Cherry Chicken Chipotle Quesadillas with Cherry Salsa

The picture above is Lake Chelan in Washington State. Our RV travels took us all the way west to this beautiful part of the country. Unfortunately, smoke from Canadian forest fires blew down to us and it gave a hazy quality to all the views.  It was still pretty though and we enjoyed seeing the Grand Coulee Dam, the German town of Leavenworth  and the bustle of Seattle. The Lake Chelan area is known for orchards that produce peaches, cherries, apples, and apricots. Roadside fruit stands sold all that luscious stuff and more; tomatoes and veggies were offered as well. Of course we stopped and had to buy our share! We loved munching on the dark sweet cherries right out of hand, but I also remembered a savory recipe, Cherry Chicken Chipotle Quesadillas, I had forgotten about. In fact it's buried deep in this blog's archives but is so delicious I'm giving it new life by posting it again. It's easy enough to cook on a motor home stove and Roy and I thoroughly enjoyed it as a hot lunch vs. our usually sandwiches. We loved the Cherry Salsa as a condiment to the quesadillas but it's great as a dip with taco chips.

Chicken Cherry Chipotle Quesadillas: Serves Four

 

2 cups cooked, chopped chicken breasts

2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese

1/2 cup cherries, red or yellow or both - pitted and roughly chopped OR 1/4 cup dried cherries

1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions

1 tablespoon chopped cilantro

1 teaspoon ground chipotle pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 large or 8 medium flour tortillas

2 to 4 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil

Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl.

Brush the bottom side of half of the tortillas with oil and place them down on foil covered work surface.

Divide the chicken mixture between the tortillas and spread out evenly.

Cover each quesadilla with a second tortilla and brush with oil.

Carefully transfer to either foiled covered baking sheet or large frying pan:

These can be baked at 350 degrees for about 10 to 15 minutes, until cheese melts out.

Or, cook in medium low heat in a frying pan for 7 minutes a side.

If  I am making a large quesadilla, I actually invert a plate over the top of the skillet. Then I flip the pan over so the tortilla lands on the plate. I carefully slide the uncooked side back in the pan.

Cherry Salsa

1 1/2 cups pitted and chopped fresh cherries - red, yellow or mixture of both

1/4 cup chopped dried cherries (optional)

1 tablespoon chopped jalapeno pepper

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon chopped cilantro

2 tablespoons chopped red onions

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons lemon juice - to taste according to sweetness of cherries using

Put all ingredients in a pan, bring them to a boil, turn down the heat to low, simmer for about 10 minutes. Allow to cool and serve as a condiment to quesadilla or as a dip with taco chips.