Tortilla Pizza Stuff

I'm pretty much gonzo over these tortillas browned in olive oil. They're just so...perfect. It seems that there are no bad combinations when you start off with that lightly browned, nice and warm, deliciously flavored tortilla shell as your base. With that in mind, here are a couple more quick ideas.

BBQ Chicken

Lightly coat the tortilla in olive oil, then warm both sides in your skillet. Season as you like, but I'm pretty happy with basil, oregano, and garlic salt.

This stuff cooks pretty fast, so if you add meat at this point, it probably won't warm up very much as the tortilla is otherwise heating, so I use the microwave to help. As soon as you turn your tortilla over (you're heating both sides), heat some rotisserie chicken in the microwave, then add BBQ sauce to taste. Stir the mixture well.

While the second side of the tortilla is browning in the skillet, add thin slices of Colby cheese so that the cheese will melt on the tortilla. Now dump the BBQ chicken mixture on top of the cheese-covered tortilla in the skillet.

If you do all this quickly enough so that the tortilla is still pliable at this point, you can actually roll the tortilla over so that you make a burrito. I do this by rolling about 1/3 of the tortilla over on top, sort of lightly mash it down for a few seconds, then roll the whole thing over on top of that remaining 1/3, then mash the whole thing down a bit. After a few seconds, you can turn the whole thing over one more time and you've got a burrito. You could also just fold the thing in half.

Now, if you generally like a little bit of sweetness to spice up your meals, I have a really kinky option for you.

When I made my seconds and thirds of this BBQ burrito, I added just a few raisins (some of you are saying, "Ewww...", but bear with me) to the top of the chicken once it was on the tortilla and let them heat up along with everything else. The end result was that, as I chewed the incredibly delicious burrito, I didn't really notice that I was biting into raisins. Instead, I just got these light explosions of chewy sweetness every now and then that was a very nice offset to the tangy and otherwise sort of salty flavor of the rest of the meal.

It was truly incredibly awesome stuff.

Ranch chicken mushroom tortilla burrito/pizza awesomeness

Same concept as above except...

I sauteed (we never say 'fry') some chopped 'shrooms in butter on the skillet. When those were done, I removed them to a plate.

Then I started warming the seasoned and lightly oiled tortilla. After I flipped the tortilla over to warm the other side, I microwaved some chicken.

While the chicken was heating, I added my cheese to the tortilla.

When the chicken was ready, I added the chicken, the 'shrooms, and a little bit of ranch dressing.

I timed it such that I could fold over the tortilla into a burrito and gave it a whirl. Very, very good stuff. I forgot to try the raisins. Next time!


Two qualifiers:
1.) My son thinks anything--even road tar--would taste good with ranch dressing.
2.) My wife thinks I adore the tortillas so much I'd find any combination that includes them delicious. She might be right. ;-)

Pizza redux

Our nearby volcano, Mt. Redoubt, was contentedly puffing away today, like a giant dragon dozing in the sun. Meanwhile, here in Anchorage, it was alternately snowing and cheerfully sunny. If I had gone out running around (say, to the store for some groceries) when it was snowing, I would likely have had to use my windshield wipers. If there had been ash in the snow--a distinct possibility--that ash would have crazed my windshield under the sweep of the wipers. Time for lunch, what to do?

I decided to make pizza again, although this time about the only thing I could find to put on the pizza was mushrooms and cheese, so that's what I made in the photo shown below. I made two of them. They were good.



I think about the only thing I did different this time was to use shaved slices of cheese rather than the chunks the original recipe suggested. And with the 'shrooms, I sliced those two ways, so they ended up as small chunks. I lightly sauteed them in the olive oil, then set them aside. I warmed the tortilla a bit, as I seasoned it, then added the cheese, the 'shrooms, the sauce and the parmesan on top.

Good stuff!