Homemade Quesadillas with Soaked Flour Tortillas

The other night I had some leftover baked chicken from the previous night, so I teamed it up with some leftover salsa and shredded cheese to make one of my boys’ favorite meals – cheesy chicken quesadillas.

I start with homemade tortillas based on Katie’s Post at Kitchen Stewardship (Soaked 100% Whole Grain Homemade Tortillas). I generally use 100% freshly ground whole grain flour and lard or butter.  This makes the dough very tender and tricky to work with, but really tasty.  Confession – sometimes I only let these sit for an afternoon instead of 12-24 hours, but I figure I’m still ahead of what you can buy at the store.

I divide my dough into 10 equal portions, then start rolling.  I like to roll it between layers of Super Parchment to make it easier to work with.  My friend, Emma, suggested a lefse grill and stick, but I don’t do these often enough to make that type of investment.

Because the SuperParchment doesn’t burn, if the dough is particularly sticky I can flip the whole sheet into the pan.  Once it cooks a bit I peel the sheet off and flip the tortilla.

I keep these in a large Rubbermaid bowl with a cover as I cook them.  The steam released by the tortillas in the bowl softens them and makes them more flexible and easier to fold and roll.

After I’ve got all the tortillas cooked up, I start on the quesadillas.  They’re very simple (at least the way I do them, I make no claims on being authentic).  I chop up some leftover chicken and mix it with salsa, spread it on half of the tortilla and sprinkle it with freshly shredded cheese.

Cook until the cheese is melted and the chicken/salsa mix is heated through.

Fold over and cut into wedges.

Ta-da!  Not fancy, but very tasty, and a good way to use up leftover chicken parts and the kids really love these.  It’s especially handy for summer meals, because you don’t have to heat up the stove.