Quesadilla Con Carne

Beef shin is one of the cheapest cuts on the counter, and slow cooking is what turns it into a filling worth putting inside a tortilla. My Quesadilla Con Carne is packed with that beef and plenty of chipotle.

Shin is a hard-working muscle, so it is laced with connective tissue, and that is the whole reason it suits this. Hours of gentle heat turn that tissue to gelatin, which is what makes shredded beef succulent rather than stringy. Any stewing cut with plenty of it does the same job. The beef goes in with peppers, onions and chipotle, then into a flour tortilla with melted mozzarella and onto a hot pan.

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At its simplest a quesadilla is cheese in a tortilla, cooked until the cheese has gone and the outside has crisped. Everything else is optional, which is why it turns up as a snack, as lunch, and as dinner when you put something like this inside it.

Historical Roots of the Quesadilla

Quesadillas are named for the cheese in them, and in Mexico that has most often meant quesillo, the stringy cheese from Oaxaca that the rest of us buy as Oaxaca cheese. Wheat came with the Spanish and flour tortillas took hold in the north, while the south stayed corn country, so a quesadilla can mean quite different things depending on where you are standing. Mine is a flour tortilla, folded and fried, which is the version most people picture outside Mexico.

Other Fillings Worth Knowing

A quesadilla is a format more than a recipe, and the filling changes with the region and the season. A few worth knowing:

• Flor de calabaza - squash blossoms with cheese, sometimes with mushrooms or epazote.
• Huitlacoche - the fungus that grows on corn, earthy and almost mushroomy, with cheese and usually onion.
• Chicharrón - crisp pork skin, often with a spoon of salsa or a slice of avocado.
• Rajas - strips of roasted poblano with cheese, sometimes sweetcorn or black beans.
• Tinga - shredded meat in a tomato and chipotle sauce, most often chicken. Of everything on this list it is the closest relative of what goes in mine.

Is This an Authentic Mexican Quesadilla?

Worth answering plainly, because it is the thing people ask. The filling is slow-braised shredded beef with cumin, paprika, chilli powder, oregano, chipotle paste and tomato. Its closest genuinely Mexican relative is tinga, shredded meat in tomato and chipotle, and the flavour lands in much the same place.

Where it parts company is the seasoning. A quesabirria, which is the famous slow-braised beef quesadilla, is built on whole dried chillies - guajillo, ancho, árbol - soaked and blended into the braising liquid. Mine uses a dry spice rub and chipotle paste instead. That is quicker, it uses what a supermarket actually stocks, and it gives a rounder, smokier heat rather than the brighter, fruitier one whole chillies bring.

So it is Mexican in flavour and in format, tinga in spirit, and it is not a quesabirria. If you want that, whole dried chillies are the change to make, and it is worth doing once. As for the name, con carne simply means with meat. It is a description rather than the title of one particular dish, which is why you will find no single fixed recipe for it.

Ingredient Substitutions

• Cheese - mozzarella is what the recipe uses, and it is not a compromise. It is the same sort of cheese as the Mexican original, a stretched curd, which is why grated pieces melt into one another and glue the fold shut. Oaxaca cheese is the real thing if a Mexican grocer is within reach. Monterey Jack does the same job. Go easy on cheddar: it carries more fat for the protein holding it together, so it weeps grease into the tortilla as it melts.
• Beef shin - skirt or rump steak, sliced thin, works if you are short on time, and leftover roast beef shreds in beautifully too.
• Chipotle paste - swap in a spoon of chipotle in adobo, or a mix of smoked paprika with a pinch of cayenne for the same smoky warmth.
• Frying fat - a light brush of oil is all it needs, and that is what the recipe uses. Plenty of American versions fry the tortilla in the fat off the braise, which is worth knowing about, but I do not bother. The filling is rich enough as it is.
• Bell peppers - mushrooms, sweetcorn or a handful of black beans all fold in nicely if you fancy a different filling.

Equipment You’ll Need

How to Make Quesadilla Con Carne, Step by Step

The card below has the quantities. This is the same six steps with the reasons attached, which is where most of the difference between a good quesadilla and a limp one actually lives.

1. Marinate the beef. Mix the cumin, cumin seeds, paprika, chilli powder, oregano, garlic and the oil in a bowl, then turn the diced shin through it until every piece is coated. Overnight in the fridge is best, thirty minutes is the minimum. A dry rub like this seasons the surface rather than the middle, which is exactly what you want here, because the braising liquid takes care of the inside.
2. Sear it, then set it to cook. Get a pan properly hot and brown the beef with the onion in batches, giving each piece room. Crowd the pan and the meat releases its water and steams instead of colouring, and you lose the browning that carries most of the flavour in the finished filling. Tip it all into the slow cooker, scraping in whatever has stuck to the pan, pour over enough stock to cover and add the salt. Three to four hours on high does it. If you would rather leave it overnight, cut the beef into bigger pieces and use the low setting, because small pieces given that long simply fall to threads. No slow cooker is no obstacle either: a heavy lidded pot on the lowest hob setting, or a low oven, gets you to the same place in about the same time. Either way it is ready when a piece gives way under a fork, not when the clock says so.
3. Fry the peppers separately. Ten minutes on a medium heat in their own pan, until they have taken some colour and lost their raw edge. Doing them apart from the beef is deliberate: dropped into the braise they would simply collapse, and you want them to keep a little bite against the soft meat.
4. Shred and dress, then let it cool. Lift the beef out and let it rest in its juices a few minutes, then pull it apart with your fingers. Mix it with the peppers, the parsley, the tomato puree, the chipotle and a spoon or two of the cooking liquid. Enough to make it glossy, not enough to make it wet. Then leave it off the heat until it stops steaming. Building with hot filling is the single commonest cause of a soggy quesadilla, because the steam has nowhere to go but into the tortilla.
5. Build it and fry it. Warm the tortillas through first, in a dry pan or briefly in the microwave, so they fold without cracking at the seam. Brush one side lightly with oil and lay it oiled-side-down on a hot pan. Scatter cheese over one half, spoon the beef on top and finish with a little more of the cheese, so it melts on both faces and holds the fold shut. Keep the heat at medium: too high and the tortilla scorches before the cheese has melted through. When the underside is golden, fold it over with a wide spatula in one movement rather than nudging at the edge.
6. Rest it, then cut. Give it a minute out of the pan before the knife goes in. The cheese sets just enough in that time for each wedge to hold together instead of sliding apart. Cut in half or into wedges and serve straight away, with lime and whatever you like alongside.

Recipe Card for Quesadilla Con Carne

What to Serve With Quesadilla Con Carne

🍽 I like to serve these hot from the pan, cut into generous wedges, with a spread of dips for dunking. Cool, creamy guacamole and a fresh tomato salsa are my go-tos, with soured cream and pickled jalapeños on the side for anyone who wants more of a kick. A simple green salad or a bowl of rice and refried beans turns it into a proper meal, and a squeeze of lime over the top brings everything together.

Storing, Freezing and Reheating

The beef is the part worth making ahead, and it is what everyone who cooks this sort of thing does. Cook it up to two days in advance and keep it in the fridge in its own liquid, which stops it drying out, then warm it through before you build. It also freezes well on its own for three months.

Fried quesadillas are best eaten within a few minutes of leaving the pan, so I would not fry a batch and let them sit. You can freeze them assembled, wrapped individually once completely cool, though it is not what most people do and the tortilla is never quite as good afterwards. Freezing them warm traps steam and you will taste it later.

To reheat, skip the microwave, which turns the tortilla limp. A dry pan over a medium heat for a couple of minutes a side brings the crisp back, or a hot oven. From frozen, thaw first so the middle heats through before the outside burns.

FAQ for Quesadilla Con Carne

What is a quesadilla con carne?

A flour tortilla folded around shredded beef and melted cheese, then fried until golden and crisp. In this one the beef is shin, slow-cooked for hours with chipotle and tomato until it pulls apart, rather than mince browned in a pan.

What cheese melts best?

Mozzarella, which is what this recipe uses and what you can buy anywhere. It is a stretched curd like the Oaxaca cheese a Mexican cook would reach for, so it melts the same way. Oaxaca is worth seeking out if you can. Monterey Jack is the other good one. A little cheddar in the mix adds flavour, but keep it a minority partner, because on its own it turns oily rather than stretchy.

How do I stop the quesadilla going soggy?

Three things, in order of how much they matter. Let the filling cool before you build, or the steam goes straight into the tortilla. Dress the beef so it is glossy rather than wet, and leave the rest of the braising liquid in the pot. And do not overfill it, because a thick quesadilla cannot crisp through before the outside burns.

Should I use flour or corn tortillas?

I always reach for flour tortillas here. They fold without cracking and crisp up beautifully, whereas corn tortillas tend to split at the seam and let the filling escape. If you only have corn, warm them first so they turn pliable and are less likely to break.

Why will my tortillas not crisp evenly?

Usually the pan, not the tortilla. It needs to be properly hot before anything touches it, and the quesadilla needs to sit flat, so do one at a time rather than squeezing in two. Warming the tortillas through first helps as well, because a cold one straight from the packet stiffens and splits at the fold instead of settling onto the pan.

Can I use leftover roast beef or pulled pork instead?

Yes, and it is a good use for either. Shred it, warm it through with the peppers, the chipotle and a splash of stock so it is not dry, and carry on from the building step. You lose the depth the long braise gives, so be a little more generous with the chipotle.

Can I make it with minced beef?

You can, and plenty of people do, but it is a different thing. Brown the mince hard with the same spices and let any liquid cook away, and what you get is closer to a chilli con carne in a tortilla than to this. The slow-cooked shin is what makes it worth the afternoon.

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A Few Words from the Chef

I love a wrap with meat and cheese in it, and underneath everything else that is all this is. Proper Mexican ingredients are hard to come by where I shop, so this is my way round that: it uses what you can actually buy and it still tastes really good. If you make it, tell me how it went in the comments, and say what you changed.