The Art of Making Perfect Quesadillas

As we begin our journey to create the perfect quesadilla, I must confess that I'm a cheater. I want it to be really cheesy when we cut into it, and I'm willing to take a few shortcuts to get there. To start, we need to prepare the tortillas by sprinkling some cheese on one side of each tortilla. This is where the magic begins, and our quesadillas will soon become a reality.

As I sprinkle the cheese, I notice that my tortillas are looking pretty perfect already. The cheese is already pretty much melted, and I can see the golden brown color starting to appear on the tortillas. Now it's time to add the toppings. I'm going to use sautéed shrimp, pepper, and onion mixture as the base of our quesadillas. I love adding a variety of ingredients to my quesadillas, so feel free to get creative with your own combination.

Next, we need to add some butter to our tortillas. Now, this is where things can go wrong if you don't use enough butter. I like to get a little bit more and just kind of scoop it under the rug, making sure that beautiful golden consistency reaches the other side of the tortilla. It's all about finding that perfect balance between crispy and melted.

Now that our tortillas are ready, it's time to add the filling. I'm using the same pepper and onion mixture as before, but feel free to mix in some sautéed chicken or beef for added flavor. And remember, you can never have too much cheese – even plain old cheese is better than nothing!

As we assemble our quesadillas, it's time to add a little extra love. I'm using my trusty spatula to ensure that everything is perfectly aligned and that the cheese is evenly distributed. This is where patience comes in – making perfect quesadillas takes time and practice.

When it's finally time to cook our quesadillas, we need to be careful not to burn ourselves on the hot cheese. I like to use a spatula to gently flip the quesadillas over, making sure that they're cooked evenly on both sides. And don't worry if you lose a few pieces – just pop them back in and continue cooking until everything is golden brown and delicious.

Once our quesadillas are done, it's time to add some fixings. I like to top my quesadillas with pico de gallo, guacamole, sour cream, and of course, plenty of cheese. And let's not forget the tortilla chips – they're the perfect accompaniment to any meal.

When it comes to cutting our quesadillas into wedges, there are a few tricks of the trade that can make all the difference. I like to use a pizza cutter to cut through the center and push really hard in one direction before doing the same in the other direction. It's amazing how much more manageable those pesky tortilla wedges become with just a little bit of practice.

As we gather around the table to enjoy our perfectly crafted quesadillas, I'm reminded of why this dish is so special. There's something magical about taking all of these ingredients and bringing them together in one delicious package. Whether you're making quesadillas for a party or a family dinner, it's an experience that everyone will love.

And as we sit down to enjoy our quesadilla feast, I'm grateful for the simple pleasures in life – like buttery, golden tortillas, melty cheese, and sassy shrimp all mixed together with sweet pineapple. It may sound strange, but trust me when I say that this combination is one of the best things you'll ever eat.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enHi.It's Ree, the Pioneer Woman, andyou are going to make my Shrimpand Pineapple Quesadillas.Talk about a lifelonglove affair for me.Quesadillas are, hands down,my favorite food on Earth.First thing you need to dois get some veggies prepped.We'll start with someonion, and I'll justcut off the top andthe tail, and I'lljust get the outer peel off.Basically, these are cheesyquesadillas with onions,and peppers, and thesurprisingly sweet additionof pineapple, which is goingto light your quesadillafire in a big way.I'm just going to cut theonions into pretty big chunks.These are going togo into a skillet,so you don't needto dice them finely.And you want thequesadillas to havenice, big chunks of veggies.Here's a little piece of triviaabout quesadillas and me.They happen to be my number onepregnancy craving with all fourof my children.Moms, you know those dayswhen you're expecting a babyand there's nothingthat sounds good to eat?Well, on those days, for me,quesadillas are what I wanted.And I still love themevery bit as much as whenI was pregnant with my babies.So the onions are prepped,and I'm going to getsome red bell peppers prepped.You can use any colorof bell pepper you like.And I'm kind of taking the easyroad and just kind of shavingoff slabs of the peppers.I'm doing red andgreen, but I reallylove to do orange and yellow.I really like bell peppers,especially in quesadillas.OK.And then once you havethe big pieces cut,you can just kind ofgo to town and cut theminto different sized chunks.Again, I love a recipe thatdoesn't require a fine, neatdice of vegetables.I like to just kindof hack away and windup with a big pile of veggies.If you want to, you can addmushrooms to this quesadilla--really, any veggiethat you like.You can do chunks ofzucchini and summer squash.It kind of depends onwhat time of year it isand what you have in abundancein your produce drawer.Corn is delicious.If you have somefresh sweet corn,you can shave thekernels off the cob.Anything goes.The only thing that'simportant about quesadillasis that you have lots of cheese.So I am going to make surethis skillet is getting hot.You want to use a big skilletso you have plenty of room.And I'm going to adda mixture of butter--woo, that's a hot skillet--and a little bit of olive oil.And then that basicallygot hot instantly,so you can put the veggiesstraight into the pan.Careful not to splash.See, this is why wearpattern clothes when I cook.Because if I splash alittle oil on myselfnobody will ever know,and they'll thinkI'm such a neat cook because Inever get food on my clothes,but now you know the truth.OK.Now you want to startcooking the veggies.Basically, you want to cookhim over pretty high heat--medium to medium-high--because you wantthe veggies to getsome nice color on the edges.A little bit ofblack won't hurt.Meantime, you want to geta griddle over some heatand get it heated up.I'm using a cast iron griddle,but you can use a nonstickgriddle or, if youdon't have a griddle,you can do just a big ironskillet or nonstick skillet.OK.So while the peppers andonions start to cook,I'm going to get somechunks of pineapple.Now, I am using afresh pineapple,but you can buy the littlecontainers of pineapple chunksthat they sell ingrocery stores.Those are really handy.And I really likeprepping fresh pineapples.Ladd and my boysabsolutely love them.And I just cut off thetop and the bottom,and then I'll just godown around the edgesand shave off thatprickly skin--or prickly rind.I'm not sure what youcall it with pineapple.And then all ofthis can go away.And then I kind ofline up two points,and then rotate it andkind of find the point,and then just cut through.And then you wind up withthese neat little spears.And I think I'm goingto need probably two.And then what I do is just kindof slice off that middle corethat's really tough.Having a sharp knifeis always good.And then you have thesenice little lines,and you can just cutthem into chunks.Sometimes I make this quesadillawithout the pineapple.But one day, I just decided tothrow pineapple into the mix,and it was so darn good.If I have pineapplein my fridge,I usually includedin this recipe.OK.The peppers and onionsare coming along.So now you grab thepineapple, and throw it in.You don't want to addthe pineapple firstbecause the onionsand peppers takea little bit longer to cook.And you don't want thepineapple to get overly mushy,so the peppers and onions needa little bit of a head start.So easy so far.I'm going to squeeze inthe veggies with some salt.I'll give it one more stir.Now, these need to cook alittle bit longer so theycan get some good color.I'm going to crankup the heat and liveon the wild side a little bit.OK.So don't be afraid to justwalk away from the skilletand let the veggies andthe pineapple reallystart to get some great color.So I'm going to getthe shrimp ready.So I'm using deveined,peeled shrimp, which isthe easiest way to use shrimp.You don't have to do allthe prep work yourself.I'm going to graba bowl, and thenyou want to take this shrimpand just scrape it into a bowl.Then you don't have to getyour fingers all dirty.The more I can avoidwashing my handsa million times duringone recipe, the better.Now, I've got someMexican red sauce.You can use enchilada sauce,anything in that category.And I'm going to pour probablyabout a cup over the shrimp.And then I'll give this a stir.And you want to just let theshrimp sit in the red saucebefore you cook it.They're not really marinating.You're just kind ofgetting them startedwith a good coat of the sauce.OK.That's all the prep you need toworry about with the shrimp, soback to the skillet.Let's check on the peppers, andthe pineapple, and the onions.Look at this.They're already startingto get gorgeous color.And it's exactlywhat I had in mind,which is just little brown andblack fits around the edges.To me, that just sets flavor.It just says youspent a little bitmore time cookingthe veggies, givingthem a little bit of care.When those edges start tocaramelize, oh, the differencein flavor is amazing.I'm going to turn the heatway down on the skilletbecause, boy, is it hot.You don't needthat heat anymore.And then just carefully pourthe veggies onto a plate.I was a little ambitiouswith this plate.It's not very big.I didn't lose too many.That's all right.I'm sure you can get mostof those out of there.So now you want to takethe shrimp in the sauce,and it goes rightinto this hot pan.And you know howquickly shrimp cooks.That is not goingto take long at all.You just want to get theshrimp into a single layer,and let them start tocook on the first side.Now, I've got the griddle going,so I'm going to get startedon assembling the quesadillas.I've got this nice, hotgriddle, but not too hot.Now, I said cheeseis the most importantthing about quesadillas.Butter is the secondmost important thing.You have to trust me on this.You want to put about-- oops--a tablespoon ofbutter for each quesadillayou're going to cook.And then I'm using thesmallest size of flour tortillathat I could find andjust put it right on topof each little smear of butter.And now comes the cheese.You can use whatever cheese youhappen to have in your fridge.This is regular Jack cheese.You can use Pepper Jack,a mix of cheddar and Jack.There's a delicious Mexicancheese called Chihuahuathat's really beautifullysmooth and melty,which is my favorite word.So after you getthe cheese on there,you can start adding thepineapples and the peppers.And be generous.You don't want to beconservative aboutthese veggies and pineapples.This is the goodstuff right here.I really like to cookquesadillas this way,where you put the bottomtortillas on firstand start building everything.You just have to watch and makesure the underside does notburn.Sometimes it's a tricky balance.So back to the shrimp.You just want to check itand make sure it's cooked.They're real tightlycurled and opaque.So you just want toput probably threeshrimp on each quesadilla.And if you want to, youcan also chop the shrimpafter it's cooked, and youcan just add a little bitsto the quesadilla.I kind of like keepingthem in big chunksQuesadillas are superfun for a party.You can kind of layout all the fixings,and your guests canhelp you assemble them.I love parties like that.OK.So we need to putthe top tortillas on,and it looks like this cheeseis already pretty much melted.I'm going to cheat real quick.Whew!I'm a cheater.I want it to be reallycheesy when we cut into it.OK.OK.So the tops go on and then thisrequires a spatula for sure.And I'm going tocheck the underside.Oh my goodness, so pretty.So you kind of want tohold your hand on the top,make sure it's totallyloosened, and then be careful.Don't burn yourselfon the cheese.Whoop.Oh, lost a shrimp.We'll just pretendthat never happened.We'll do thesame to the first one.It needs just afew more seconds,but look at thatgorgeous, golden tortilla.And you will notever get there if youdon't add a lot of butter.And speaking of butter, Ilike to get a little bit moreand just kind of scootthe tortilla over.It's like sweeping the butterunder the rug a little bit,but you've got to get thatbeautiful golden consistency tothe other side of the tortilla.All right.I'm going to flip this one.Not quite as goldenas the first,but I'll work onthe second side.Look at all of thisjust cheesy, peppery,shrimpy goodness going on.And then, whoop,there goes the butter.I have had quesadillasbefore where just,like, a teeny bit of butterwas used or no butteron the tortillas.And it's just a disappointment.What can I say?There's nothing worse thana disappointing quesadillain my book, so youwant to find waysto avoid being disappointedby your quesadillas.There are somany different waysyou can go with case ideas.Using, this same pepperand onion mixtureyou can do sauteed chicken.You can do sauteed beef.You could even maketaco meat with justground beef and taco seasoningand spoon it on insteadof the shrimp.When I said I've never meta quesadilla I didn't like,I truly, truly meant it.I will take anythingin my quesadillas,even just plain cheese casesif it's a really good cheese.OK.This first one hashad a second chance.I mean, how gorgeousdoes that look?OK.Now when the cheese starts tolook like it's about to spillout everywhere allover the Earth,that's when it's time totake the quesadillas off.I'm going to bring inthe help of a knife.A large spatula helps.Woo!If you lose a fewpieces, no big deal.Just bring them overand pop them back in.And remind me to bring myhuge spatula next time Icome and make quesadillas here.I actuallyhave something that Icall my quesadilla spatula.It's about that big around.OK.I'm going to get the plateready for the quesadillas.And of course, youhave to have fixin's.So I've got pico de gallo,and guacamole, sour cream,all the essentials.And then I havefound the best wayto cut a quesadillas intowedges is to use a pizza cutter.So just kind of go in thecenter and push really hard,cut through, and then do thesame in the other direction.Oh, this smells so good.Do the other one.This really is the ultimateparty food in my book,just having a case party.I would like every one ofmy future birthday partiesto be quesadilla parties.Okie doke.Think I can do thiswith my fingers.You just want toarrange them on a plateso everyone can seethe beautiful redand green peppers.You can overlap them, stackthem, dance with them,propose marriage to them.Have I mentionedI love quesadillas?OK.Believe it or not,that is not my plate.I have a littleplate for myself.But I'm going tograb two pieces.Woo, nice and piping hot.Ooh, gosh.And then spoon on somepico, which is a must.Pico de gallo is basicallya condiment in our house.And some guacamole.I'll get a new spoonfor the sour cream.OK.All right.This is actually going tobe a fork situation for me.If I were bymyself, I would go aheadand pick it up and eat it.I'm trying to have manners here.Trying is the operative word.Mmm.Oh, man.Mm-mm-mm.Buttery, goldentortilla, melty MontereyJack, those sassy shrimp.They're amazing.And to top it off,the peppers and onionsmixed with that sweet pineapple,truly one of the best thingsyou'll ever eat.Very family-friendlyand very, very fun.Thank you so much formaking these with me, guys.\n"