Chicken Quesadillas – super quick, super delicious. I opened a quart jar of my canned chicken over the weekend and used about half of it to make chicken salad and saved the rest for chicken quesadillas.
It’s so quick and so mess free to make these with the new little quesadilla maker. I tried them last week with a bit of enchilada sauce but decided today to just used some spices and not the sauce and we liked them better this way.
We love pinto beans and Vince says mine are better than any of them at the Mexican restaurants.
Here’s how I do my pinto beans . . sorry but I don’t measure anything. All I se are beans, water, salt and Fiesta bean seasoning.
NOTE: Be sure to make way more than you’ll need for one meal because there are so many things you can do with pinto beans.
- Using dry pinto beans (my preference is Casserole brand), dump out about 2 cups of beans into a colander. Rinse well.
- Slice about 1 cup of spicy sausage. Add to the Instant Pot and hit saute. Once the sausage has released a bit of oil, add 1 chopped onion and 1 chopped, seeded jalapeno pepper. Saute til the onion is clear.
- Dump the beans into the Instant Pot (or similar pressure cooker).
- Add about 5 cups of water.
- NOTE: I do not season the beans until they’re mostly tender.
- Add the lid, close and lock it and make sure the pressure valve is in the correct location.
- On the Instant Pot, I hit the ‘Beans” button. Otherwise, cook on high for 30 minutes.
- Once the pot is done, let it sit and release the pressure valve naturally.
- Open the lid carefully once all the pressure has been released, and taste the beans. Add more water if needed. The second time cooking, they won’t use as much water as they did the first time.
- It almost always takes another 15 – 20 minutes to get the beans tender so I just hit the “Beans” button again or give it another 30 minutes, let the valve release naturally.
- Once the pressure is released, open the lid and taste the beans again. If they’re tender, add the bean seasoning and salt. Start with about 3/4 Tablespoons of the Fiesta bean seasoning and 1/2 tablespoon of salt. I usually use Lawry’s salt.
- Keep a close watch on the amount of liquid in the pot but let them simmer for about 20 minutes, adding water if needed.
There’s so much you can do with these beans:
- Serve in a bowl with grated cheese
- Make refried beans by mashing and heating with a little bean liquid, top with melted cheese and place under the broiler for a minute or two to melt the cheese
- Make bean enchiladas
- Drain the beans and make a bean salad
- Scale back this recipe a bit and make Borracho Beans.
I think we’ll never go hungry so long as we have a pot of beans in the house.
dezertsuz says
I’m with you. My bean of preference is the Anasazi from Adobe Milling in Colorado. They are similar to pintos, but sweeter, and there is never any intestinal issue, whether you add garlic or don’t. You can use them the way you use any pinto, but the flavor is a happier one to me. I’m going to have to try them in the Instant Pot. The only thing I don’t like about that pot is the aluminum inside pot. No matter what we do, stuff sticks to it. I wish it were cast aluminum. That stuff is even better than cast iron for some things, but way harder to find.
Teri says
I’m trying both your pinto beans and the BORRACHO beans….it all looks good…