Quesadilla Burgers Are The Ultimate Dinnertime Mashup

You've heard of the viral smash taco trend: Cooking a smash burger but replacing the bun with a tortilla and adding desired toppings. It took social media by storm, but it's not the only way to pair ground beef with a tortilla bun — and if you're a fan of that, you might want to try a quesadilla burger. It essentially replaces the typical burger bun by wrapping the patty in a grilled tortilla as if it were a quesadilla. Plus, you can choose any toppings you want to fill it with, and since it's loaded into the tortilla, it is less messy than a traditional burger.

Quesadillas are generally full of cheese, which remains the case here unless you prefer a burger sans cheesy goodness. While cooking the patty, you will need to spend extra time grilling the tortillas, but we promise the result will make that one extra step worth it.

One recipe suggests that grilling the burgers and tortillas is the best way to make this dish because you can cook all elements of the recipe at the same time. Just form your patties and toss them onto the grill; the recipe suggests seasoning the patties with Worcestershire. From there, while the patties cook, you can use the other half of the grill to toast the tortillas and melt the cheese over top. Before adding the patties to the tortillas and folding them up, don't forget to add the Southwest sauce — or any sauce of your choice — to the tortilla as well.

The toppings are up to you; include any additions you would normally add to your burger. Lettuce, tomato, and onion are a great starting point, but you can certainly add crispy onions or hot peppers to give it an extra crunch or kick.

Although ground beef is most commonly used in burger patties, you don't have to stick with the status quo. Try cooking chicken burgers and replacing the Southwest sauce with a buffalo-ranch blend. The quesadilla burger turns into the ultimate buffalo chicken burger, and you can blend mozzarella and blue cheese to get that gooey cheese texture with a hint of the blue cheese's tanginess.

Sausage patties are a great way to change up this dish, too. Grill some peppers and onions alongside the sausage burgers, then add mozzarella and marinara to the toasted tortillas for the ultimate sausage and pepper quesadilla burgers. You can certainly go vegetarian, too, by using plant-based burgers. Using mayonnaise as the base for the sauce rather than sour cream is a great way to make the sauce dairy-free, and you can easily replace the cheese with other toppings for a dairy-free, vegetarian option.