Chicken Quesadillas
OK, so. I love quesadillas! I've been eating a lot of frozen burritos and chimichangas on my new watching-the-carbs-for-diabetes-control eating plan because convenience! Also, one frozen breakfast burrito or chicken chimichanga clocks in at just about my carbohydrate target range for a meal (30-40 g). But I need to watch my sodium, too, so I want to incorporate more homemade rather than processed foods. BUT! I have limited time and kitchen space, so whatever I do has to fit within those limits.
As background, let me tell you about a trick I learned years ago from my grandmother for preparing easy, delicious baked boneless chicken breasts in foil packets. Just rip off a generous piece of aluminum foil and spray it with cooking spray. Place a chicken breast in the center. Fold up the short sides of the foil to meet, fold them over with a 1/2 inch or less crease, and continue to fold down until a packet-like object is formed. Fold or curl up the other two edges to seal. Bake on a baking sheet...ohhh, this is the fuzzy details part. 375F? 400F? 425F? for 30-45 minutes depending on your oven and the size of the chicken breast. A few test runs and you'll figure it out! Just be sure to carefully unpeel the foil (there's hot liquid in the bottom of the packet, so watch out!) so you can cut into the center of your chicken breast to test for doneness after baking, and then you can seal it back up and bake longer, if needed. ETA (days and days later): I should have added that I buy the individually frozen breasts, and follow the package instructions re: temperature and time to cook from frozen (bake time adjusted for my convection oven).
Now, the beauty of this cooking method is you can season the chicken breast as much or as little as you like -- or even add extras like veggies or (thinly-sliced) potatoes or what-have-you to cook in there with the chicken (cooking time may need to be adjusted, of course, if you're adding a ton of extra stuff). I've done just plain chicken breast, maybe with a little salt and pepper. I've also done a handful of frozen mixed vegetables underneath the chicken (they steam up really well). Of course you could just slather on some BBQ sauce or Italian dressing or really any marinade or sauce you like for flavor. The internet is full of suggestions and recipes, as well. Apparently, people also use the foil packet method for salmon or other fish or whatever else, too. I don't like fish, but knock yourself out.
Now, that said...when I first tried to make prepare chicken breasts this way recently for quesadillas I just did plain chicken breasts, but that was way too bland and dry in the quesadilla. I guess there's a reason all the internet quesadilla recipes involve sauteeing the chicken in a skillet with veggies and tomatoes and seasonings. I hope to reach stovetop cooking capability eventually, but at the moment, my glass cooktop is storage and working space in my zero other counter space studio apartment microkitchen. However, I noticed that I had a previously unopened jar of salsa in my cupboard, so last week I tried spooning a few dollops of salsa in my foil packets underneath and on top of each chicken breast, as well as shaking on some chili powder and cumin. Once cooked and cooled enough to handle, I transferred the contents of the packets into a large gladware-style container and shredded the chicken with two forks. At first I thought there was too much liquid in the packets (the salsa was pretty runny and of course some liquid cooks out of the chicken), but I ended up needing it all to make a sufficiently saucy quesadilla filling once I added some shredded cheese to the shredded chicken.*
You can certainly prepare your quesadillas in a pan or on a griddle or quesadilla press. But it's much more convenient for me to bake them in the oven, given my kitchen set-up. I'm not 100% where I saw this on the internet (can't find the exact recipe again), but I lined my heaviest baking sheet with foil, sprayed it with cooking spray, and put it in the oven while I preheated to 425F. Once the preheat cycle was done I grabbed it out and quickly assembled my quesadillas on it. Low carb tortillas sprinkled shredded cheese on one half of each low-carb tortilla (pre-shredded cheese with Mexican seasonings, for convenience and a little added flavor), spooned on some of the chicken filling, sprinkled more cheese on top, folded over, sprayed each top side with cooking spray and popped them back in the oven. I bake for 11-12 minutes in my convection oven. I think I adapted that from 15 minutes of regular oven cooking time. Using a heavy baking sheet and putting the tray in the oven while it preheats helps to lightly crisp the bottom side of the quesadilla. I do not have a broiler function in my oven, so I can't control the browning by cooking under the broiler, then flipping and broiling the other side.
I suppose you could do full-on top and bottom tortillas if you really wanted to have full round quesadillas instead of the folded versions, but I find the folded single-tortilla version easier to handle. I eat them with sour cream. The tortilla wraps I bought are just 11g of carbs each, so I can have several for a meal.
I seal up the container of filling and stash it in the fridge for a couple more quesadilla meals in the next few days.
This story brought to you by the second week in a row of readying for these quesadillas. Foil packets of chicken currently cooling on the counter. I'll shred the chicken in a few minutes while I watch the Penguins-Panthers game.
*ETA a note: Last week I had already pulled the chicken breasts out of the packets to shred and ended up adding back the reserved liquid to the filling mixture when it looked a little dry. This week, knowing I would need it all I just dumped everything out into the container. So now I'm finding that it's impossible to efficiently shred the meat in all that liquid, so I'm pulling each breast out onto a plate to shred and then dumping it back in the liquid to marinate especially the inside bits in the flavor.
ETA 2: A note about quantities...obviously the above is more of a process ramble than a succinct recipe, but I noted tonight that using three chicken breasts and an 8oz bag of pre-shredded cheese yielded enough for 6 of the folded-over half quesadillas I describe. I used about 2 oz of cheese in the filling mix and 2 oz to sprinkle inside the three quesadillas I cooked tonight. I put the rest of the filling mixture in the fridge and sealed up the rest of the cheese to use with it. Of course, I measured nothing -- that's all estimating after the fact based on package size and how much I had left over. The (16 oz?) jar of salsa has held up through two rounds of cooking this amount of filling and has a bit of salsa left, but I'll need a new jar for a complete third go.
ETA 3: Did I say 6? It turned into more like 11 over the next couple of days. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ But now I'm out and I need more cheese and another package of tortillas to make more.
ETA 4: Made them again on 10/19 with Pace Chunky Salsa Medium and, wow! So much better than the watery store-brand salsa. You can also read this entry on Dreamwidth (
comments)
As background, let me tell you about a trick I learned years ago from my grandmother for preparing easy, delicious baked boneless chicken breasts in foil packets. Just rip off a generous piece of aluminum foil and spray it with cooking spray. Place a chicken breast in the center. Fold up the short sides of the foil to meet, fold them over with a 1/2 inch or less crease, and continue to fold down until a packet-like object is formed. Fold or curl up the other two edges to seal. Bake on a baking sheet...ohhh, this is the fuzzy details part. 375F? 400F? 425F? for 30-45 minutes depending on your oven and the size of the chicken breast. A few test runs and you'll figure it out! Just be sure to carefully unpeel the foil (there's hot liquid in the bottom of the packet, so watch out!) so you can cut into the center of your chicken breast to test for doneness after baking, and then you can seal it back up and bake longer, if needed. ETA (days and days later): I should have added that I buy the individually frozen breasts, and follow the package instructions re: temperature and time to cook from frozen (bake time adjusted for my convection oven).
Now, the beauty of this cooking method is you can season the chicken breast as much or as little as you like -- or even add extras like veggies or (thinly-sliced) potatoes or what-have-you to cook in there with the chicken (cooking time may need to be adjusted, of course, if you're adding a ton of extra stuff). I've done just plain chicken breast, maybe with a little salt and pepper. I've also done a handful of frozen mixed vegetables underneath the chicken (they steam up really well). Of course you could just slather on some BBQ sauce or Italian dressing or really any marinade or sauce you like for flavor. The internet is full of suggestions and recipes, as well. Apparently, people also use the foil packet method for salmon or other fish or whatever else, too. I don't like fish, but knock yourself out.
Now, that said...when I first tried to make prepare chicken breasts this way recently for quesadillas I just did plain chicken breasts, but that was way too bland and dry in the quesadilla. I guess there's a reason all the internet quesadilla recipes involve sauteeing the chicken in a skillet with veggies and tomatoes and seasonings. I hope to reach stovetop cooking capability eventually, but at the moment, my glass cooktop is storage and working space in my zero other counter space studio apartment microkitchen. However, I noticed that I had a previously unopened jar of salsa in my cupboard, so last week I tried spooning a few dollops of salsa in my foil packets underneath and on top of each chicken breast, as well as shaking on some chili powder and cumin. Once cooked and cooled enough to handle, I transferred the contents of the packets into a large gladware-style container and shredded the chicken with two forks. At first I thought there was too much liquid in the packets (the salsa was pretty runny and of course some liquid cooks out of the chicken), but I ended up needing it all to make a sufficiently saucy quesadilla filling once I added some shredded cheese to the shredded chicken.*
You can certainly prepare your quesadillas in a pan or on a griddle or quesadilla press. But it's much more convenient for me to bake them in the oven, given my kitchen set-up. I'm not 100% where I saw this on the internet (can't find the exact recipe again), but I lined my heaviest baking sheet with foil, sprayed it with cooking spray, and put it in the oven while I preheated to 425F. Once the preheat cycle was done I grabbed it out and quickly assembled my quesadillas on it. Low carb tortillas sprinkled shredded cheese on one half of each low-carb tortilla (pre-shredded cheese with Mexican seasonings, for convenience and a little added flavor), spooned on some of the chicken filling, sprinkled more cheese on top, folded over, sprayed each top side with cooking spray and popped them back in the oven. I bake for 11-12 minutes in my convection oven. I think I adapted that from 15 minutes of regular oven cooking time. Using a heavy baking sheet and putting the tray in the oven while it preheats helps to lightly crisp the bottom side of the quesadilla. I do not have a broiler function in my oven, so I can't control the browning by cooking under the broiler, then flipping and broiling the other side.
I suppose you could do full-on top and bottom tortillas if you really wanted to have full round quesadillas instead of the folded versions, but I find the folded single-tortilla version easier to handle. I eat them with sour cream. The tortilla wraps I bought are just 11g of carbs each, so I can have several for a meal.
I seal up the container of filling and stash it in the fridge for a couple more quesadilla meals in the next few days.
This story brought to you by the second week in a row of readying for these quesadillas. Foil packets of chicken currently cooling on the counter. I'll shred the chicken in a few minutes while I watch the Penguins-Panthers game.
*ETA a note: Last week I had already pulled the chicken breasts out of the packets to shred and ended up adding back the reserved liquid to the filling mixture when it looked a little dry. This week, knowing I would need it all I just dumped everything out into the container. So now I'm finding that it's impossible to efficiently shred the meat in all that liquid, so I'm pulling each breast out onto a plate to shred and then dumping it back in the liquid to marinate especially the inside bits in the flavor.
ETA 2: A note about quantities...obviously the above is more of a process ramble than a succinct recipe, but I noted tonight that using three chicken breasts and an 8oz bag of pre-shredded cheese yielded enough for 6 of the folded-over half quesadillas I describe. I used about 2 oz of cheese in the filling mix and 2 oz to sprinkle inside the three quesadillas I cooked tonight. I put the rest of the filling mixture in the fridge and sealed up the rest of the cheese to use with it. Of course, I measured nothing -- that's all estimating after the fact based on package size and how much I had left over. The (16 oz?) jar of salsa has held up through two rounds of cooking this amount of filling and has a bit of salsa left, but I'll need a new jar for a complete third go.
ETA 3: Did I say 6? It turned into more like 11 over the next couple of days. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ But now I'm out and I need more cheese and another package of tortillas to make more.
ETA 4: Made them again on 10/19 with Pace Chunky Salsa Medium and, wow! So much better than the watery store-brand salsa. You can also read this entry on Dreamwidth (
comments)