Recipes from Helle

The title for those of you who don’t know, is a reference the the popular movie, “Napoleon Dynamite” and if you haven’t seen it…. well its ok. Today’s recipe is all about quick easy throw it together in the microwave food for teens, dorms, or just a late night snack or it can be made a bit more traditionally on the stove. Either way, its a nice no brainer faux mexican meal.

• Chicken- I prefer a store bought rotisserie already cooked, but if you’re making this at home and have some boneless skinless chicken breasts hanging round, those will work in a pinch too.
• 1-2 cans of pinto beans drained and rinsed with a very small amount of the liquid reserved
• cheese
• topping suggestions- fresh (or canned) mushrooms, salsa, sour cream or plain yoghurt, black olives, tomatoes, fresh or canned jalapenos, diced onions, etc. The sky or your budget is the limit.
• Burrito size (10 inch) tortillas

First off, if you’re cooking your chicken, get that going. I like to cook mine under the broiler for about 20 minutes, or till done flipping it half way through, but cook it however you want and set aside to cool. If you’re using the rotisserie chicken, don’t worry about it yet. Take your cans of drained pinto beans and the liquid (I reserved about 2 tbsp from one can) and put them in a shallow bowl big enough to hold them. Take a potato masher and squish them all up to a paste like consistency- see where we’re going with this yet? Once they’re pretty well mashed, put them in a non stick pan with about 1/4 cup of that salsa and cook them on medium heat. Stir them fairly regularly to prevent them from sticking and burning. Meanwhile, head back to that chicken. You’re going to tear it apart into shreds to make for less surface area when cooking the quesadillas. Once thats done, remove the refried beans (cuz thats what they are now) from the heat and let them cool. They should be a little crusty but not rock solid. Take a tortilla and do one of two things. If you’re microwaving it, put it on a plate, cover  half of it with desired toppings, (minus sour cream/yoghurt) and cheese and toss it in the microwave till the cheese is good and melted. When its done, fold it in half and voila, you’re ready to chow down. If you’re going the stove route, melt a bit of butter in a 10″ skillet and put a tortilla in, top half of it your choice of toppings, without the sour cream or yoghurt of course, and cook till the cheese starts to melt. Flip it over and let it brown a bit on the other side and serve.

The microwave version of this meal kept me fed in my dorm in college when I worked late at a 24 hour Wal Mart. It was cheap and delicious and made me very popular with the other kids on my floor.