Chicken Quesadillas

About once a week, my family eats at a Mexican place close to our home. We go there so frequently the waitstaff have become buddies with my son, giving him high fives and fist bumps, and tousling his hair as they pass by our table. We are recognized, which is nice...but can lead to some embarrassment. Since the restaurant is so close to us, we often walk there when the weather is nice, pushing the kids in strollers. On one such trip, we finished up a lovely meal, got our bill (which our son has begun to hold himself to take up to the counter to pay), and then started the affair of packing the kids back up in the strollers and making sure we didn’t leave anything behind. This can take upwards of fifteen minutes, especially if we discover a wet or dirty diaper in the process. So, there we are, frantically changing diapers and gathering various kiddie items as the restaurant fills with more patrons waiting for a table. We finally got both kids with clean diapers in their strollers and everything packed up, made sure nothing was left on the table, and, satisfied with another successful restaurant outing with two kids under 3 years of age, proceeded with a relaxing stroll back home. Whew!

Oh, wait…

“Did you pay the El Nopal bill?” my husband asked me the next day. “Nooo….” I replied, my voice trailing off. “...Did you?” Nope, he hadn’t either.

OOPS.

Yes. In our mad rush to clear out, we accidentally forgot to pay our bill. Later that day my husband went in to pay, and they had the bill taped to the wall behind the register. How mortifying! We weren’t sure if we’d ever be able to show our faces there again...which was so very unfortunate, because our favorite dish to share is their chicken quesadilla with guacamole. When we got to craving it again, the embarrassment was still too raw...we decided to just try to make it at home. Turns out, it was actually pretty easy to do! We even had the freedom to add more veggies to the quesadillas, and adjust the amount of cheese to our personal preferences. The bonus with making them at home is we could make burritos with the leftovers! WIN!

 

Ingredients: (6-8 quesadillas)

3 chicken breasts

1 medium onion

1 green bell pepper

~1 cup Mexican-style cheese blend (Monterey Jack, cheddar, asadero, queso quesadilla - can use all Monterey Jack or cheddar, or Colby Jack, instead of Mexican blend)

6-8 tortillas (I used flour tortillas, about 10” in diameter)

Chili seasoning (spice mix - not red chili powder)

Garlic powder (or fresh minced garlic)

Cumin powder

Salt, pepper to taste

A little oil for cooking

Cook and shred chicken breast per the instructions found here. Slice the onion and green pepper, and sauté in cooking oil over medium heat until the onions are translucent. If the chicken is cooked just before the onion and pepper, you can use the leftover drippings to cook the vegetables. Add the cooked chicken to the vegetables, and season with garlic, chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper to taste. Let simmer for 5-10 minutes.

 

Place a tortilla in a pan heated over med-lo heat. Sprinkle about 1 TBSP cheese on half the tortilla, spread about ¼ cup of the chicken-veggie mix over the cheese, and then top with more cheese. Fold the other half of the tortilla over, and let it sit for a few minutes until slightly browned and crispy, then gently flip and cook on the other side, until cheese is thoroughly melted.

 

For some extra crisp, grease the pan with a little bit of butter before assembling the tortilla in it. Serve with a scoop of fresh guacamole and garnish with cilantro.

~Karla

P.S. We’ve since been able to bolster our courage to dine at our favorite Mexican restaurant again, and we made absolutely sure we paid!

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Roasted Corn Quesadilla with Tomatillo Salsa

A few weeks ago I made a sweet and sour roasted tomatillo and apple salsa. It was a lot more than I could devour with chips in just a couple days, so I froze some of it and have been using it in different ways since - dipping sauce for veggies, dressing for salads, spread for sandwiches etc. Here’s another recipe that brings out the bright flavors in this salsa - crispy quesadilla with corn tortillas and a roasted corn, pepper and beans filling.

Ingredients: (Makes ~4-5)

8-10 Corn tortillas

½ cup roasted tomatillo & apple salsa (Click here for recipe)

¾ - 1 cup shredded Mexican blend cheese (or other quick melting cheese - I used Queso Chihuahua Shredded cheese)

Filling

1 cup sweet corn

1 small red bell pepper - chopped

½ small onion - chopped (~¼ cup)

½ cup black or kidney beans - cooked (or from a can)

1-2 cloves of garlic - minced

1 tsp oil

Salt, black pepper - to taste

To make Filling:

Heat oil over medium-high and add garlic and onions. Saute for a minute, then add the pepper and corn. Let them cook until browned, stirring occasionally. Add the beans, season with salt, pepper, mix well and take off the heat.

Assembly:

Warm two tortillas on both sides. Spread about 1 Tbsp of salsa on one of the tortillas. Top it with 2-3 Tbsp of filling mixture and about 2 Tbsp of shredded cheese. Place the other tortilla on top.

Press down with a spatula and cook on medium heat until the bottom is browned and crispy. You can use a little bit of butter/oil if you like. Gently flip the quesadilla and cook the other side until crispy. Cut into wedges and serve with more salsa for dipping.  

~Gayatri

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Roasted Tomatillo and Apple Salsa

Tomatillos, often confused with unripe green tomatoes, have a completely unique personality of their own. Both are technically berries, but unlike tomatoes, tomatillos are covered with a thin paper-like husk, and the fruit has a sticky coating underneath the husks. Raw tomatillos can be extremely tart, but cooking them helps mellow the acidity as well as soften the skin, making them perfect for a sauce.

I always like sweetness accompanying any tart flavor, so after some internet research, I decided to use apple as the complementing flavor for tomatillo salsa. This ended up being the perfect amount of sweet, sour, and spicy for me, but feel free to play with the quantities to skew the taste one way or another!

Ingredients: (Makes ~1.5-2 cups)

4 medium tomatillos - remove husks and rinse

1 medium apple (I used the Golden Delicious variety)

4-5 cloves of garlic - minced

1 small onion - roughly chopped (~⅓- ½ cup)

1 small jalapeno pepper - cored and roughly chopped (add more if you prefer a spicier salsa)

1 cup loosely packed cilantro (I used both leaves and stems)

Salt, black pepper to taste

1 tsp olive oil

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a cookie sheet/ baking pan with Aluminum foil.

Chop the tomatillos into quarters. Slice the apple into thick wedges. Place both on the lined baking pan in a single layer and bake in preheated oven for ~20 minutes until slightly browned.

While the tomatillos and apples are baking, prepare remaining ingredients by sauteeing the onions, garlic and jalapeno in olive oil over medium-high heat. Let them cook until you get a good char on the jalapeno and onions.

Add the onion mixture, the cooked tomatillos and apples, cilantro to a food processor and blend to your preferred consistency. Season with salt and pepper. To keep it chunky, you could reserve a couple tablespoons of finely chopped apple.

Store in the refrigerator. Serve with tortilla chips or use in your favorite Mexican recipe!

~Gayatri

Other recipes you might like:

Vegetarian Enchiladas with Sour Cream Tomatillo Sauce

Chicken and Spinach Enchiladas

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