Chicken quesadillas

I have been fortunate to travel around the world and have managed to work and live in a few places for an extended period of time. One of these has been in America, I was enticed by the snazzy posters whilst walking around a recruitment fair at university and before I knew it I was off to spend a summer living in the woods with hundreds of boys at a summer camp north of New York. Whilst I was there I met amazing people, so much that I went back to the same camp two more times and am still in touch with my first ever co-counsellor who now lives in Tennessee USA. The local town was probably quite typical of a small town, it had a big supermarket and a cinema, enough to keep us happy most of the time. There was also a good laundrette where I spent many an hour. Down the pavement was a bar, which I will admit to having visited in the evenings quite a few times but would also go there to eat whilst waiting for my washing. It was here that I was introduced to quesadillas, which is quite sad as it would probably have been better to have discovered them somewhere a little more authentic but they were good.

 

Move on a quite a few years and I spotted quesadilla's on one of those handy recipe cards that you can find in supermarkets. I decided to introduce my husband to them and as a quick weekend lunch, they can be very easy and tasty. They aren't as good as you might get in a restaurant, but this dish is really easy and kid friendly, they'll get into a good mess which they enjoy and if old enough can help prepare the ingredients and construct their own quesadilla. If you have a normal cooker I would recommend cooking them one at a time in a frying pan. We have a mat that can be placed straight onto the simmer plate of our Aga and cook ours directly on this heat. Which is also very good for making yummy cheese toasties if you have an Aga.

 

I knew that there was going to be chicken left over from the previous night, and when visiting our greengrocer in Cirencester this morning found yummy avocados. I know they're not in season but they were a good deal and didn't travel that far and with a red pepper and some grated cheddar cheese made for a simply satisfying lunch.

 

Chicken quesadillas (feeds 4 with a side salad)

8 tortilla's

Approx 250g cooked chicken breast

1/2 red pepper

2 - 3 baby avocados

250g cheddar cheese

 

1. Prepare all of the contents first. Grate the cheese, chop up the avocado into chunks (deseed and peel avocado), deseed and chop the pepper into thin slices. Shred the chicken into chunks.
   
2. Heat the frying pan over a medium/high heat. Put one tortilla into the frying pan and add your ingredients, then cover with a second tortilla. Leave until the tortilla touching the frying pan starts to go brown, then try to flip it! This is normally where it goes wrong in our household but it's good fun! Cook on the other side until the cheese has melted.
   
3. Slide the toasted quesadilla onto a plate and chop into quarters.
   
4.  
   

I would add some salad if there are only adults eating this meal. This is by no means the only contents of a quesadilla and it's probably not the traditional way of cooking them, but it gets eaten very quickly in this house!