Spicy Beef Quesadillas are an easy and delicious meal of gameday food to make with leftover short ribs or brisket. Caramelized onions and peppers are combined with chipotle peppers and crushed red pepper flakes to flavor and spice these crispy, cheesy quesadillas. Quesadillas don’t get any meatier or better than this.

Spicy Beef Quesadilla cut into triangles.

Great Way To Use Leftovers

For these Spicy Beef Quesdaillas, I like to use leftover short ribs. Leftover brisket also works well.

As far as leftover meat recipes go, I love these Spicy Beef Quesadillas every bit as much as these Brisket Grilled Cheese Sandwiches.

It’s great to cook up a big batch of short ribs and get at least 2 meals out of them. They only taste better with time.

Stack of Spicy Beef Quesadillas.

Spicy Filling

Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, crushed red pepper flakes, and smoked paprika give a ton of flavor and spice to the filling. The spicy filling with onions and peppers is combined with shredded Mexican cheese in a flour tortilla and pan-fried in butter until golden and crispy.

How To Serve Spicy Beef Quesadillas

Cut into wedges and serve  Spicy Beef Quesadillas either as a game day appetizer or a quick and easy family meal.

Spicy Beef Quesadillas
Spicy Short Rib Quesadillas

More Quesadilla Recipes

Spicy Beef Quesadillas

4.93 from 14 votes

By Christin Mahrlig

Prep: 5 minutes
Cook: 15 minutes
Total: 20 minutes
Servings: 4
Caramelized onions and peppers are combined with chipotle peppers and crushed red pepper flakes to flavor and spice these crispy, cheesy quesadillas. 
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Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1 medium yellow or sweet onion, chopped
  • 1 green bell pepper, chopped
  • 2 chipotle chile peppers in adobo sauce,, finely chopped
  • 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
  • 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
  • salt and pepper
  • 2 cups leftover Shredded Beef Short Ribs or Brisket
  • 8 (8-inch) flour tortillas
  • 2 cups shredded Mexican cheese
  • 2 tablespoons butter

Instructions 

  • Melt butter over medium-high heat in a large pan. Add onion and bell pepper and cook until they are starting to soften but still have a little crunch. 
  • Add chipotle peppers, red pepper flakes, paprika and season to taste with salt and pepper.
  • Stir leftover short ribs into onion mixture and transfer to a bowl.
  • Wipe pan clean. For each quesadilla, sprinkle about 1/4 cup cheese on a tortilla, top with 1/4 of short rib/onion mixture, and cover with another 1/4 cup cheese. Place a second tortilla on top.
  • Melt about a 1/2 tablespoon butter in the pan, add quesadilla and cook until golden brown on each side and cheese is melted. Repeat for remaining 3 quesadillas.

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Did you make this?Leave a comment below and tag us @spicysouthernkitchen on social media!

Originally posted February 8, 2018.

Quesadilla slices stacked on top of each other.

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14 Comments

  1. peytom megan says:

    Couldn’t stop eating these!

  2. emma jessica says:

    Amazing!

  3. annakenna says:

    Wow, it looks delicious. Thank you for sharing this recipe. I will try to do it for my family and rice purity test members next week.

  4. David L Bollman says:

    A big hit with the family
    For the cheese, I used extra sharp cheddar and Havarti
    Smoked Brisket
    Toppings: Pico & Sour cream
    The first batch had a full shell on the bottom with one on top per recipe and it was not easy to flip, and I say flip loosely.
    For the next ones, I only filled half of the shell then flipped the unused half over and toasted then flipped Quesadillas over and toasted the other half. Not only so much easier but I now had a hinge on one side to help hold it together. Will make it again. Next time I will shred a portion of the brisket while it’s still hot and not after it has cooled off in the fridge.

  5. Lisa says:

    Added jalapeรฑos, garlic and fresh mushrooms to the sautรฉ mix. Used burrito size tortillas. Topped with homemade pico and sour cream. Better than a restaurant for sure! Thank you for the awesome recipe!

  6. Laura says:

    My teen loved these. Total win. Now I have to figure out a vegetarian version. Mushrooms? Black beans? Cauliflower?

  7. Darci says:

    Soooooo good with our leftover smoked brisket. I cut the spices in half for my tender taste buds. Hubby loved it and I made cooking brownie points!

  8. John says:

    I need to put brisket in quesadillas more often!

  9. Annie says:

    The best!

  10. Bev. says:

    I made a brisket for the first time yesterday, it came out great. So today I needed something to do with the leftovers. I stumbled onto your recipe. So glad I did. This was great. I made it as is, I just changed the cheese, I used pepper jack & Colby jack.
    Thanks for the recipe.