chicken quesadilla with goat cheese and quacamole

Another beautifully photographed dish and irresistible Mexican recipe submitted by CM Harrington of Greenwich, CT. This can be served as an appetizer, a main dish, and of course a midnight snack if you’ve prepared everything to the point of grilling the Quesadillas— filling each quesadilla ahead of time and cooking to order.

Chicken Quesadillas with Goat Cheese and Guacamole
A delicious treat that is made by heating up a corn or flour tortilla, filling it up with cheese (such as Monteray pepper jack, mozzarella, or goat cheese) and adding crab, chicken, beef  or shrimp. Typically served with salsa, guacamole and sour cream, this is the perfect Mexican dish that pairs well with beer, margaritas, or tequila.

Chicken Marinade
2 – 3 chicken breasts
1 fresh lime, squeezed for its juice
1/2 tsp of salt

Place
lime, salt and chicken in a glass dish/bowl and cover with plastic
wrap. Place in refrigerator and marinate for 1/2 to 1 hour.

Chipotle Sauce
1 small tin of adobe peppers in sauce, chop up the peppers. Add chopped peppers and sauce in a bowl and set aside.

Quesadilla Filling
Roast Pepper: Place a red pepper on an open flame or in broiler to char on all sides until the skin blisters and darkens. (You can also buy a jar of roasted peppers, which is fine, but truth be told, it will not taste as good). When the pepper is charred on all sides, place the pepper in a sealed bag to self steam for about 10 minutes. When you remove the skin will easily slough off. Chop Peppers and set peppers aside.

Onions: Add olive oil to a skillet, medium high heat, add 1 finely diced Vidalia onion, cook for about 5 minutes to soften.

Mix together the onions and peppers. Cover to keep warm / set aside.

Quacamole
1 Hass Avocado, perfectly ripe
1/2 freshly squeezed lime juice
pinch of cumin
pinch of chipotle powder, not sauce, too runny
pinch of cayanne pepper
1-2 cloves of garlic, diced*
salt to taste

Mix all ingredients together. Set aside

*the finer diced the garlic, the more garlic flavor. For this recipe you want to dice in bigger chunks so as to not overpower with garlic flavor.

Cooking or Grilling the Chicken
2-3 chicken breasts that have been marinating
Chipotle sauce

Heat up a skillet with 3 tbsp of olive oil. Remove chicken from marinade. When skillet is hot, add chicken. With brush, coat top of each chicken breast with chipotle sauce, and cook until done, turning over half way to brush on Chipotle sauce to other side. Salt and pepper to taste. Remove from skillet, set aside to cool. Cut into strips of chicken that will be placed on tortillas. (See assemblage below)

Tortillas
If you have the time to make homemade tortilla
shells – rock on. Homemade is ALWAYS the best. If not, you can purchase
flour or corn tortillas from most any supermarket / specialty store. We
used flour tortillas.

Place each tortilla in a non-greased warmed skilled to warm each tortilla, flipping to warm both sides.

Quesadilla Assemblage
warmed tortilla shells
goat cheese, work with room temperature cheese so it is easy to spread

Preheat oven to 425.Take a warm tortilla shell and thinly spread with goat cheese.Add onion/pepper filling and cut strips of chicken. Repeat 1/2 of with remaining tortilla shells.Top each loaded tortilla shell with the remaining shells.

Place two quesadillas on a rack in the oven and bake until golden brown, allowing the cheese to melt. This can also be done in a cast iron skillet with a lid.

Plating the Dish
Take one quesadilla, cut in half and in half again, creating 4 triangles of similar size. Place the triangles on a plate, garnish with chopped cilantro and a stream of chipotle sauce down the center. Add a mound of quacamole on one side, and sour cream on the other.  You can also serve with your  favorite salsa sauce on the side. Serve immediately with your favorite beer, tequila or a margarita.