Grilled Chicken and Pineapple Quesadillas, Guacamole, Pico de Gallo (Pioneer Woman)

I am WAY overdue for a post. It’s just been batshit insane around here.

Anyway, I’m going to try and cover what I’ve done lately – namely Pioneer Woman’s guacamole, pico de gallo, and BBQ chicken quesadillas. Also I’m going to talk about my indoor grill. And I’m going to do all of this VERY QUICKLY.

So, another site I’m a big fan of is The Pioneer Woman (who isn’t a fan, though, really?). Once again, lady doesn’t let me down. Y’all know how much I love her salsa. It’s THE salsa. The ONLY SALSA. When someone around here wants salsa now, they say “MAKE SOME OF THE SALSA.” I decided to try her guacamole and her pico de gallo.

Straight up, pre-recipe – not a huge fan of either usually. Guac is always way too bland to me, I never understood it…what’s the point of it? A glob of green nothingness or salsa? I’ll take the salsa, thanks. And pico, well, I love the IDEA of pico, but I’m not a huge fan of tomatoes. I’m coming around, though! I used to refuse to even TOUCH a tomato and now they are growing in my garden to be fried or put on pizza or hey! let’s put some in some pico, okay? Okay.

Here is the recipe, originally found here.

Pico de Gallo

5 whole Plum (roma) Tomatoes
½ whole Large (or 1 Small) Onion
3 whole Jalapeno Peppers
Cilantro
Lime Juice
Salt To Taste

Guacamole

3 whole Avocados
Pico De Gallo
Lime Juice
Salt To Taste

Pico de Gallo:

Chop jalapenos, tomatoes and onions into a very small dice. (Leave seeds in your jalapenos for a hotter pico). Adjust amount of jalapenos to your preferred temperature. Next, chop up a nice-sized bunch of cilantro. Just remove and discard the long leafless stems before chopping. No need to remove the leaves from the stems completely. Place all of these ingredients together in a bowl and give it a good stir.
Squeeze the juice of half of one lime into the bowl. Add salt to taste and stir again

Guacamole:

Start with buttery-soft avocados. Halve them lengthwise and remove the pits. Next, with a spoon scrape the “meat” out onto a large plate. Next, with the bottom of a clean cup (or with a fork) mash the avocados, making sure to leave it relatively chunky. Add just a couple of shakes of salt to taste. Next, add a generous helping of Pico de Gallo. Fold together. Lastly squeeze the juice of half of a lime over the top. Give it one last stir.

These are both fantastic, as if I needed to tell you that. Don’t read the comments and add garlic or whatever-the-hell else people think it needs, it DOESN’T NEED THAT SHIT. This is great porch food with a cold glass of lemonade (or beer, but I hate beer. maybe a mojito…). It’s perfect in it’s simplicity. PERFECT. I don’t even want to try another pico de gallo. Get that out of my face.

The guacamole is EQUALLY AMAZING. I can’t even…my vocabulary isn’t large enough to express my love for this guacamole. IT TASTES LIKE THINGS. REAL THINGS. And chips. I love chips.

Ok, moving on to the quesadillas (originally found here).

(Yes, I made all of this in one night. Yes, I ate myself into a coma)

Grilled Chicken and Pineapple Quesadillas

8 whole Flour Tortillas
Butter Or Margarine
2 cups Grilled Pineapple, Sliced
3 whole Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
Salt And Pepper, to taste
3 cups Monterey Jack Cheese, Grated
1 whole Jalapeno, Sliced
Cilantro
3 Tablespoons Barbecue Sauce

(To grill pineapple: cut wedges, stick on skewers, and grill over low heat. Cut into slices.)

(To pound chicken, place inside a Ziploc bag and pound with a mallet or large can to flatten to uniform thickness.)

Sprinkle with salt and pepper and Cajun spice (or cumin/cayenne, etc.) Drizzle olive oil on a grill pan and grill on both sides until done, brushing with barbecue sauce. Set aside and slice into very thin slices.

Warm griddle over medium heat and put sizzling butter or margarine in the pan. Slightly warm and toast tortillas on both sides, then remove from griddle and set aside.

To assemble, sprinkle four browned tortillas with grated Monterey Jack. Arrange chicken slices evenly over the surface. Add pineapple slices and jalapeno slices. Sprinkle on cilantro. If desired, drizzle extra barbecue sauce over the top. Add second browned tortilla on top of each one. (You’ll have four complete quesadillas at this point.)

Add to oven to warm, or back to skillet to warm, until cheese is melted. Cut each quesadilla into six wedges. Serve with sour cream, pico de gallo, and lime wedges.


I know this recipe is super special because it combines meat and fruit and yet my husband ate a ton of them. I used Jack Daniels barbecue sauce because although I can’t drink the stuff, I love to cook with Jack and I love all their products (they have the BEST steak sauce, if you’re looking for one). I also bought an entire pineapple for the first time ever and cut it up and couldn’t keep my sticky little hands out of it. Leftover pineapple went into a smoothie and on a salad and up to my elbows.

IN SUMMARY, EAT THIS STUFF. Dad has requested the salsa, the guac, and the pico for Father’s Day. Plus a carrot cake. Dad is trying to kill himself. So sad. Ken, you’ll be getting a taste this weekend!

Now, let’s talk indoor grills. I’ve only recently used mine and I’m having a little trouble and I’m hoping there’s a solution. So far I’ve only cooked two things on it – chicken breasts and shish kabobs (chicken – we eat a lot of chicken, ok?). I’m having a hard time getting everything to cook properly. It came with a guide on how long and at what temperature to cook the different cuts of meat but mine almost always gets tough on the outside before the inside is cooked. I’m left with charred, chewy chicken. With a juicy center. Not appetizing. I tried just turning the heat down but I don’t really have time to stand around for TWO HOURS and poke chicken bits.

I definitely wouldn’t recommend them for shish kabobs…because the kabobs left them from laying flat on the cooking surface, some parts wouldn’t even cook at all after some had already burned. I ended up having to deconstruct them and lay them out. It made me sad. Then Will bit into a pepper (whoops, guess I shouldn’t warned him not to eat that part, it’s for looks! or the heat tolerant!) and supper was pretty much over. Sorry about your mouth, baby.

(SIDE NOTE: my husband doesn’t believe me, but if you bite into something way too spicy, drink milk. It takes away the spiciness. I thought EVERYONE KNEW THIS, but Will did not, so I’m gonna go ahead and put that out there.)

So, the indoor grill is great, very nice, useful, but irritating. I would say stick to the real grill. And your husband who knows how to use it. Because mine does not.

(OOOH, PS: Made the green rice earlier this week and loved it. Will didn’t care for it but of course, it’s green, he’s a man-child, etc. It will be going in my regular cookbook, but I will be cutting it in half…I ended up throwing some down the disposal. Because of the butter, I didn’t want to eat a ton. By myself. Over the stove with a wooden spoon that shouldn’t fit in my mouth BUT DOES.)