When I Dip You Dip We Dip!
There is nothing wrong with a plain cheese quesadilla—we love them, we grew up on them! Slap some cheddar cheese in a flour tortilla and pop it in the microwave for 30 seconds—oh yeah, we did that pretty much every day after school from age 7 to 17. But we’re a little older and our tastes have matured. Wait, scratch that. We’re a little older and we know how much better a cheese quesadilla can be. This sheet pan quesadilla recipe features a whole mess of upgrades, like:
Instead of just one cheese, use TWO. We use mozzarella—nothing melts better than mozzarella—and pepper Jack cheese.
Instead of a bunch of individual quesadillas, make one huge one! (we promise this is easier than it sounds.)
Instead of microwaving the cheese (it just never gets melty in quite the right way when you try to microwave a quesadilla) you’ve got to bake the quesadilla.
Instead of serving the quesadilla on its own, whip up a fast, easy homemade jalapeño ranch dressing for dipping!
Excuse Me, Did You Say Jalapeño Ranch Dip?
Yes, yes we did. We all know the biggest hit at any party—at least any party we’ve ever thrown—is always the dish that involves ranch dip or melty cheese. So, we thought to ourselves, what if we could dream up a party recipe that brought those two things deliciously together? Enter this sheet pan quesadilla recipe! The homemade jalapeño ranch dip is easier than it sounds. All you’ll need to make it is:
- Mayonnaise
- Sour cream
- Onion powder
- Garlic powder
- Cilantro
- Pickled jalapeños
- A few limes
How To Make Quesadillas for a Crowd
Bringing out a single, huge, perfectly warm, melty cheese quesadilla to a bunch of hungry friends is a really great feeling. It’s a little showy, and just generally awesome. It’s a giant quesadilla! With ranch dressing for dipping! It’s all of your childhood food dreams come true. Here’s how to make a giant cheese quesadilla:
- Cover a greased baking sheet with tortillas. Six around the edges, two in the middle, until the whole sheet is covered.
- Fill the giant tortilla! Mozzarella and pepper Jack cheese, freshly grated, along with creamy avocado and green onions. Top with more tortillas.
- Brush the top with oil (or use a spray) because you’ll be topping the giant tortilla with another baking sheet to help it hold together as it bakes and you don’t want the second baking sheet to stick.
- Bake! This giant quesadilla takes about 25 minutes to bake.
- Make the jalapeño ranch while the quesadilla bakes by just whizzing all of the ranch ingredients together with an immersion blender (or in a food processor.)
- Serve! We like to cut the quesadilla into squares, for easy pick-up-and-dip action.
Tools You’ll Need:
- Two baking sheets.
- Cheese grater (like a box grater) or the grating attachment for your food processor.
- Immersion blender or food processor.
- Sharp knife.
More Party Recipe Ideas to Try
Food makes a party—it’s just a fact. Especially the kind of food people don’t cook for themselves! Treat food, cheesy food, indulgent food. Treat your party guests to one of these super fun recipes:
Giant Cheese Quesadillas FTW!
Food doesn’t get much more fun than this cheese quesadilla with jalapeño ranch, and we hope that you have as much fun making this easy recipe as we did coming up with it! Snap a photo of your finished quesadilla and maybe even a video of the beautiful people you share it with. Tag us on Instagram using @themodernproper and #themodernproper. Happy eating!
