Oven-Baked Pulled Pork Quesadillas
Making quesadillas is a no-brainer when it comes to snacking. Anything in the fridge becomes fair game…leftover chicken, grilled vegetables, sliced steak. As long as I have tortillas, cheese and some salsa, I feel confident that a delicious quesadilla can be made.
When I featured my Pulled Pork with Tangy Barbecue Sauce a few weeks back, I had so much pork that I decided to leave some without the bbq sauce and work it into some additional recipes. And, then I figured maybe I should bake these quesadillas rather than fry them in a sauté pan or griddle. Can I make a lot at one time? Will they be delicious?
The answer is yes! You can bake a bunch at a time, you can use the pulled pork, and yes, they are absolutely delicious! Enjoy!
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Oven-Baked Pulled Pork Quesadillas
Makes: 4 servings
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 16 minutes
Total Time: 31 minutes (not including cooking pulled pork)
Ingredients
Pulled Pork:
- 1/3 recipe of Pulled Pork with Tangy Barbecue Sauce without Barbecue Sauce (See Chef’s Notes)
Filling:
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 small onion , diced (brown, white, yellow)
- 1 garlic clove , minced
- 1 red bell pepper , diced
- 1 green bell pepper , diced
Quesadillas:
- 4 (8-inch) flour tortillas
- Olive oil spray
- 1 cup grated cheese, or more to taste (Cheddar, Monterey Jack, Pepper Jack or other melting cheese of choice) (See Chef’s Notes)
- Quick-Pickled Red Onions
Instructions
Heat oil in skillet over high heat. Add onion and garlic, cook for 1 minute. Then add bell peppers and cook for 2 minutes until starting to soften. Transfer to bowl. Add pulled pork to the same bowl and combine with filling ingredients.
Set aside until the filling cools (to speed it up, cover and refrigerate, and/or spread out on plate).
Preheat oven to 425°F. Spray sheet pan lightly with olive oil. Heat sheet pan in the oven while you assemble the quesadillas.
Divide the filling between the tortillas, covering half the surface. Add a spoonful of pickled red onion and spread over the filling. Top with cheese. Fold in half and press down gently but firmly.
Remove baking tray from oven. Transfer quesadillas onto tray (you should hear a soft sizzle). Bake for 8 minutes. Then turn the quesadillas (over the folded edge) and press down with a spatula. Bake for 8 more minutes or until the surface is crispy. Remove from oven and serve immediately!
Chef’s Notes:
The Pulled Pork with Tangy Barbecue Sauce makes a very large amount of pork and I’m always looking for other uses. That’s where these quesadillas come in. Just leave the sauce off, and set aside 1/4-1/3 of the recipe (you can freeze the un-sauced pork at this point if you want to make this recipe at some future time).
I tend not to use Mozzarella Cheese in quesadillas because it doesn’t have as much flavor as other cheese. But feel free to use it if you want!
The 3 things I found make all the difference so the quesadillas come out crispy (without baking them so long they are dark brown) are:
- Cooling the filling first (this reduces steam inside the quesadilla while baking)
- Heating the oiled sheet pan
- Cooking in a fairly hot oven
You can make 2 trays of this at the same time. It will take around 5 minutes longer and the trays should be swapped partway through. The tray that ends up at the bottom will probably need a few minutes longer after you take the top one out.
Recipe adapted from Recipetin Eats
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