Quesadilla with Grilled Chicken and Jack Cheese

The Best Chicken Quesadilla

This Chicken Jack Quesadilla makes all the difference between what you’d get served at your favorite fast food joint or a dine in restaurant. Whether you choose to use an extra large burrito sized flour tortilla, like I do, or a small to medium, these quesadilla’s are packed with flavor. I use marinated grilled chicken, Monterrey and Colby Jack Cheese and, of course, my secret sauce; made from the Fire Roasted Salsa that I showed you how to make, last post. I’m talking about a thick creamy quesadilla that any good restaurant would dream of having on the menu.

Quesadilla Grilled Chicken

It’s very important to make the chicken as tender and as flavorful as possible, when making a restaurant style quesadilla. You can make it lean, if you want to, by using breast meat, if you prefer, but I highly recommend using chicken thighs, instead. In my experience, it makes tastier quesadilla’s. Just chicken thighs isn’t going to be enough, however. Adding a spicy marinade will take it to the next level, infuse the meat with flavor and insure tenderness. 30 minutes of soaking is all it’s going to take before you take it to the grill. Then an additional 20 minutes of cooking will add the smokey taste everyone loves from great barbecue. Just be sure the meat is cooked all of the way through and hits a core temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit.

Quesadilla Secret Sauce

The difference between a fast food quesadilla and a restaurant style quesadilla is huge. Fast food quesadillas just consist of cheese, meat (if you’re lucky),possibly some onions and/or green chili’s. There usually isn’t much bulk and generally made thin and small. A good restaurant, however, will serve up a large to extra large sized tortilla, packed with more ingredients than it can usually hold; grilled marinated chicken, 2 cheese’s and a secret sauce that makes it extra creamy when the cheese melts into it. My secret sauce consists of 3 ingredients: Sour Cream, Mayonnaise and my Fire Roasted Salsa.

Quesadilla Cheese

The cheese you choose will completely change the flavor of your Quesadilla and there are several winners. Cheddar, medium or sharp, and Jack Cheese are generally among my favorites. Queso asadero is the original cheese used to make Quesadillas but these are great alternatives. In this recipe, I like to use Monterey and Colby Jack Cheese together because it’s very crowd pleasing and not to spicy for my kids. If I’m making them for my wife and I, I’ll change out the Monterey and use Pepper Jack, instead, for a little kick. Some folks even spread cream cheese inside the tortilla but you use what you like.

Chicken Jack Quesadilla Ingredients:

6 Boneless Chicken Thighs
1 pkg Extra Large Tortilla’s
1 lbs Monterey Jack Cheese, grated
1 lbs Colby Jack Cheese, grated
1 Cube Butter, salted

Chicken Marinade
1/2 cup Water
2 tbsp Olive Oil
1 tbsp Cumin
1 tbsp Smoked Paprika
1 tsp Tumeric
1 tsp Mexican Oregano
1/2 tsp Garlic Powder
1/2 tsp Onion Powder
1/2 tsp Fish Sauce
1/4 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Black Pepper

Secret Sauce
1/2 cup Sour Cream
1/2 cup Mayonnaise
1/2 cup Fire Roasted Salsa

Follow the instructions in the video recipe to make this Chicken Jack Quesadilla.

Grocery Shopping – Ingredients for Oriental Recipes

Believe it or not, it’s so easy shopping for ingredients for Oriental recipes. I’d dare say, it’s even fun. You get so much culture in such a little place and sometimes its just really nice to get out of my comfort zone only to realize it can be just as comfortable somewhere else.

The folks at this 1st Oriental Market are amazing people. They’re so eager to help with all your needs. And I find that this is common just about anywhere I go when it comes to foreign food. People like to share their experiences and culture. I find that it isn’t any different here and the owner, Earl and his wife, make it a real pleasant experience.

Most Oriental Cooking, these days, is very simplified because almost all of the guess work has already been cut out for you. I don’t have to make every individual sauce that is used to combine with other sauces to make one great recipe. For example: when a recipe calls for Hoisin Sauce, you don’t have to make you’re own Hoisin Sauce from scratch(which would require several other ingredients), you just crack open a bottle. And what about Plum Sauce… could you imagine having to make that beforehand too? Both of these ingredients are in my Chinese Barbecue Sauce recipe, which only has 5 or 6 ingredients: Hoisin, Plum Sauce, Ketchup, Sugar, 5 spice powder etc., and that makes it really simple just buying each one of those premade bottles. But, could you imagine having to make all of those ingredients as well? You’d be making ingredients for your ingredients.

That being said, I would just like you to understand and realize that you don’t have to learn translations of ingredients you’ve probably never heard of in the first place. Because, most of the basic ingredients I show you in this video are very versatile to most of the popular Americanized Oriental recipes that you’re likely familiar with anyway.

So get familiar with the few I show you now and I’ll introduce more as we go and you’ll be a pro before you know it!

Mongolian Beef Ribs

The Best Mongolian Beef Ribs

There are several different ways to prepare Mongolian Beef Ribs. I decided to go with the Asian Style Flanked Rib because I often see them at Chinese Buffets. I also use the slow and low method to ensure I get some tender meat. The sauce I use as a marinade but I don’t separate it from the ribs when I bake them. I cook the ribs right in it. Then afterwards I add the sauce back into a pan to reduce and thicken further by adding corn starch. Once it caramelizes, I drizzle the glaze over the top of the rib meat and sprinkle freshly chopped scallions.

Flanked Mongolian Beef Ribs Ingredients:

2 lbs Flanked Beef Ribs

Sauce
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon Ginger, minced
1 tablespoon Garlic, chopped
1 tsp Hoisin Sauce (optional)
1/4 cup Soy Sauce
1/4 cup Water
1/4 cup Rice Wine Vinegar
1/4 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 tsp Chili Flakes (optional)

1 tsp Corn Starch deluded in 1 tbsp of Water
2 Green Onions, Chopped into Scallions

Bake 300° Fahrenheit for 2 hours. Be sure to watch the short video tutorial and I’ll show you how to make these amazing Mongolian Beef Ribs.