Lunch Week: Chicken Quesadilla Sandwich

May 3, 2012 Laura

There is something this sandwich is missing: avocado. I would never dare eat a quesadilla or anything else remotely like Mexican cuisine without avocado or guacamole. The issue is we have an avocado allergy in our household, so it was left off this sandwich. However, if you make this, promise you’ll nestle slices of avocado in between the slices of bread. Do it for me and all the lonely tortilla chips I eat in my house without a healthy scoop of guacamole. Pinky swear. Can you tell I miss it?

I’ll pick Mexican cuisine over almost any other. (To my Italian grandmother, you didn’t hear that.) In fact, I’ve been known to smuggle a burrito back from my favorite NYC Mexican joint in my carry on. (For some reason, I haven’t found the best burrito joint here in Toronto. If you know of one, please write, immediately.) Cooking dishes like quesadillas or burritos are one of my favorite dinner options. I can usually pull them off with minimal work, especially if I use the Chili Chicken Taco recipe we featured by Martha Stewart but has been championed by all the busy parents of SPC. After one evening of chill tacos, I whipped this sandwich together when Scarlett groaned at my suggestion of a quesadilla for lunch. “Not another,” she whined. “Can’t I just have a sandwich?” Well, a sandwich she got.

So if you want dinner and then lunch and lunch and maybe even dinner again, double the chili chicken recipe and enjoy this sammie–it makes plain chicken salad look like bologna. I’ve even tried using rotisserie chicken picked up at my local grocery store. I just add a few extra bells and whistle so it can pack the same flavorful punch.

Chicken Quesadilla Sandwich
2 cups shredded leftover Chili Chicken Taco meat or rotisserie chicken
1/2 cup sour cream
1 1/2 teaspoon fresh, chopped cilantro
1/2 cup shaved monterey jack cheese
1 avocado, cored and sliced
8 slices of multigrain breadIf you’re using rotisserie chicken please make the following additions and alterations:1/2 cup of prepared salsa
reduce sour cream to 1/4 cup
1 clove garlic, shaved into mix

Method

In a bowl, mix chicken, sour cream, shredded cheese and fresh cilantro. If you’re shredding a rotisserie chicken, please add the additional ingredients listed above. Stir until combined. Season with salt and pepper if you’d like.

Divide chicken mixture among four slices of bread and then add slices of avocado to each. Cap each sandwich with remaining bread and, using a serrated knife, cut crusts off bread and slice each sandwich diagonally. Pack in air tight container.

If you’re wondering what Scarlett thought of her sandwich on the day she got this instead of her typical almond butter and jelly, you can probably guess her reaction. She ate two sandwiches. Didn’t guess that? Neither did I.