Breakfast Quesadillas – A Simple, Inexpensive Meal Any Time

by Texas Homesteader ~ 

Have you ever heard of breakfast quesadillas? It’s fluffy scrambled eggs, sautéed peppers/onions and melted cheese between a couple of toasted tortillas.

They’re a delicious, inexpensive meal option since eggs are cheap. Come see how I whip them up.

Breakfast quesadillas are made with flour tortillas stuffed with grilled onions & peppers, breakfast meat, scrambled eggs and cheddar cheese. #TexasHomesteader

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What Is A Quesadilla?

Most folks around these parts love quesadillas. It’s a flour tortilla topped with cheese, a filling of some sort, more cheese to anchor all the fillings and topped with another tortilla.

(Or a single larger tortilla with fillings on one side and the tortilla folded back over them)

The quesadilla surface is then toasted on both sides on a hot griddle until the tortillas are lightly browned & crispy.

Different Flavors of Quesadillas

As bonafide Tex-Mex food lovers, RancherMan & I enjoy quesadillas often. Some of our favorite quesadilla flavors:

Sheet Pan Jumbo Beef Quesadilla. This one feeds a crowd of 8 or more and is made fast. Just layer everything on a large sheet pan and bake! 

Sheet Pan quesadilla feeds a crowd of 8 or more. #TexasHomesteader

Spinach Quesadilla using the fresh spinach from our garden, grilled onion & shredded cheddar cheese. 

Spinach quesadillas using fresh spinach & cheddar cheese with a flour tortilla. #TexasHomesteader

Southwest Quesadilla using leftover chicken, grilled sliced onions and peppers, sweet corn and black beans. 

Southwest Quesadillas are easy to make with flour tortillas stuffed with grilled peppers & onions, corn and black beans and cheddar cheese. #TexasHomesteader

Ground Beef Quesadilla using leftover meatloaf, grilled onions & bell pepeprs with shredded cheese for a quick meal. 

Ground Beef Quesadillas are easy to make with flour tortillas stuffed with leftover meatloaf, grilled peppers & onions, and cheddar cheese. #TexasHomesteader

Actually I’ll use all manner of leftover cooked meats to make quesadillas. Leftover steak or grilled chicken make delicious quesadillas and FAST!

Using Planned Leftovers cooking means I’ll take advantage of RancherMan’s urge to fire up the charcoal grill. Then I’ll just add extra chicken breasts and onions/peppers for him to grill at the same time.

Using these shortcuts has made it possible for me to serve Homemade Meals Daily, The EASY Way.

But when I heard of BREAKFAST quesadillas, well, color me intrigued. Now I make them often.

Breakfast Quesadilla Options

Depending upon what kind of meat I want to use (or even IF I want meat added) I’ll cook the meat first. Sausage or bacon are good breakfast-meat choices.

But I’ve also diced up leftover meat from previous meals, whether chicken or beef. Really, it’s hard to go wrong with any of it.

Otherwise you can simply opt for a veggie-heavy breakfast quesadilla by sticking with onions, peppers, and any other veggie you typically enjoy with your eggs.

On this day I decided to use a couple of leftover chicken patties as the meat. They were already cooked so I simply diced the cooked patties into very small pieces and set them aside.

In my Grandmother’s Cast Iron Skillet I sautéed some chopped onion in a small amount of bacon grease. (when deciding on butter or bacon grease, Bacon Grease Is King at our homestead!). 

For breakfast quesadillas, first Sauté onions in bacon grease until translucent. #TexasHomesteader

Sometimes I’ll add bell pepper to the mix. Or if I want it spicy I’ll add jalapenos, or mildly-spicy fresh pepperoncini pepper. Just whatever fresh peppers from the garden that I have needing to be used.

Shootin’ from the hip, y’all! Flexibility is a major player in eliminating food waste at our Homestead.

Once the onions/peppers are ready I’ll add my cooked, chopped meat with them in the skillet and stir it all together.

Now I turn my attention to preparing the eggs.

I pull out a mixing bowl & a whisk and mix up some fresh eggs with a splash of milk and a touch of salt and pepper to taste (about a teaspoon of each, depending upon how many eggs I’m cooking). 

Mix fresh eggs to make scrambled eggs for breakfast quesadillas. #TexasHomesteader

Then I add the mixed eggs to the meat and onion/pepper mixture and scramble them all together until the eggs are nice & fluffy. Now it’s quesadilla showtime!

What To Use To Grill Crispy Quesadillas

I have a *Double-Burner cast iron Griddle that I love and use often. This bad boy will make up to 3 of these breakfast quesadillas at a time when using fajita-sized tortillas. 

Of course you can use whatever you typically use to make quesadillas, whether flat griddle or a skillet. Heck, they even sell special *Quesadilla Cookers these days. Whatever you typically use is fine.

Grilling The Breakfast Quesadillas

I heat the griddle and add a little butter or bacon grease to coat the surface. This small amount of grease helps your tortillas crisp lightly as they brown. 

When the grease is melted I plop on a tortilla and rub it around the griddle surface to coat the surface of my tortilla. Then sprinkle a little cheese on the tortilla surface to begin its melting.

I top that melting cheese with my egg/onion/meat mixture and spread it evenly over the tortilla. Then I top with another sprinkling of cheese and the other tortilla.

I allow each side to cook until golden brown and my breakfast quesadillas are done! 

Quesadilla grilled until crispy and served on a plate. #TexasHomesteader

How Much Filling Do You Use In A Quesadilla?

How much filling you add here depends upon the size of your tortillas and how ‘stuffed’ you want your breakfast quesadilla to be.

I often go a little overboard in the quantity of stuffing I add to my quesadillas. And that complicates things.

Don’t Overfill The Quesadilla: if the quesadilla is overfilled it makes it super hard to keep all that stuffing inside the quesadilla when you flip it to toast the tortilla and melt the cheese. #askmehowiknow.

So try not to overstuff your quesadillas like I typically do!

Easier Quesadilla Flipping Using Burrito-Size Tortillas

OR if (like me) you’re quesadilla-flipping challenged, you can just use a larger tortilla.

Place your cheese & fillings on one side of the larger tortilla and fold the other half over the top. This gives you a folded edge to help keep everything inside while you’re doing the flipping. 

It's easier to flip quesadillas if you use larger tortillas and just fill half & fold the tortilla over. #TexasHomesteader

If I have larger tortillas in my kitchen that’s what I’ll use. But more often than not I have the smaller fajita-sized tortillas.

So I’ll just fill a tortilla then top it with another tortilla and try not to overfill it. (but I usually fail, I can’t help myself!)

Can You Use Mix-n-Pour Tortillas for Quesadillas?

I’ve also made these breakfast quesadillas using my favorite simple Mix-n-Pour Tortillas. Those tortillas are a combination of a corn street taco married to a flour tortilla. 

Mix & Pour Tortillas roll beautifully without cracking. #TexasHomesteader

We really enjoy these homemade tortillas and use them in all kinds of dishes. (or eating fresh)

But what about using them in quesadillas? Well the results of using these tortillas for my quesadillas are certainly palatable.

But because there’s no fat in my mix-n-pour tortilla ingredients I haven’t really been pleased at how they toasted as quesadillas. They seem to end up tougher and not light & crispy.

I have plenty of other delightful uses for my mix-n-pour tortillas, such as when enjoying Homemade Hummus or many Tex-Mex dishes. But traditional flour tortillas actually work better for me when making quesadillas.

Topping Options For Breakfast Quesadillas

When both sides of your quesadilla are nicely toasted, you’re done! I like to cut my breakfast quesadilla in halves or quarters. If desired there are a few fun topping options for homemade quesadillas: 

Homemade Sour Cream Substitute – I use plain yogurt & lemon juice to make a healthier sour cream substitute.

Spicy Hatch Chile Sauce – A blend of Hatch chiles, Greek yogurt, garlic & olive oil.

Quick Homemade Garden Salsa – A quick topping of chopped fresh garden tomatoes, onions & peppers.

Homemade Pico de Gallo – a delightful mix of fresh tomato, onion, jalapeno, garlic, cilantro and lime juice.  

Additional garnish such chopped jalapenos or chives. 

Fresh pico de gallo made with tomatoes, onions, garlic, cilantro and lime juice. #TexasHomesteader

I especially love RancherMan’s homemade Pico de Gallo. Plus he doesn’t mind making pico at all since he can whip it up in mere minutes. No really – MINUTES!

There’s a secret to making it so quick – the shape of the blade! (We have this *Crank Vegetable Chopper

Pico de Gallo food chopper. #TexasHomesteader

Breakfast for Supper Menu Options

One of our favorite meals is breakfast-for-supper. Since RancherMan & I don’t really eat breakfast at the traditional time in the morning, it’s a real treat for us to get to enjoy it as an evening meal.

Breakfast Burritos – Often made with sausage, potato, egg & cheese.

Breakfast-On-A-Biscuit – Can be pre-made and frozen for grab-n-go breakfast

All-In-One Breakfast – Fun muffin-shaped egg, sausage and cheese breakfast.

Homemade Pancakes – My favorite, light, fluffy homemade pancakes.

We love it all! 

Homemade pancakes are an easy breakfast option. #TexasHomesteader

But on this occasion I invited the folks over to enjoy supper with us. I’d told them I planned a breakfast-for-supper meal, and I wanted it to be something fun.

I’d decided to make these breakfast quesadillas.

Serving Breakfast Quesadillas

So I cut the prepared breakfast quesadilla into wedges and placed them on plates.

Extra toppings or not, they’re a delicious, easy and inexpensive meal. 

Breakfast Quesadillas are flour tortillas stuffed with scrambled eggs, breakfast meat, grilled peppers and onions and cheddar cheese, then grilled until crispy. #TexasHomesteader

But for mine I decided on some ultra-spicy specialty habanero salsa and a hearty helping of RancherMan’s pico. (I’m not gonna lie, there’s always precious little of RancherMan’s homemade pico de gallo left after our meal)

Now that our plates are filled with deliciousness, it’s time to dig in!

~TxH~

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Tagged in Our favorite breakfast ideas. #TexasHomesteader  All our posts about eggs from our free-range flock. #TexasHomesteader   

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2 thoughts on “Breakfast Quesadillas – A Simple, Inexpensive Meal Any Time

  1. Ken

    While my wife and I enjoy quesadillas, we had never even thought of them for breakfast. Until now! Thanks for the idea. Really enjoyed them.

    Reply
    1. Texas Homesteader Post author

      I’d never really thought of them before either. I made them a few weeks back and we loved them. Now they’re on tight rotation now to use up those fresh eggs. Simple, inexpensive, filling & delicious. ~TxH~

      Reply

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