I have a great idea. It’s supposed to not be frozen this weekend – you should get outside and grill something delicious. In fact, I have the perfect meal for you! I am a little askew in that there is no wild game in this post. BUT. Chicken ‘dillas were calling to us, so that’s what I made. Want to sub in some venison? Do it. Fancy some duck ‘dillas instead of tacos? I’m in. We had a brief reprieve in the weather last Sunday and took full advantage of it. Craft beers on the back porch lounging in the sun while we waited for the grill to get nice and hot. Ahh take me back. So… what did we eat?
Well – grilled grilled chicken quesadillas with marinated onions, homemade salsa, grilled onions with a balsamic bleu cheese sauce, and grilled corn with garlic butter and spicy Parmesan. Yowzers, that’s a mouthful. And no, there isn’t an extra “grilled” in there. You’ll see. And you’ll want to do the same thing.
QUESADILLAS
4 chicken thighs, skin on
salt and pepper
1 bag of shredded cheese
1 onion
2 tbsp Worcestershire
1 tbsp lime juice
tortillas
BALSAMIC BLEU CHEESE SAUCE
1/2 cup balsamic reduction – learn how
here1/4 cup bleu cheese crumbles
1 large sweet onion, cut into thick discs
Now, let’s get to grillin’.
STEPS
I made the salsa first so the ingredients could get to know each other. It is super super simple – all you need is a food processor or blender, and you can control the consistency to your liking.
Just enough time to have another beer.
And now… Chicken time. Liberally salt and pepper the chicken thighs, and place them skin side down on the grill to get some nice char marks and smokey flavor. For the onion – slice into thin strips and marinate in the Worcestershire and lime. Depending on the size of the onion, you may need a little more of the two. After about 10 minutes of sitting, they’re ready to go on the grill, in a little pan covered with tinfoil. Once the chicken is cooked through, remove it from the grill and set aside to cool. You don’t want to burn your fingers when it comes time to shred it! The onions should be finished by the time the chicken is cooked. Once the chicken is cool enough, remove the skin and shred it into bite size pieces and set aside until you’re ready to assemble the quesadillas. You can probably snack on that salsa pretty soon, too.
I almost forgot to tell you – You need to roast your garlic for the garlic butter. It’s super easy, takes zero effort, and is totally worth it. I used it
here, and find new dished to put it in all the time. Take an entire head of garlic, and chop off the top third so each clove is exposed. Make a little pouch with some tinfoil to hold it, cover in a little olive oil, salt, and seasoning, wrap it up, and put it in the oven at 400* for about 30 minutes, until it is soft and delicious.
When it has cooled enough to handle, squeeze out the softened cloves and mix in a small bowl with your softened butter. This should be very easy. Add a squeeze of lime juice to help things get mixed, and set aside.
Now it’s time to get back to the grill. The corn is next, followed in hot pursuit by the grilled onion and the quesadillas. And the spicy Parm and balsamic sauce in the meantime. See below for the corn recipe…
Heat up the balsamic reduction and add the bleu cheese, giving it a stir so the cheese starts to melt and it all combines. It will look similar to a melted crunch bar- an observation that was quickly pointed out to me.
You know what quesadillas are supposed to look like – melty gooey cheese, and golden brown, crispy tortilla. Don’t mind the steaks – we had a non-quesadilla eater over as well.
I also took the onion slices off at some point during the quesadilla cooking.
Time to eat! Finally! I know, this was a beast of a post. I probably could have streamlined the photo/cooking process had I not spent so much time taking pictures like this.
Can you blame me? But, back to the food. Grab a big plate, and fill it up. Pull back the husk from the corn and remove it, smother the grilled onion with balsamic bleu cheese sauce (maybe a few extra bleu cheese crumbles), add a few big scoops of your homemade salsa, a dollop of sour cream, and you’re all set!
Like these
recipes, but don’t want to have to revisit the blog every time you want to make something? Boy, do I have a surprise for you. Don’t go anywhere, I’ll be back soon!
