Zuni Chicken Quesadillas

Zuni Chicken Quesadillas

Zuni Chicken Quesadillas are super simple and very tasty – just a few ingredients, assemble and cook – great for a party!

These Zuni Chicken Quesadillas are incredibly easy and also guaranteed to be a hit. I’m starting with some ready-made ingredients, shredded rotisserie chicken and mild green salsa. Assemble and cook on a quesadilla maker – it’s easy to serve at a party hot if you are making it this way.

I often bring home rotisserie chicken from Costco, and I usually have some left over. It’s very easy to shred with a fork. The mild green salsa I used was the King Soopers “Mild Green Salsa” found in the refrigerated section where they sell plastic rectangular tubs of fresh salsa, queso, and guacamole. The salsa I used is primarily made with tomatillos, onions, and green chiles. You can use any green salsa, but this flavor mainly comes from the combination of tomatillos and green chiles – that means it has the tartness of tomatillos along with the heat and special chile flavor of green chiles. I adjusted the heat level to my liking with hot sauce. Note that you can add more green chiles or hotter green chiles if you wish; the hot sauce is basically optional. Cumin rounds out the flavor, making it more robust but is also optional; this is good with or without cumin.

The recipe here is just about the right amount for 2 or 3 8-inch quesdadillas, depending on how much chicken you want to put on them. In the photo, I put about half the chicken mixture on, resulting in a rather loaded quesadilla where the filling is coming out the sides. It’s very easy to overload quesdillas because the filling oozes out the sides as it melts. Also note I adjusted the chicken mixture to taste. It’s very easy to double or triple the recipe. The proportions are mainly a guideline here.

I currently have 5 quesadilla makers (since I broke one!) – 2 are for 12-inch quesadillas and 3 are for 8-inch. I used to make a lot of 12-inch ones for parties, but now I nearly always use the 8-inch ones. They are just easier to handle. With the larger ones, it helped to use a giant spatula to slide it off the quesadilla maker in order to keep it intact. I bought all of them at ARC thrift stores for just a few bucks each.

Quesadillas are also very easy to make in non-stick skillets, preferable the right size for the tortillas you are using. To flip them over, I slide them onto a plate, position the skillet upside down on the plate and flip the plate and skillet over in one motion. Lots of fun … but it does work.

This is a recipe that I’ll use over and over again – so easy and uses ingredients that I often have as leftovers. Hope you like it!

Zuni Chicken Quesadillas
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Author:
Serves: 2 servings
Ingredients
  • 1 cup shredded rotisserie chicken
  • ½ cup green salsa (tomatillo & green chile salsa)
  • ~1 tsp hot sauce (to taste for desired heat)
  • ¼ tsp ground cumin
  • 1½ cups shredded cheddar or cheddar-jack cheese
  • 4 8-inch flour tortillas
Instructions
  1. With a fork, mix the chicken, salsa, hot sauce, and cumin - adjusting to taste as you wish.Aassemble each quesadilla with a tortilla, layer of cheese, small blobs of chicken mixture about ½ inch apart, another layer of cheese, and the second tortilla on top. Slide it onto a quesadilla maker or non-stick skillet.
  2. Cook until tortilla is browning and filling is melting out the sides. (If using a skillet, slide onto a plate and flip back onto skillet to brown the top.)
  3. Cut into wedges and serve hot. Enoy!

 

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