Quesadillas | Basics with Babish

quesadillas the word alone conjures up fuzzy memories of tableside guac salty oily chips and one too many frozen margaritas that's exactly what we're going for the ultimate expression of tex-mex cuisine so that means flour tortillas and Monterey Jack cheese lots of it can the internet survive to melty gooey cheesy videos on the same channel in the same week more importantly connives only one way to find out let's get down to basics [Music] all right so let's start by having to talk about cheese I know I only mentioned Monterey Jack before but I like to add a little bit of sharp cheddar into the mix for flavor and color but Monterey Jack is super important because it melts like mozzarella and tastes like a slightly more flavorful mozzarella now of course we could just do cheese quesadillas but I like some filling so let's talk chicken get your texting out of the way before you cover your hands and Salmonella and let's butterfly our chicken breasts basically we're just gonna place long cuts down the side of the breast until we can open it up like a book then we're gonna place them between sheets plastic wrap and pound them out flat and even nice thin chicken breasts like this cook more quickly and are less susceptible to drying out but they're pretty bland so let's talk marinade into our large bowl we are combining a couple tablespoons of vegetable oil two crushed cloves of garlic about a teaspoon of Oregon oh and all the human you have left in the house maybe a tablespoon a teaspoon of cayenne a teaspoon of smoked paprika and a teaspoon of white sugar which is going to help the exterior of the chicken caramelize plus the juice of one lime a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil and about a teaspoon each of kosher salt and freshly ground pepper give that a good tiny whisk and place Europe a flattened chicken in a zip top bag and pour the marinade over top squeezing all the air at zipping shut and massaging to ensure even coverage then to prevent a cross-contamination we are placing this into a bowl before placing in the fridge for at least 30 minutes and up to four hours just enough time to make some quesadilla Kouta ma how about some of that guac I was talking about into a bowl goes the meats flesh actually I believe it's called a mezzo carpet the mezzo Karp's of two ripe avocados one half of a small red onion finely chopped 1 large jalapeno devoid of seeds and veins if you don't want it be too spicy and the last time I made walk on this show I forgot to add garlic very embarrassing two cloves of grated garlic the juice of one lime and a good shake of cumin mash that up with a fork and do not forget to season with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to achieve a basic but killer guacamole now on to negotiating our chicken breasts we want to cook these as hot and fast as possible shake off the excess marinade and sear in a skillet that's been preheated over high heat flipping once or twice until the internal temperature registers 155 degrees Fahrenheit then remove allow to cool a little bit and slice and now it's finally time to start assembling our quesadillas I'm starting with chicken followed by some sauteed peppers and onions and a layer of our cheese mix you will notice that I'm making half quesadillas that's just my preferred form factor however you assemble them you want a generous amount of oil in the bottom if your frying pan I'd say about 2 to 3 tablespoons worth I'm gonna preheat the pan over medium heat for about a minute before dropping them in and letting them almost deep fry and all that oil then we're gonna flip after about a minute and a half once they turn beautiful and golden-brown on the first side let them go for about another minute and a half on the second side and then remove to slice and consume I like to cut my quesadillas into six even slices kind of like some kind of tex-mex pizza pie and serve with sour cream guacamole and salsa as you can see even in one of its more advanced forms quesadillas are pretty damn easy they just take a little bit of practice to get the heat right and you want to be generous but not overzealous with the fillings so they're not spilling out every time you try to take a bite like that but what if you're a steak at arian for that I have to recommend hanger or skirt steak like this because it's super fatty and flavorful we're gonna prepare it the way we would pretty much in any other application which is to hit it with salt pepper let it rest at room temperature for about 30 minutes drop them in a ripping hot cast-iron skillet that is lube with vegetable oil that you have allowed to reach its smoke point flip after three to five minutes or after it has begun to attain a golden-brown crust cooking for another four to five minutes flipping as necessary until your desired internal temperature has been reached I like 125 degrees Fahrenheit for this particular cut then we're taking it off the heat and letting it rest covered with aluminum foil for at least 10 minutes don't forget to take advantage of this nice fun on the bottom of the pot and sauté your onions and peppers in there which is gonna give our quesadillas a little bit of extra steaky goodness slice the steak into three inch long segments and then slice across the grain so you have tender little strips of beautiful beef which now make their journey into our quesadillas Sam deals before half moon orientation I'm just gonna lay down a single layer of beef top with peppers and onions and of course a generous handful of cheese and then it's time to fry them up same procedure as with the chicken but this is good practice if you are scared of flipping the Dilla's directly if you don't have a large enough spatula it kind of helps to pull them out and put them on a plate and either flip them one at a time like this or flip them on the plate and then shimmy them back into the frying pan there's not much more to show here technique wise but I mean you want to see this thing sliced up right yeah me too into six equal slices they go and then it's time to dig in so that covers stick at Aryans but what about vegetarians which is an actual thing for them I like to go zucchini and corn so we're gonna start by executing a fine shot Lenoir zucchini taking our corn out of the can and pretending it's fresh and sauteing them in a large nonstick skillet with a little bit of olive oil I like to start with the zucchini and then add the corn later over pretty high heat because we're just trying to get color on these things from here the procedure is pretty much what you'd imagine it to be spoon some of the filling over half of the tortilla top with a layer of cheese and press really flat because these are some particularly tumbly fillings and we don't want them tumbling out it's been with oil preheat drop in the Dilys try to think of something funny to tweet nothing's coming lay him down slice him up and finally give your audience the payoff they've been waiting for with a serious cheese stretch OOP didn't go all the way through nope nevermind so there you have it three different quesadillas to keep your friends and loved ones happy for the rest of time now stop watching internet videos and go make one [Music] [Music]

Channel: Babish Culinary Universe

Views: 8,194,366

Rating: 4.9600048 out of 5

Keywords: quesadillas, quesadilla, cheese, cheesey, cheesy, melty, mexican, tex-mex, vegetarian, steak, chicken, marinade, marinated, medium-rare, napoleon, dynamite, binging with babish, cooking with babish, basics with babish, babbish, quesadilla recipe, how to make quesadillas, easy quesadilla recipe

Id: E0G5Y2SOW0c

Length: 6min 17sec (377 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 18 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Jetpack-Guy]

I have a cheese-based erection.

[u/Hydra_Master]

My favorite filling for quesadillas is ground turkey with two of those small cans of hatch chiles (hot, mild, or half and half depending on heat preference). cook the turkey with salt, pepper, garlic (to taste), and chiles(including the liquid).

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I was debating what to cook for dinner tonight and now I know.

[u/LikeARoss0708]

Good lord these just always look amazing. Is that store bought salsa or did you make it yourself and if so, how?

[u/Yung_Domies]

So uhh, salads next week, Babby? You're gonna need a little roughage after these past few episodes.

[u/hellrodkc]

This is how I make quesadillas too but I put cheese on both sides of the filling, and hit em with a little salt on the outside after they come out of the pan.

[u/mstrdsastr]

I think I have spatula envy.

[u/LouBrown]

Quesadillas are one of my favorite mid-week "I just got home and had nothing planned" dinners.

I pretty much always have cheese/tortillas lying around. Other than that, just need some sort of meat, and both fresh/leftover work. Very quick and easy to make meal.

Though I recently discovered that fresh flour tortillas are pretty damn easy to make if you have a little bit of time.

[u/JohnSmackSmack47]

I wonder what he did with all the leftover cheese from the grilled cheese episode

[u/SirKanyeofWest]

What oil did he use the fry the quesadillas in?