilla buttered-side down on the skillet and top with shredded cheese. Once the shredded cheese has melted, stack it on top of the open-faced burger, pressing lightly to form a cohesive, integrated quesadilla. You can then cut the burger in half or into quesadilla-style triangles.

One of the biggest tips for making the best quesadillas is picking the right cheese. Luckily, both cheeseburgers and quesadillas lend themselves well to cheddar, Jack cheese, and even a mild mozzarella. But, the type of cheese that the most humble style of cheeseburger demands is American cheese. So, you can make a blend of American and cheddar to fuse the two culinary traditions into a harmoniously delicious quesadilla burger. Shungu's recipe also swaps traditional condiments like ketchup and mustard for a zesty chipotle mayo and a simple tomato and onion ring for pico de gallo. If you're a fan of spice, you can swap pickles for pickled jalapenos or pickled red onions.

As for more combinations and ingredient pairings, you can draw inspiration from our many burger recipes that you'll be drooling over. For example, you can make a vegetarian burger quesadilla by stuffing tortillas with this hearty black bean burger recipe. An easy recipe to transform into a quesadilla is this smoky chipotle burger with chipotles infused into the ground beef as well as the sauce to pair with creamy avocados and provolone cheese. This spicy beef fajita burger recipe is already three-quarters of the way to a quesadilla. All you need is to is make the bun swap. Serve quesadilla burgers with your favorite brand of frozen french fries tossed with taco seasoning for a southwestern flair. Of course, you can also swap fries for tortilla chips and salsa.