Name: Chicken Quesadilla
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 12 min
Total time: 27 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Mexican
Ingredients: 400 g cooked chicken, shredded; 1 tbsp neutral oil; 1 small onion, finely sliced; 1 red pepper, finely sliced; 1 ½ tsp ground cumin; 1 tsp smoked paprika; ½ tsp dried oregano; ½ tsp fine sea salt; 2 tbsp lime juice; 8 large flour tortillas; 350 g mature Cheddar and Monterey Jack, coarsely grated and mixed; 3 tbsp chopped coriander; Soured cream, salsa and guacamole

Chicken Quesadilla

A properly built quesadilla: cheese against the tortilla on both sides so it welds shut, filling in a thin layer rather than a heap, and cooked dry in a hot pan until the outside blisters.

27 min total Serves 4 servings Easy

Storing and Planning Ahead

Best immediately. Refrigerated for 2 days; reheat in a dry pan for 3 minutes a side rather than the microwave.

How to Make Chicken Quesadilla

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Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium-high and cook the onion and pepper 6 minutes until softened and lightly charred at the edges.
Add the cumin, paprika, oregano and salt and stir 30 seconds, then fold in the chicken and lime juice and take off the heat. Stir through the coriander.
Wipe the pan clean and set it over medium heat, dry.
Lay a tortilla in the pan, scatter a quarter of the cheese over the whole surface, then spread a quarter of the filling over one half only.
Fold the bare half over and press flat with a spatula.
Cook 2 to 3 minutes a side, pressing occasionally, until both sides are blistered and brown and the cheese has run to the edges.
Slide onto a board and rest 1 minute before cutting into wedges — cut it straight away and the filling slides out.
Repeat with the rest, and serve with soured cream, salsa and guacamole.

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Worth Knowing

Grate your own cheese. The anti-caking starch on pre-grated cheese stops it flowing properly.
Cheese first, against the tortilla, always. This is the entire structural principle.
A dry pan, not an oiled one. Oil makes it greasy without making it crisper.

Some Background

A quesadilla falls apart when the filling is thick and the cheese is buried in the middle of it. Melted cheese is the glue, so it has to touch the tortilla on both faces — filling in between, never the other way round. Cooking in a dry pan rather than an oiled one lets the tortilla blister and toast, which is a different and better texture than fried; and pressing it flat forces contact so the cheese melts before the outside burns.

Serving Ideas

Guacamole and pico de gallo · A cold Mexican lager · Charred corn salad

Ingredient Swaps

Lemon is the everyday swap for lime in this kind of dish — the acidity plays the same role even though the flavour is not identical.
Fresh herbs work in place of the dried oregano at roughly three times the quantity — a teaspoon of dried is about a tablespoon of fresh, chopped.