Savory

Chicken quesadillas

 

 

I love complicated dishes. Stirring, tossing, tasting and watching food slowly created is so exciting.

But I have to admit that from time to time I can't resist cooking a dish that is fast and do not require hours of preparation and cooking. A quick and easy food is not necessarily bland or indifferent. It needs attention and care too, but the time it takes to prepare it is less and that makes it attractive. There are dishes that by changing some of the materials used, can transform them from complex and time consuming to quickly and easily done.

One such a dish we have today. One of Mexican origin. Quesadillas are made with tortillas, either flour or corn, that have a filling with cheese as a basic material. The different variations that have been created over the years, combine the cheese with vegetables, sausages and even meat.

If you enjoy preparing your meals from scratch and you have the time to do it, you can bake tortillas yourself. In an upcoming post I will give you a recipe to try. Today, however, will skip this step and we will prepare our dish a bit faster using ready-made tortillas. We will use chicken for the filling so that our dish can stand as a meal . Recipe requires chicken to be boiled while you prepare the remaining ingredients. But if you like, you can grill the chicken in the toaster or in the oven. Smart idea would be to use yesterday's leftovers. Why not? Whatever you choose to do I am sure you will have a very good result.

As always, you can alter the ingredients to your own liking and taste. The preparation of the dish is easy enough. In a saucepan put the chicken to boil (I would suggest that you've already cut it in small pieces to make it boil faster) and in another saucepan prepare the sauce. While chicken and sauce are cooling down so that you can use them, prepare the filling and tortillas. Assemble the quesadillas and fry. Make sure that your frying pan can be put in the oven. If nevertheless you do not have such a pan does not matter. Just increase the cooking time in the frying pan, being careful not to burn the tortillas. Organize the steps properly and you will have a wonderful meal in no time. This dish does not have peculiar ingredients but their combination gives a delicious result.

Enjoy  

 
 

Ingredients :

 
  • 6 tortilla wraps 
  • 300 gr grated cheese (emmental, gouda, gruyere)
sauce 
  • 30 ml olive oil 
  • 1-2 cloves of garlic (finely chopped) 
  • 1 can of whole peeled tomatoes 
  • 1 pinch of salt 
  • 1 cup fresh basil leaves
filling 
  • 1 clove of garlic (smashed) 
  • 1/4 tsp dried chilli flakes 
  • 100 gr corn kernels (boiled) 
  • 250 gr chicken breast (boiled & cut in cubes) 
  • 1/4 tsp coriander seeds (powdered)
 

Preparation : 

 
  1. Prepare the sauce.
  2. In a saucepan heat olive oil. 
  3. Fry the garlic gently, until golden brown. 
  4. Add the tomatoes and a pinch of salt. 
  5. Stir and smash a couple of tomatoes. 
  6. Cook for 2-3 minutes. 
  7. Add the basil, stir and cook for 1-2 more minutes. 
  8. Remove from heat and put mixture in a blender. 
  9. Blend by only a few pulses so that texture is a bit chunky.
  10. Set sauce aside. 
  11. Prepare the filling by mixing well all ingredients. 
  12. Set aside. 
  13. Get wraps and lay them on a board. 
  14. Coat all wraps with sauce. 
  15. Top half of the wraps with filling leaving 1cm empty at the edge. 
  16. On top spread the grated cheese. 
  17. Cover each filled tortilla with a saucy wrap (sauce side down). 
  18. Squashing tortillas down a bit with your hand ensuring that edges are closed. 
  19. Heat a non-stick pan and dry fry each tortilla for 2 minutes each side. 
  20. Remove from stove top and put in a preheated oven at 220C for 5 minutes. 
  21. Get them out of the oven, place in a plate and serve.