The Other Quesadilla

As in the chicken quesadilla which was always ruining my perfectly good cheese quesadillas at restaurants!  All I every wanted when I ordered a plain cheese quesadilla, was to have nothing else besides cheese inside of it, nothing else touching it and nothing else put on top of it.

However, now that I have actually tried chicken several times I figured it was time to see what this chicken quesadilla was like so I made it myself using the www.allrecipes.com chicken quesadilla recipe and decided to try it with the chicken, peppers and onion.  The verdict – cheese quesadillas are still the best.  The chicken quesadilla is okay too.  It depends on what you are really in the mood for.

So how did it taste?  My onions and peppers are cooked nicely with the onions caramelized and the peppers warm and sweeter but still with a bit of crunch.  I also cooked the chicken a new way for this recipe with it cooked using the broiler.  I wasn’t really sure what the broiler was for an American oven no less a European oven but I figured it out and this actually cooks your chicken pretty quickly, especially when cut up into smaller pieces.  For the chicken I put a little bit of taco seasoning on the outside so it had that little bit of flavor but nothing overpowering.  Then you have the melted cheese and tortilla as well.  For me some of the other flavors distract from the cheese and quesadilla and I found the peppers to actually be the most prominent taste here.  Regarding textures, you have the soft chicken, softer onions and slight crunch from the peppers, the melted cheese and then the crisp quesadilla if done well.  Side note- for all cooks everywhere I would also like to add that it is possible to keep the outside of your quesadilla nice and crispy!  Your quesadilla doesn’t not have to become soggy.  When you place the quesadilla on the plate the heat and steam makes the bottom of the quesadilla soggy when it was crisp.  All you have to do to avoid this and keep both sides crisp is either put it on something with a little bit of air able to get to it so like a cookie tray or since I normally don’t want to get a cookie tray out just for my quesadilla simply after you put it down on a plate after a few seconds flip it over and move it away from the steam it just created and then flip it again to keep both sides crispy.

Ok so back to the textures.  You have a couple different textures going on and I think the texture with the crunch of the peppers is another reason why the peppers seemed more prominent to me.  My cheese is still there and is good but is no longer the star of the show with this quesadilla.  It is a different type of quesadilla because you have the different tastes and textures going on.  So it really depends on what you are in the mood for.  Overall, I still prefer my cheese quesadillas best!