Chicken Quesadillas

“There’s more than one way to skin a cat…” I have no idea who said it, but it’s true. The thing is, most people want the best, most convenient way to accomplish a task, especially when it comes to cooking. Stay with me, I will get to the point, I promise.

You may be familiar with the common restaurant appetizer, the Quesadilla. If not, it is a warm mixture of sauteed veggies, with melted cheese, and sometimes thinly sliced chicken breast sandwiched between a flour or corn tortilla. My husband and I have been making them at home for years. Turns out, though, that we have been making them “wrong”.

I thought I was supposed to place a tortilla on a cookie sheet, add the fillings on top of it, and then place a second tortilla on top, sort of like a sandwich. Then I would bake it in a hot oven for 15 minutes. The problem with my method was that when we sliced into them, all the yummy goodness would fall out. Which isn’t to say that the food didn’t taste good, but the plating was messy and not very pretty if we wanted to serve it to guests.

So, I finally did a little research and discovered that I’m supposed to put the filling on one half of a tortilla and then fold it over, so it looks like half of a circle, and then pan fry it until the tortilla is golden brown and the cheese is melted. This method works much better. The quesadilla doesn’t fall apart when we slice into it, and the oven method made the tortilla dry out, whereas pan frying it keeps the tortilla softer and not brittle.

I hope this post makes the hesitant home cook feel a little better about trying new cooking techniques, because even the more experienced cooks learn new things everyday!

Here’s the link to the recipe that showed me the error of my ways. https://www.wineandglue.com/taco-bell-chicken-quesadilla/