Easy Quesadillas
I made these for the front porch a couple of weeks ago. I used chicken and steak. It worked out fantastically. The seasoning works well with either the chicken or steak. I encourage you to do both. You can make the ingredients ahead and assemble at your convenience for parties, etc.
Ingredients
4 chicken breasts or 1 ribeye or New York Strip thin-sliced with tough fat trimmed
3 tbs cooking oil
1 package Old El Paso taco seasoning
1/2 sweet onion finely diced
1 clove garlic, minced
3 tbs cooking oil
1 can black beans
2 cups frozen whole kernel corn
4 oz can of Hatch diced green chilis (I use the hot ones)
16 oz Kraft Mexican cheese blend
Extra large flour tortillas. I use La Banderita Burrito Grande 10” tortillas.
Butter
Directions
Reserve 1 tbs of the taco seasoning. Add the chicken or steak to a gallon zip-top bag. Add in 3 tbs oil and the remainder of the taco seasoning. Squeeze as much air as possible out of the bag, seal it, and massage the seasoning into the meat. Place in the fridge for at least four hours and up to twenty-four hours.
In a skillet with 3 tbs oil, add onion over medium heat and cook slowly until browning. While the onion is cooking, in a strainer, rinse the can of black beans with the whole kernel corn and chilis. Shake out the water.
When the onion is browned, add garlic and cook for one minute. Add in the beans, corn, and chilis. Sprinkle in the reserved taco seasoning. Heat thoroughly. Place in a glass dish until ready (plastic containers will absorb the flavor). It can be refrigerated.
Appropriately grill the meat until cooked through. Thinly slice the meat and refrigerate until ready.
When ready to assemble the quesadillas, use a microwave to heat the bean mixture. Likewise, warm the meat either in a skillet on the stove or in the microwave. It need not be very hot, but needs to be warmed up.
On a griddle set to medium heat or in a very large skillet over medium heat, rub butter to coat the bottom, place a tortilla down, sprinkle the cheese, add the beans and meat, and sprinkle extra cheese. When the bottom cheese has started melting, fold over to form the quesadilla. After thirty seconds, lift the unfolded edge and flip over to ensure even browning on both sides. Remove from the griddle and cut in half.
The quesadillas served fresh are best. However, you can reheat in a toaster oven the next day. They tend to get too hard after twenty-four hours.