Chicken Quesadilla

I’m told Quesadilla literally means ‘little cheesy thing’. I found that darn cute. 😊 I’m a recent fan of the Quesadilla. Red and yellow bell peppers were so not my thing until I bit into a quesadilla a few weeks ago. I was hooked! When I got my paws on some gorgeous bell peppers, I thought, what better than to put them to use in something scrumptious and cheesy. When a vegetable gives me an excuse to eat non-vegetarian food and cheese… I so love it. *very evil grin*

Ingredients:

1 red bell pepper, deseed and cut into strips

1 green bell pepper, deseed and cut into thick strips

1 yellow bell pepper, deseed and cut into thick strips

1 large onion, peeled and thickly sliced

6 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped

150 grams button mushrooms, washed and sliced

500 grams boneless chicken thigh pieces, washed and cut into short strips

1 + ½ teaspoon Garlic Pepper or coarsely ground black pepper

1 heaped teaspoon sweet paprika

1 teaspoon Badia Complete Seasoning (optional)

½ teaspoon mixed herbs (or Italian Seasoning)

1 teaspoon red chili flakes

½ teaspoon cumin powder

1 heaped teaspoon Taco seasoning

200 grams Mozzarella Cheese, grated

200 grams Smoked Cheddar Cheese, grated

Salt to taste

8 chapatis or tortillas

4 + 5 tablespoons olive oil (or, as much or as little as you prefer – please don’t give me grief over this *eye roll*)

Butter, to crisp the chapati-tortilla (optional)

Method:

1.    Heat 4 tablespoons olive oil in a wok. Add the garlic and sauté for a few seconds.

2.    Add the sliced onions, and bell peppers.

3.    Sauté on medium heat until the veggies just begin to turn a tad soft (the important word is: TAD) Allow the strips of bell pepper to retain its shape; do not let them go limp.

4.    Add the mushrooms, ½ teaspoon Garlic Pepper and some salt.

5.    Sauté for 30 seconds more and remove the contents onto a plate. Keep aside.

6.    In the same wok, heat the remaining 5 tablespoons of olive oil and add the chicken strips.

7.    Sauté for a minute until the chicken begins to turn white at the edges.

8.    Add the Garlic Pepper, Sweet Paprilka, Badia Seasoning, chili flakes, Mixed herbs, cumin powder, Taco seasoning and some salt.

9.    Give the chicken and spices a mix and continue cooking on medium high flame.

10. Cook until the water from the chicken dries up, the oil separates and the chicken is cooked to a glisteningly moist, well-sautéed texture.

11. Check seasoning and adjust if needed. Sauté for a few seconds more if you add more salt.

12. Remove the chicken onto a plate. Keep aside.

13. In a dry non-stick pan, lay the chapati/tortilla and gently heat on one side.

14. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese on one half of the chapati-tortilla.

15. Add the bell pepper-mushrooms mix over the mozzarella cheese.

16. Arrange a few pieces of sautéed chicken over the bell peppers.

17. Top the chicken-bell peppers with Smoked Cheddar cheese.

18. Fold the empty half of the chapati onto the filled side to cover the cheddar cheese (semicircle – half moon shape).

19. On very low flame, crisp the chapati-tortilla on one side. Carefully flip it and crisp up the other side too. (Alternately, instead of a dry, crisp chapati-tortilla, you may pat some butter over each half of the chapati-tortilla and then crisp it)

20. Repeat points 12 to 18 until all chapati-tortillas are used up. This quantity made 8 quesadillas. I served these crisp babies with homemade Sour Cream. (The coriander leaf on the sour cream was used just to add colour to the photographs; please do not add it to the sour cream)

Chef Notes:

1.    Use any boneless cut of chicken. I prefer to use thigh pieces as breast pieces tend to dry out quite quickly. Also, you can use any meat, mince, etc., as a substitute to chicken.

2.    If you do not have sweet paprika please substitute it with ½ teaspoon Kashmiri chili powder. I know, I would.

3.    I’d run out of Dry Mixed Herbs which is why I opted for the closest thing possible; Italian seasoning (for a Mexican dish). *sheepish grin*

4.    The Badia Seasoning I used can basically be added to any meats to enhance the flavour. If you don’t have it in your pantry, fret not; give it a miss.

5.    Taco Seasoning is available at most online stores and at a few regular stores too. Do try and procure it, if possible.

6.    Usually, Oaxaca (stringy Mexican Cheese) or Monterey Jack cheese is used for Quesadillas, but I had Mozzarella and Smoked Cheddar in the fridge hence went with that. Just go with any cheese that melts well.

7.    Tortillas can be crisped in a dry, no-oil/no-butter pan or with a little oil or butter added to the pan. I am what I am (read: Bawi) hence used a little butter to crisp up these half-moon babies. Please do not use too much butter as it will give you a soggy quesadilla instead of a crisp one.

8.    Sometimes quesadillas are also made by layering the whole chapati-tortilla with the filling (instead of half). Another chapati-tortilla is put over the filling to cover it (instead of folding it in half). That is a tad difficult to flip, hence the half-moon shape works best.

9.    Let me admit, once I gently heated the chapati-tortilla, I switched off the flame. I layered the filling over half the chapati-tortilla, folded the chapati-tortilla, and then switched on the stove to low heat. I did that for every chapati-tortilla to ensure the base does not burn or go crisp before I fold it.

10. One more thing to admit. I forgot to add the mushrooms hence sautéed them separately and then added them to the bell peppers. I'm human; fallible, i make mistakes too. *making puppy eyes* 

11. If you have access to corn tortillas feel free to use them. I went with basic chapatis. I’m not going to lie, the chapatis were not made by me. They were made for me. I suck at making chapatis. *very sheepish look*

12. You can make the quesadillas in advance, to the point where the cheese melts and the half-moon shaped chapatis don’t open up. You can crisp them up at mealtime and serve them piping hot.

13. Vegetarians may omit the chicken and layer the tortilla with bell peppers, mushrooms, and other vegetarian fillings. *brain freeze moment - I cannot for the life of me think vegetarian – check online for veg fillings, please*

14. This is a fun recipe. It gives you immense scope to play around with the ingredients/fillings so go right ahead and play. 😊

15. You may share the direct blog-link of the recipe/s but do NOT publish my recipes and my photographs on any blog-site or website without my explicit consent or attempt to pass off my recipe/s as your own. You will be held accountable for plagiarism.

Some more photographs: