BTTB Quesadilla Sauce

What Sauce Goes Well with Steak Quesadillas?

This post is dedicated to the answer!

Our homemade quesadilla sauce recipe is calibrated to uplift a steak quesadilla, but also works nicely with other protein renditions of the Mexican version of grilled cheese.

From plain cheese quesadilla to chorizo quesadillas and spicy chicken quesadillas it provides a wonderful dipping backdrop for each bite. Or every other bite if there is salsa. Or every third bite if there is also chipotle pepper crema or guacamole. You get it.

What is BTTB?

We call our homemade dip Better Than Taco Bell quesadilla sauce, because we find it to be truly better tasting and richer.

Although the one they whip up at the fast food restaurant (called creamy jalapeño sauce) is pretty good, our son loves it with steak chalupas, on the way back from tennis practice).

Ingredients

Sour cream and mayonnaise. Together they provide the creaminess for the homemade quesadilla sauce. If you prefer the tang and texture of Greek yogurt you can use it instead of the sour cream.

Pickled jalapeños and jalapeño juice. The lovely, tamed heat of pickled jalapeños is accompanied by a certain umami quality in result of soaking in the pickling liquid. They are just enough spicy and their texture soft enough to integrate in a creamy sauce. The mayo provides enough fat to absorb the sour, tangy quality of the jalapeno juice and the sauce is thinned out not only without dilution of flavor, but with a good deal of amplification.

Spices and seasonings. The core spice blend we use is comprised of onion powder, ground cumin, garlic powder and chili powder. We add kosher salt to season to taste and sometimes chili lime seasoning such as Tajin for an extra touch of acidity and heat. You can always skip the Tajin or reserve it for last so you can taste the sauce first and decide if you want to add it.

How to Make BTTB Quesadilla Sauce?

All it takes is mixing a few ingredients to a coherent consistency.

You could make the sauce in a blender if you want to, to fully integrate the pickled jalapeños. To us mincing them works better - the minced bits add pops of texture bursts of flavor. The done all by hand version also take less time than cleaning the blender.

TIP: You can control the level of spice and if you prefer a more spicy sauce than the initial result you can add a pinch of cayenne pepper or hot sauce to taste. Just stir it in. Overall, the goal is a well-balanced, harmonious blend of creaminess, acidity, saltiness, heat and umami.

The Recipe Card below has all the details on the ingredient quantities.

Enjoy the Quesadilla Sauce

Add some of the quesadilla sauce inside the steak quesadillas, slathered over the meat just before you fold the tortilla and cook them. Use as much or as little sauce as you want to or completely leave it out and serve it on the side.

Serve the creamy jalapeño sauce on the side for dipping.

Other Uses

A batch of our recipe as written yields a generous amount of sauce and you are likely to have some leftover. Here are a few ideas on using it in the next couple of days.

As a dressing for a taco salad. Just drizzle it over whatever you have going on (you may thin it out a bit by stirring in an extra tablespoon of pickled jalapeñosjuice).

As a sauce for burrito bowls, nachos, tacos or even empanadas.

As a finishing sauce for pan-seared or grilled chicken breast/tenders or pan-seared or grilled shrimp. Thin it out first with a bit of pickling liquid from the jalapeños or with a couple of dashes of Worcestershire sauce.

Store Leftover Quantity

Place leftover sauce in a jar or other convenient airtight container and store it in the refrigerator.

You May Enjoy

Chiles Toreados | Salsa Borracha | Chihuahua Cheese Quesadillas | Mexican Street Corn Esquites | Roasted Corn Salsa