Day 86 : Chicken and Pineapple Quesadillas

I was browsing recipes when I came across this one and it just sounded GOOD to me.  From time to time we enjoy a nice Hawaiian pizza, or even a BBQ Hawaiian pizza, and the ingredients for this reminded me of that.  With that in mind I was fairly certain I would like this, and I was definitely right!  It was a five star recipe all the way for us.  Such great smokey, sweet, spicy flavor and add in that freshness of the cilantro and you have got yourself one heck of a quesadilla!

I used a nice slab of fresh pineapple already trimmed of the outsides and cored from the store, and then just sliced that up into a few rings and grilled them that way.  I also used 2 large chicken breasts rather than three since they seemed quite big to me.  For the BBQ sauce I used a tangy sauce and it went perfectly with everything else.  I have never made quesadillas before where you brown all the tortillas  ahead of time, and I think you lose a little bit of quality that way since it’s harder to get it to stay together like it would if you were to brown it with the cheese and stuff already in it…. but for the purpose of serving a larger crowd at the same time this worked very well.  I just threw them all into the oven for about 5 minutes on 250 to get the cheese good and melted and that worked just fine.

 

Chicken and Pineapple Quesadillas

Serves : 4                       Time to make : 35 minutes

Ingredients :

• 8 flour tortillas
• butter (about 1/4 cup divided)
• 2-3 chicken breasts, boneless and skinless
• 2 cups pineapple, sliced
• 3 T. BBQ sauce
• salt and pepper
• chipotle seasoning
• cumin
• 1 jalapeno, sliced
• 3 cups monteray jack cheese, shredded
• cilantro
• sour cream
• extra BBQ sauce

Directions :

1. Grill pineapple, then cut into pieces and set aside.
2. Pound chicken out until even and salt and pepper to taste.  Season with the chipotle seasoning and cumin as well, to your taste.
3. Grill chicken until cooked through, basting with the BBQ sauce as you go.  Sliced thin and set aside.
4. In a large non-stick skillet, heated on medium heat, drop in a bit of butter and spread it around.  Then brown a flour tortilla on both sides (about a minute or so, just watch it carefully) and stack on a plate to the side as you repeat for the remaining 7 tortillas.
5. To assemble quesadillas, layer 1/4 of the cheese onto one of the browned tortillas, 1/4 of the sliced chicken, 1/4 of the pineapple, 1/4 of the sliced jalapeno, and some fresh cilantro torn up before topping with a second tortilla and placing in a warm oven to melt the cheese.  Repeat with the remaining ingredients until you have 4 quesadillas.
6. Serve by cutting into 6 wedges and topping with some sour cream and additional BBQ sauce.