Quesadillas with shish taouk chicken and caramelized onion
- Preparation 20 min
- Refrigeration 8 h
- Cooking 50 min
- Servings 4
- Freezing No
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🍗 The same marinade as my shish taouk
The chicken sits in the same marinade as my homemade shish taouk. Greek yogurt, lemon juice, four cloves of garlic, smoked paprika, a pinch of cinnamon. Eight hours in the fridge, then straight into a hot oven.
Nothing here comes pre-marinated from a store shelf. That was the whole point of rebuilding this one.
🧅 The cider vinegar nobody else adds
Two sweet onions, olive oil, ten minutes over low heat. They should never brown. Then the cider vinegar goes in and cooks down until the pan is dry.
That vinegar is the part nobody else does. Sweet onions plus melted cheese is heavy, and by the third piece you are done. The vinegar keeps the whole thing bright right to the last wedge.
🧀 A cheese strong enough to hold its own
Pacific Rock is a firm Quebec cheese from Fromagerie Alexis de Portneuf, aged at least four months in their own ripening room. Nutty, buttery, sharp enough to stand up to garlic and smoked paprika.
Can’t find it? Reach for a properly aged sharp cheddar. Sharp is the word that matters.
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🔥 The number one quesadilla mistake
The number one mistake people make with a quesadilla is turning the heat down because they are scared of burning it. What you get instead is a floppy pancake: the tortilla soaks up the fat from the cheese and never browns. You need some real heat in that pan.
Medium heat, two to three minutes a side. The tortilla should show brown spots and crack a little when you cut it.
🍗 Eight hours in the marinade, not twenty-four
My homemade shish taouk uses boneless thighs and I let them go a full twenty-four hours. Breasts are leaner, so eight hours is the ceiling. Past that the lemon and yogurt turn the meat pasty.
🧅 The cider vinegar in the onions
Three tablespoons poured over the softened onions, cooked down until dry. Two minutes, that’s it.
🧀 Sharp cheese, grated by hand
Pacific Rock is a firm cheese aged at least four months, nutty and buttery, and it grates cleanly. It holds its own against the garlic and the smoked paprika instead of vanishing behind them.
If your grocery store doesn’t carry it, go with a sharp aged cheddar, the same kind I use in my grilled cheese with apples. What matters is the strength. A mild cheese gets erased by the marinade and you lose half the recipe.
And grate it yourself. Bagged shredded cheese is coated in starch so it won’t clump, and that starch is exactly what stops it from melting properly.
🥄 Press it down while it cooks
I press down on it with a spatula while it cooks, because doing it by hand is awkward. It welds the two tortillas together and keeps the filling from sliding out when the flip comes. Same spatula does the flipping, gently.
📅 Make it ahead
Yes. Cook the chicken and the onions the day before and keep them in the fridge in two separate containers. On the day, all that’s left is building them and the pan. Ten minutes for four quesadillas.
♨️ How to reheat a quesadilla
Reheat them in the oven at 400 °F (200 °C), until the cheese melts again and the tortilla crisps back up. Not the microwave, that just makes everything soggy.
❄️ Can you freeze them?
I don’t suggest freezing these.
✅ What to serve with my shish taouk chicken quesadillas
Sour cream and a salad. That’s all it needs, the quesadilla is rich enough on its own. If you have people over and want to stretch the meal, add pita chips.
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Ingredients for the marinade
- 600 g chicken breasts
- The juice of 1 lemon
- 1/2 cup (125 ml) Greek yogurt
- 4 large cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 3 tablespoons (45 ml) olive oil
- 1 tablespoon (15 ml) tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon (15 ml) smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) ground ginger
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
Ingredients for the quesadillas
- 2 sweet onions, halved then thinly sliced
- Olive oil
- 3 tablespoons (45 ml) cider vinegar
- 300 g Pacific Rock cheese by Fromagerie Alexis de Portneuf, grated
- 8 small tortillas
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
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Preparation
- Place the chicken in a large airtight container. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, add the lemon juice, Greek yogurt, garlic, olive oil, tomato paste, smoked paprika, oregano, cinnamon and ginger, season generously with salt and pepper and stir. Pour over the chicken, mix well and refrigerate for 8 hours. With chicken breasts, do not go past 8 hours: lean meat will not hold up any longer in a marinade this acidic.
- In a skillet over medium-low heat, add the onions, drizzle a good dash of olive oil, then season with salt and pepper. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring. The onions should not brown, lower the heat if necessary.
- Add the cider vinegar, stir and cook for 2 minutes to reduce until dry. Remove from the heat and set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 450 °F (230 °C). Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.
- Take the chicken out of the marinade and lay it on the baking sheet. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until a thermometer inserted in the thickest part reads 165 °F (74 °C). Place on a work surface and chop coarsely, or shred it with a fork. Set aside.
- In a large non-stick skillet over medium heat, place a tortilla and add 1/4 of the cheese, 1/4 of the chicken and 1/4 of the onions, then top with a second tortilla. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes per side, or until the tortillas are golden brown. Press down with the back of a spatula while it cooks and flip gently.
- Repeat with the rest of the ingredients, cut into wedges and serve right away!
Three things, and they all happen in the pan. Heat too low, so the tortilla goes soft instead of browning. Too much filling, so it spills the second you flip. And bagged shredded cheese, which is coated in starch and never melts the way it should.
Honestly? Not much, and that’s on purpose. Chicken, caramelized onions, cheese. If you do want to add something, keep it dry and keep it out of the pan otherwise it steams the tortilla from the inside. Sour cream goes on the plate, not in the quesadilla.
Eight hours for chicken breasts, and no longer. The marinade is built on lemon juice and yogurt, and lean breast meat starts falling apart in it. Boneless thighs, like in my homemade shish taouk, handle a full twenty-four hours without a problem.
Partly. The chicken and the onions can both be made the day before and kept in the fridge in separate containers. The building and the pan, though, happen at the last minute. A quesadilla assembled ahead of time goes soft.
Sour cream and a salad. The quesadilla is already rich, it doesn’t need much around it. Pita chips if you’re feeding a crowd.
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