Whew, life has been hectic lately, y’all! But it’s a good hectic. In addition to launching the new Budget Bytes app (p.s. the Android app is officially coming!), I’m in the process of selling my home in New Orleans and relocating to Nashville. So yeah, my days have been CRA-ZY. But I still need to eat! So just before I left for my 8 hour drive to Nashville the other day I made these super fast, easy, and deliciously smoky Roasted Corn Quesadillas.
Roasted Frozen Corn is Amazing
The star of these quesadillas is this amazing frozen roasted corn that I got at Trader Joes. I’m beginning to see similar products pop up other places too, like Whole Foods. The corn is charred before it’s frozen and it has the most incredible smoky flavor. It’s kind of like fire roasted canned tomatoes versus plain canned tomatoes, except times ten. It’s seriously a game-changing ingredient.
If you can’t find the frozen fire roasted corn I think these quesadillas would still be quite good. You can experiment with blistering the corn in a cast iron skillet like I did for my Warm Corn and Avocado Salad, although it doesn’t quite impart the level of smokiness as the store bought fire roasted corn.
Make Your Roasted Corn Quesadillas Vegetarian
And for all of my vegetarian friends, try swapping out the chicken for a drained and rinsed can of black beans or pinto beans. :)
Roasted Corn Quesadillas
Servings 7 8″ quesadillasIngredients
- 1.5 cups chopped cooked chicken* ($2.50)
- 1 cup frozen roasted corn kernels ($0.75)
- 2 green onions, sliced ($0.20)
- 4 oz can diced green chiles, drained ($1.27)
- 4 oz shredded cheese* ($1.08)
- 1/4 tsp cumin ($0.03)
- 1/4 tsp salt ($0.02)
- 7 8-inch tortillas ($1.67)
Instructions
- Combine the chopped chicken, corn kernels (no need to thaw first), sliced green onions, diced green chiles, shredded cheese, cumin, and salt in a bowl. Stir until everything is evenly combined.
- Place 1/2 cup of the chicken and corn mixture in each tortilla, spreading it over 1/2 of the surface, then folding the tortilla to close. Repeat until you run out of filling (I filled 7 tortillas before running out).
- Place the quesadillas in a dry skillet over medium-low heat. Cook on each side until the tortillas are brown and crispy and the filling is melted and gooey. Cut each quesadilla into thirds and serve.
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Notes
Nutrition
How to Make Roasted Corn Quesadillas – Step by Step Photos
These are the main ingredients for the quesadillas, and it looks like I forgot to flip the can of green chiles on its side so you can actually see the label. LOL! But anyway… 2 sliced green onions, 4oz. of cheese (shredded), 4oz. can of diced green chiles, about 1.5 cups chopped cooked chicken, and 1 cup of frozen roasted corn. You don’t have to use the cheese I have pictured above, I just wanted to try it and it was a reasonable price, so I picked it up. It tastes almost exactly like Monterey Jack, which is what I had planned on using to begin with. 👍
Place the green onions, cheese, green chiles, chicken, and corn in a bowl, along with 1/4 tsp cumin and 1/4 tsp salt. Stir until everything is evenly combined.
Place about 1/2 cup of the corn and chicken filling in each 8-inch tortilla, spread it over half of the surface, then fold the tortilla to close. I was able to fill seven tortillas before I ran out of filling.
To cook the quesadillas, place them in a dry skillet over medium-low heat. Cook on each side until the tortillas are brown and crispy and the filling is melted and gooey. Slice into thirds and serve! Easy and fast!
If you want to freeze your quesadillas for later, just fill and fold, but do not cook in the skillet before freezing. Stack the uncooked quesadillas with a layer of parchment paper between each, place them in a gallon-size freezer bag, and pop them in the freezer. To cook from frozen, let thaw at room temperature for about 15 minutes, then cook over low heat until crispy on the outside and melted on the side. Make sure not to use higher heat or the inside will likely not heat through before the tortilla browns.
How would you re-heat the frozen onesThaw completely first? Zap in micro for ~30 sec.? Or…!
Because they’re not very thick you can just pop them into a skillet still frozen, and heat over low until the inside is thawed and the outside becomes crispy. If you use a higher heat the outside is likely to brown before the inside heats up, so make sure to go slow over low heat.
I had a bag of the grilled corn in my freezer. Made these for dinner with black beans in place of the chicken. My whole family loved them. The sweet corn was amazing in these. I never thought to use corn in quesadillas.
YES to the Android version!
And yay for Nashville. Some if the suburbs are ridiculously beautiful.
Enjoy!
I had recently discovered myself that pan-grilling a quesadilla on cast iron to get a crunchy exterior is WAY better than just popping into the nukrowave to melt the cheese. I like to spread sour cream on top afterwards and drizzle on salsa (505-brand NM Green Chile salsa I got cheap from Grocery Outlet is amazeballs!), and eat with knife and fork.
Next time I”ll add some corn, I bet it will be awesome!
Why, oh why, are you moving to Nashville? P.S. Lovin’ the app!
Many, many, many reasons. ;)
I also like to “char” frozen corn in a saute pan with a little bacon fat, if you don’t have the Trader Joe’s stuff available.
That’s awesome!! We live in Nashville, you’ll love it here. Here’s my email if you need any advice at all. Neighborhoods matter a lot with traffic now, beware of North and South. We like East Nashville/Madison areas. Have a good move! emilyblevins@outlook.com
Thanks! We’re moving to East Nashville! :)
I just learned you can type the ingredients into wolfram alpha, ie 8 oz chocolate + 0.75 cup butter + 1.25 cups sugar + 2 eggs + 0.75 cup flour + 0.25 cup cocoa powder and the program will make a standardized FDA nutrition label of the recipe. I guess one could do it by hand but this is much easier. Great website. Look forward to the app.
I’ll bet that home-roasted chilies are much better than canned, but I have learned that if you do use canned, buy whole chilies instead of the chopped ones. There are almost no seeds, and the peppers are much better quality. Just drain and slice or chop as needed for your recipe. Any leftover peppers freeze well, too.
I love that corn! I’ve made quesadillas with Trader Joe’s tomato-less corn salsa, chicken and cheese. So good!
I love green chilies!!! But I’m not in love with the canned ones. I have started buying multiple poblanos or Anaheims, although I rarely find them on sale, then roasting and peeling a bunch and freezing them in snack sized bags–if a bag has more than you want for a recipe, just chop off the desired amount and toss in the pan with other veggies, putting the rest back into the freezer unthawed. During Hatch season, usually mid-August, you can find good sales. The last couple of years I stocked up on the roasted ones at local supermarkets–even though the cooked product is pricey, they still are less than the cost of canned green chilies. i also find that toward the end of August there will be lots of wilted leftovers on the sale shelves for next to nothing and if I take them home immediately to roast, peel, and freeze, they are a major bargain
I’m a Nashville native!! You will love it here! :)
Welcome to Tennessee! (Former transplant myself from Va. Beach to Knoxville). :-)
Thank you!
These look great! Any thoughts about baking them instead of using the skillet? Trying to minimize hands-on time and doing a big batch at once…
The only issue you might have with baking is that the top half of the tortilla that is not being weighed down might curl up as it bakes. You don’t have that issue in the skillet because only the bottom is exposed to the heat, so the top still lays flat.
Ahhh! You are moving to Nashville?! I am from Nashville, and I am jealous (currently living in TX). You will love it!! Congrats and good luck on the move!
Thank you!