Back when I lived in my Bethlehem south-side apartment, every Thursday you could find me at the Tally Ho, with my hard-earned 100-beer mug and several delicious chicken quesadillas (each half off the usual $6.95). Well today I'm going to show you exactly how to make the perfect Tally Ho chicken quesadilla.
To call this a recipe would probably be a bit of a stretch, but it is a collection of step-by-step instructions on how to make a delicious meal. Below I describe how I prepared it with the materials at hand, but there are endless variations that one could make, such as adding peppers, salsa, guacamole etc.
Ingredients (quantity can vary as desired)
4 tortillas
2 Cups of Mexican Style Cheddar Jack cheese
1.5 lbs of chicken
1/4 stick of butter
2 tbsp olive oil
Chipotle Tabasco sauce
Seasoning (salt, pepper etc)
One great thing about this dish is that you can use left over chicken if you have it, or pan fry up some. If you're going to be pan frying it, I suggest cutting into small pieces before cooking. The reason I do this before cooking as opposed to after, is that you greatly increase the surface area per volume ratio of the chicken. This allows for greater heat transfer and therefore faster cooking. Not only does this save time, but I also am convinced that it helps keep the chicken moist and tender. Season as desired. I find you can't go wrong with salt and pepper, but use whatever spices you want.
Heat the pan. I recently read online about how important the temperature of the pan is if you want to cook on a metal pan stick-free. Basically if the pan isn't hot enough it will tend to 'grab' onto the meat. To avoid this, put the pan on medium heat or so, and sprinkle some water drops onto it. If they sizzle quickly and evaporate, then the pan isn't hot enough. If they ball up and seem to roll around like mercury droplets, then you're golden. The cause of this phenomenon is called the Leidenfrost effect and allows for some cool party tricks with other very high or low temperature liquids that I am in no way advocating you do. Add some oil and toss your chicken on before the oil starts to smoke.
Turn the pieces over once they start to turn white, or if you're fancy like me, and didn't use too much oil, go ahead and give them a couple pan flips. Continue cooking until all the exposed meat is white. I like to err on the side of caution when it comes to cooking chicken, so I usually cut the largest piece in half to make sure it's cooked all the way through.
It might take several batches to cook all your chicken. Once it's all cooked, clean your pan thoroughly. Toss it back on the stove at medium-low heat then add some butter and try to coat most of the pan.
Now place a perfectly sized tortilla in the pan and rotate a bit for optimal butter distribution.
Sprinkle a layer of cheese, making sure to get pretty close to the edges of the tortilla. This will be your glue for keeping the tortilla together when folded.
Add chicken, making sure to keep all of it to one half of the tortilla. For a perfectly folded tortilla you want to leave some room for the fold along the center of the tortilla. Add a Chipotle Tabasco sauce for a nice spicy kick. Then put some more cheese on the chicken for good measure.
Once the cheese starts to melt, you probably want to check on the browning of the tortilla. Once it is to your liking, grab the tortilla and pull it over the chicken and cheese, pressing down once it's folded.
Give it another 10-20 seconds or so, and then flip the quesadilla carefully with your tongs. Or if you have friends you want to impress, align the quesadilla so that it's flat side is perpendicular to the handle, and give it a flip. If it comes apart mid-air, that means you either needed more cheese, or more time for the cheese to melt.
Wash, rinse and repeat until you run out of cheese, chicken or tortillas.
Grab a cold one and enjoy!
