Welcome to another episode of "Cookin' with the Wuff, phone style!"

In the interest of "Social Distancing" and safety, as well as care for a bit of a lame paw on wuff's part, Vrghr helped another friend learn an easy but tasty dish, cooked at their house with assistance of "The Cookin' Wuff" on the other end of the phone line. Ya know, these things have been so successful so far, wuffy might have to make this a regular "feature". *GRIN*

Today we did one of Karen's (wuff's friend on the other side of the phone line) favorite meals: Chicken Quesadillas.

Although this is normally quite an easy dish, Vrghr trimmed down the difficulty and time needed even further by using a store-bought rotisserie chicken instead of having Karen cook up the poultry herself. Wuffy heartily recommends this method to his furry friends. Most of those deli rotisserie chickens are very tasty and well prepared, and also very inexpensive. You can often get a whole cooked bird for around $5.

Once you get it home, all you need to do is peel back the skin and shred the meat from the bones. If you like the flavors your store uses for their chicken spice, just dice up some of that chicken skin and mix it back in for some extra delicious "kick!"

Karen was totally thrilled with the results here! "So easy, so quick, and a lot more chicken inside than I get when I order out! LOVED it! Totally going to be making these all the time!" was her response.

We created several of these. One got finished for lunch, but the rest are getting frozen, to be reheated in the toaster oven for quick weekday meals while she's working. Her new pup, Toby, liked it too! He got a little sample of the chicken meat for being a Good Boy and watching patiently without getting underfoot or begging while she cooked.

Wuff's recipe here has a bit of additional flavor coming from a mixture of peppers and onions, along with the chicken and cheese. Feel free to adjust the amount of the spices and ingredients to your own taste. This is delicious as it is, or serving as a base for your own kitchen experiments.

Bon Appetite!

Makes about 6-8 large Quesadillas, depending on how heavily you load them up with goodies!

INGREDIENTS:
1 whole Rotisserie Chicken
Large Flour Tortillas (1 per Quesa)
2 lbs grated Mexican Mix cheese
1 lg Green Bell Pepper
1 lg Red Bell Pepper
1 lg Onion
2 Jalapeno peppers
1/2 tsp ground Cumin
1/2 tsp Chili Powder
1/2 tsp Garlic Powder
1/2 stick Butter, melted
2-3 TBS Olive Oil

Sour Cream & Picante Sauce to serve (Optional)

DIRECTIONS:
When you get your store-bought rotisserie chicken home, remove if from the foil bag most deli's put them in and put it on a plate while you work with the veggies. This will let it cool a bit, to make it easier to handle when shredding

Peel the onion, slice it "pole to pole", nip off the roots and stem ends, and then place flat side down on cutting board and slice into thin slices. Separate into half-moon crescents.

Slice the tops off the bell peppers. Cut the good parts away from the stems. Cut the rest in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds and membranes. Then slice into thin strips

Slice the top off the Jalapenos. Slice in half lengthwise. With a spoon, scoop out the seeds and membranes, and rinse out the inside. Chop them into fine mince

Put all your sliced veggies together

In a large, heavy fry pan, heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil over medium high heat. Add your mixed veggies and stir to coat with the oil. Sprinkle with the garlic, cumin, and chili powders. Cook and stir until the onions are translucent and the peppers and tender and fragrant. Remove to a bowl to hold.

Remove pan from heat and wipe out inside

Remove the skin from the chicken and dice some of it up to add flavor to the meat. Using forks or fingers, pull off all the meat from the bones and shred it up. Mix it in with the diced chicken skin. Reserve the meat. You can save the bones for stock or discard, your choice

Melt the butter in a microwave-safe bowl, and sit it near your stove with a pastry brush nearby

Take one of the large tortillas and sit it on a clean counter. Place a big handful of the grated cheese onto half of the tortilla and spread it nearly, but not quite, to the edge. Cover that with a nice light layer of the shredded chicken. And cover that with a few spoon-fulls of the cooked veggies, spreading it all out to nearly the edge of the cheese

Fold the empty side of the tortilla over the full side. Squish it down a bit to make sure it stays folded. Then paint the top side with some of the melted butter

Heat your skillet back up again over medium heat. Watch your results as you're cooking. You want the cheese to melt all the way through, but not to over-brown or under-toast the tortilla shell while that's happening. You can adjust the heat to get things moving just right, as you go along

Move your half-moon stuffed tortilla to the heated skillet and put it in, butter-side down. Let it sit and fry for 2-4 minutes

While its frying, paint the other side (which is on top now) with melted butter

Using a spatula, lift an edge and check to see if the underside is getting toasty golden brown. When its as toasted as you like, flip it over, rolling it over the fold

You can make up another Quesadilla and slot it into the empty half of the skillet while this one is frying up on the other side. This will improve your "throughput" on the goodies

Move your cooked Quesadilla to a waiting plate. You can cut it into halves or quarters, depending on how hungry you and your guests are. One large quesadilla makes a good serving for one person

Serve with (optional) sour cream, picante sauce, sliced avocados, hot sauce, etc.

!DEVOUR!

Note: These freeze REALLY well! You can freeze up the extra and toast them in a toaster oven, in a fry pan, a regular oven, or even heat in a microwave as a last resort.