Two nights a week, my husband is not home for dinner so I cook for me and the kids and a leftover plate for him. It’s hard to motivate myself to cook something really involved. I want to throw something together quickly and easily so that preparing and clean-up aren’t difficult and I can move on to an evening with my family. I came across Real Simple’s Grilled Chicken and Spinach recipe and everyone loved it.
One thing you should know about me, I hate cooking with chicken. It’s too risky. There is too much responsibility and I am always afraid that I will kill someone by under-cooking it, but they could also choke on it if I overcook it. My family has become accostumed to eating dried out chicken just so mommy didn’t feel like there was any chance of it being undone in the center.
I have nothing against the chicken. I will eat it at restaurants or even if someone else prepares it, but I really loath cooking it myself.
When I see a recipe with chicken, I have a propensity to gloss over it, or even just fear it the entire time I’m making it. Chicken, to me, is so difficult to cook. Undone will kill you (well not really, but I guess it cook) and overdone is no fun. But this recipe worked for me. Mostly because it uses those cheap rotisserie chickens from the grocery store.
Heat grill to medium. In a large bowl, combine the chicken, spinach, and cheese.
Dividing evenly, place the mixture on one half of each tortilla. Fold over the other half to cover.
Grill the quesadillas until the cheese has melted and the tortillas are crisp, 3 to 4 minutes per side.
Serve quesadillas with the avocado, salsa, and sour cream.
The finished product.
So how did it work for me? You can see that this is a really simple recipe with really easy steps. For me, especially on a night my husband is away, this is perfect. I thought it was incredibly tasty. The meat wasn’t dried out. It had good flavor and that alone helped set the tone of the meal. My kids like it, although they opened it up and ate the chicken and then ate the cheesy tortilla. Even reheated, my husband said it was awesome, and I often don’t get dinner compliments like that.
The best part was that it contained spinach and even the non-veggie lovers in our abode were surprised they couldn’t taste it.
The kids and I did not eat it with salsa. They also hate avocado so we skipped that too. Instead, I served it with a side of corn and some sour cream. It’s definitely going to be on our dinner table again this summer. I’m even thinking that this would be a great dinner for when we are camping.
Courtney is the traveling mom! She has 3 girls and is the founder of Detroit Mommies and currently lives in Florida. You can follow her on Twitter @courtneyRVL.
