Basic Quesadillas

AllenOK

New member
Basic Quesadillas
Yields: 1 serving

2 T Mexican seasoning
juice of one lime
2 T vegetable oil
1 chicken breast
-or- 6 oz beef steak (a cheap one works great here)
two 12” flour tortillas
margarine/butter for the tortillas
some shredded cheese, either a Mexican blend, Co-Jack, Cheddar/Mozzarella mix, etc.
Optional toppings
sliced ripe olives
diced tomatoes
chopped leaf lettuce
diced onions
anything else you like
Garnishes
sour cream
salsa
Guacamole
Salsa Verde

Tear off a large sheet of plastic wrap. Lay it flat on the counter. Place the meat onto one side of the plastic, and fold the other half over top. Pound the meat with a meat tenderizer, being careful to flatten it out, but not tear it up (the plastic helps to keep it from splattering everything). Place the seasoning, lime juice, and vegetable oil into a quart-size ziplock-type baggie. Mix the marinade ingredients together well. Place the meat into the baggie, and carefully squeeze out all the air, and massage the marinade around the meat. Marinade in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
Cook the chicken so it's done, or cook the beef to your desired doneness, and chop it into small pieces. Heat a large cast iron skillet, or a griddle. Spread some margarine or butter over one side of two tortillas.
For the cast iron skillet, start with one tortilla down, and over ONE HALF ONLY, layer a little cheese onto the tortilla, then some meat, and any other toppings you like, then sprinkle a little more cheese on top. Fold the tortilla over the topping and allow it to melt a little bit. Carefully flip the Quesadilla over and finish melting everything together. Repeat with the second tortilla.
For the Griddle, do the exact same thing, except lightly sprinkle some cheese over the entire surface of BOTH tortillas. Add the other toppings to ONE of the tortillas only. When the cheese has melted, carefully flip the tortilla with just the cheese on top of the other, and press down lightly. Allow this to melt together a bit.
To serve, cut the Quesadillas into pie-wedges. For 12” Quesadillas, I usually cut them into eighths. When you do the folding technique, just treat the folded Quesadilla as half of a pie. Serve with sour cream, salsa, guacamole, or Salsa Verde.
NOTES: Remember that you are basically making a Grilled Cheese Sandwich, only you are using tortillas instead of sliced bread. This is not a high-heat method (great for a light dinner or lunch in the summer, as you don't heat up your entire kitchen). Use a low heat setting, as this way you have better control over how fast the tortillas toast, and the cheese melts. You need to have all the topping ingredients ready to go, as once you start putting cheese on a tortilla, it's going to start melting within a minute. Add your other toppings, and get ready to fold/flip, as it's a fast process once it's started.
 
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