I made my favorite Cuban sandwich into a quesadilla filled with roast pork (pernil), ham, Swiss cheese, pickles, and mustard! Perfect for a quick lunch and a great way to use up my Slow Cooker Pernil.

Cuban Sandwich Quesadilla
I love making quesadillas, they are such a great way to use up leftovers! Some of my favorites are Chicken Quesadillas Picadillo Quesadillas and BBQ Chicken Quesadillas.
For those of you who never heard of a Cuban sandwich, you might think this is a strange combo. A classic Cuban sandwich is made with roast pork (pernil), ham, Swiss, pickles, and mustard, butter and garlic on Cuban bread, heated and melted on a panini press. It’s not a low-cal meal by any means, so I lightened it by making it on a tortilla, all the flavors of a Cuban without the extra calories!
Varieties and Tips:
- If you are not a pork eater, you can swap the pork for leftover chicken or turkey.
- My favorite gluten-free tortillas are Siete brand. For a low-carb wheat option try Ole Xtreme.
How To Make A Cuban Sandwich Quesadilla
More Recipes You May Like:
Cuban Sandwich Quesadilla
Ingredients
- 1 oz slow cooker pernil
- 1 slice reduced-fat Swiss cheese, I used Sargento
- 1 oz lean ham, I uses Hillshire Farm 97% fat free
- 1 slice dill pickle
- 1 teaspoon mustard
- 6- inch or 8-inch low-carb whole wheat or gluten-free tortilla
Instructions
- Heat a non-stick skillet over low heat.
- Spray with oil and place tortilla on the pan.
- On half of the tortilla, place a piece of cheese, pork, ham, pickle and mustard.
- When cheese is melted, fold the quesadilla in half and flip to heat other side.
- Remove from heat and cut into 3 pieces.
A family favorite!! A must-try! Delicious and easy to make!!
So good!!! I made them with leftover pork carnitas. I prepared cream of onion soup and the Cuban sandwich quesadillas. What a great dinner!!!
This was so easy and tasty! Question: do pickles freeze well? If so, I bet these would be great rolled up like breakfast burritos, frozen, and cooked when ready to eat.
How is 1 g a serving???
You can use a food scale
Can I cook the pork in my IP?
Holy smokes this is soooo good. I’ll be honest that I was super worried about the different flavors coming together. But oh my gosh, it was better than I could’ve imagined. Will be making again for sure.Â
These are AMAZING!!! I do crave Cuban sandwiches and can never find one that I am satisfied with, but this totally was satisfying. I did my husband’s with bread and he asked for a second one.
This was fantastic! I used the pork pernil that was leftover from the weekend and changed out the ham for canadian bacon because that is what I had. So good.
I love this recipe! Â One of my favorites. Â Should I assume the freestyle points are the same as the Smart Points? Â Thanks so much!!
Thank you and yes!
Loved the sandwich, Nice to change up leftovers too. The pork is a great recipe in and of itself. I could eat this sandwich every day! so good.
Thanks Frances!
Hey gina- can you please update with smart points?
Will do!
These are delicious! I used deli roast beef in place of the pernil. What a quick and yummy lunch!
just found your sight, I am polish and of course we love pickles with every thing so this is just great for me. Thank you so much for letting people know about the Pickle
I just tried this recipe over the weekend and it was a HUGE hit at our house. Delicious! Thank you Gina 😉
I saw this recipe a few weeks ago and just kept thinking about it so I figured that meant I should try it. I wasn't disappointed one bit. These are so delicious!! Thank you so much for this delicious recipe.
Gina, this sandwich is perfect. Thanks for making so many delicious recipes for the rest of us to enjoy. My husband isn't counting points, but he is benefiting from all of these great meals & is shedding weight too.
After dinner last night, my boyfriend, who is not on WW, said, "Are you going to go on Skinnytaste and leave a comment about how delicious these quesadillas are?"
Thank you for creating healthy and flavorful meals that appeal to those of counting points as well as those who aren't!
Im at a loss for words…I found this website accidentally the other day by snooping around on Pinterest and WOW!! I was so excited to not only find a website that had easy to follow, delicious sounding recipes; but also had weight watchers points already counted. Thank you doesn't seem like a big enough word for how easy you have made my life this week, lol. We have already made your homemade french fries, skinny crockpot pernil, cuban beans and rice, collard greens, and I am eating a cuban quesidilla as I type. LOVE LOVE LOVE…thank you for taking the time to make our lives a little easier and more delicious! Can't wait to try more 🙂
Pulled pork is in the crock pot as we speak! This will be lunch tomorrow! YUM! Thanks!
I'm glad I can help!! We love picadillo in my house!
PS: I subbed turkey "ham" for the ham and used the shredded roast beef from my pot roast. Used everything just as you directed. I also doctored up a version of your low fat banana bread (I added shredded coconut and cut the sugar in half by using 1/2 c agave nectar and 1/2 c apple sauce. I Love your blog it's a God Send. I just joined WW and your site is making it easy for me to stick to my point limits each day. It also helps that my son loves everything I've made so far – – (baked potato soup yesterday). I'm trying the empanadas tomorrow. I made the picadillo tonight. Thanks again!
I made this today for my 11 yr old son and he and I LOVED them. I don't eat pork and I'm not crazy about Turkey so I did a pot roast in the slow cooker last night and used some of it in the sandwich – DELISH!! Thanks abunch!
We had the skinny puerto rican pulled pork earlier this week and these cubans last night. Everything was DELICIOUS! Even my super-picky husband ate it up. 🙂 Thanks for the awesome recipes. I can't wait to try more from your site!
Isn't this great!
Once I made the pernil recipe, I knew I had to try this and am so very glad I did. I couldn't find 6 in tortillas. The supermarket near me actually had La Tortilla Factory tortillas & wraps on sale but they were the large size so the points+ value was different but it still wasn't bad.
This was so yummy. There's something about the combination that made it especially tasty. 🙂
I'm so glad I had a recipe that made use of the pernil. This is the BEST recipe for leftovers ever!
I'm sure it would be just as good with left of turkey in place of the pork. Next Thanksgiving, I know what I'm doing with those turkey leftovers. 🙂
Thanks for sharing your recipes. Big kudos!
So I blew the dust off my slow cooker and decided to try this recipe out. I couldn't believe how tender the pork was! Adding a little bit of ham with mustard and pickle made this dish. I was also surprised that it didn't need mayo!
Glad you all liked it!
This is soooo good! Forgot to get the ham, so I will add it next time. It was so good! I made room in my daily points for two!!
I made these today and they are really good! Thank you for the recipe! I did have to modify it to my taste & what I had in the house. I don't like swiss so I used low fat pepperjack cheese and I'm out of ham so I used a slice of turkey. Still came out excellent!