Did you know you could make quesadillas with an iron? Yes, as in the thing you use to press wrinkles out of clothes? Read on, friends, and learn how you too can make a delicious meal without fighting over appliances in your residence hall’s community kitchen.
Utensils required: an iron, heavy duty aluminum foil (trust me — get the thick stuff so you don’t have to worry about the foil tearing!), oven mitts
Ingredients:
1 bag of shredded Mexican cheese
1 package of pre-cooked chicken or imitation chicken strips (you can find these near the bagged salad mixes in the produce section)*
1 bag of large tortillas
1 spring of cilantro, finely chopped
1 jar of fresh salsa
*You could use baby bella mushrooms, tofu, sliced deli ham, precooked bacon (the microwaveable kind — just heat it up first), ground turkey or just about anything else in place of chicken. In fact, I made some the other day using leftover cheeseburgers that I diced up! Your fillings are up to you.
Time commitment: 5-10 minutes
Steps:
1. Place a sheet of aluminum foil on a flat tabletop (or even on your ironing board). Make sure it’s larger than the tortilla, then place the tortilla on top of it.
2. Now plug in the iron, turning off the steam function (make sure there’s no water in the iron) and setting it to the cotton setting so it’s not too hot.
3. Sprinkle a fine layer of cheese, then add in the toppings of your choosing. If you’re following the recipe exactly, that’d be the chicken (imitation or otherwise), salsa and cilantro. Make sure you leave about half an inch for the cheese to melt and expand so it doesn’t come gushing out of the sides.
4. Now add another layer of cheese to cover it, and place another tortilla on top.
5. It’s time to get cooking! Cover the tortillas with another sheet of aluminum foil and, for convenience’s sake (something I had to learn the hard way), fold over the edges so the quesadilla is neatly packaged inside. Now, press the heated iron onto the foil, and hold it there for about 30-35 seconds. Lift the iron and press it onto another part of the quesadilla, leaving the iron there for another 30 seconds or so.
6. Continue this pattern of heating the quesadilla for about two minutes, then flip it over and repeat the process on the other side. Use the oven mitts to flip the quesadilla, and be careful when handling the foil, as it can get pretty hot. Once you’ve finished heating the quesadilla on both sides, peel back the foil a bit and check on it. Has the cheese melted all the way? You may start to notice slight, golden brown spots on the tortilla from the “grilling” process. If neither are present, close up the foil and press it with the iron a couple more times.
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