Pineapple & Chicken Quesadillas

Helga Glaesel de BlandingAugust 5, 2011

This post is also available in / Esta entrada también está disponible en ESPAÑOL (SPANISH)

I just made these for lunch. Sometimes you just feel like having something like this and not a proper chicken and rice or whatever have you type of meal. They were a great success!

Listen, no one likes to do the dishes. I used the same pan for all the steps, so choose a proper pan where you can brown the onions, grill the pineapple, sauteé your corn, and also brown your quesadillas. I used my grilling pan.

This may be a casual meal, but it has a lot of steps. If you would’ve walked into my kitchen when I was making these, you’d think I was preparing Christmas dinner or something. If you don’t have 1 hour to spend in the kitchen preparing this, you can “do ahead”. You can prepare steps 1 to 8 the day before so everything is ready and you just have to assemble when Quesadilla time comes. Don’t get me wrong. This is not hard to make, it just has a few ingredients that require preparation before assembly, so it’s a bit time consuming.

The mixture of flavors is amazing. Imagine it, grilled chicken marinated in BBQ sauce, the perfectly melted cheese, the tangy pineapple, a little cayenne, the special flavor you get from browned onions, corn kernels sauteed with balsamic vinegar and honey, the cilantro…all inside crunchy tortillas. Yum! Aren’t you hungry yet?

Helga

Pineapple & Chicken Quesadillas with Balsamic Corn

Yields: 5 Quesadillas
A Foodies’ Kitchen original recipe

Ingredients:
1 medium white onion, sliced
1 tablespoon butter
10 flour tortillas
1 ½ cups shredded Monterrey Jack cheese
2 boneless chicken breasts
BBQ Sauce, to marinate (use your favorite brand)
chopped fresh cilantro
½ medium sized pineapple
1 yellow corn
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
Cayenne Pepper (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

Procedure:

Prepare your chicken breasts by cutting them open and marinating them in BBQ sauce. You can do this 1 hour ahead of time, to get a more intense flavor. I didn’t marinate mine to make this recipe, so you can do it either way.
Cut up your pineapple, into strips as shown on the photograph. (Cut it down the middle, then cut that half into another half – lengthwise-, and that one into another half-lengthwise as well- cut off the peel, and start forming your strips)
Heat water to boil and cook the corn. It should be cooked in 8 minutes. Once it has cooked cut the corn kernels off and set aside.
While the corn cooks and boils, heat a grilling pan or a medium sized pan. You will use the same pan for all the cooking steps, so you don’t have to wash up a lot of stuff. Choose the right pan.
Start to cook the onion slices in the hot pan, with 1 tablespoon butter until they are browned. It should take about 5-7 minutes. Be careful not to burn them. Remove from the pan and set aside.
Now (in the same pan) place your pineapple strips, let them brown for about 4 minutes on each side. Remove from the pan and set aside.
Next, add a little bit of butter to the pan (don’t let it burn! Your pan will be pretty hot at this point), add the corn kernels, balsamic vinegar and honey. Salt and pepper to taste. Let it cook for about 5 minutes. Remove from the pan and set aside.
Finally, add your chicken. Let is cook for 4 minutes on each side, until it’s nice and brown. Set aside.

Now we come to the cutting part:

Cut the pineapple strips into slices. Cut the chicken into slices as well.

To assemble:

Place a flour tortilla on a plate, add shredded cheese try to coat the entire tortilla with the cheese, then chicken, then pineapple, then onions and corn.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and a little cayenne pepper if you want an extra kick. Sprinkle with cilantro. Cover with the second tortilla.
Transfer to your hot pan (still using the same one) with a spatula. Let is cook for about 2 minutes on each side. Serve immediately.

Note: