Butternut Squash, Goat Cheese and Black Bean Quesadilla with Roasted Poblano Crema

This dinner really was a success. I t was quite delicious. Cactus Restaurant in the Seattle area (where I am from) has something similar. I had tried to make it before. But i had shredded the chicken too fine and over cooked the butternut squash. I mixed it all together and in the end it had good flavor. But it was like eating a yummy paste cooked in between two tortillas. It lacked texture and was totally homogonous. This time it was much better. I cubed my chicken and layered flavors instead of mixing them together. My husband agreed. Although it was "fine" last time, I received an upgrade to "really really good" this time. I compliment to which I shared his sentiments.

Ingredients:

16 small corn tortillas

2 chicken thighs (or 1 breast)

1 bag of frozen butternut squash cubes

1 can of black beans

1 bag of shredded mozzarella

4 oz container of goat cheese

8 oz of sour cream

1 head cilantro

4 poblano peppers

1 avocado

Salt, pepper, garlic powder

Instructions:

For the Quesadillas:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

2. There are a few things you will want to cook ahead of time: the chicken, the butternut squash and roasting the poblano peppers.

a) The chicken. I used thighs since I had defrosted some for dinner the following evening and all my

chicken breasts were still frozen. You could use either. Cook it off in whatever fashion you chose. I put

my chicken thighs into a sauté pan and cooked them till done in a sauté pan. I then cubed them

fairly small and put them aside.

b) The butternut squash. My grocer was out of frozen cubes, so I had to purchase a whole butternut

squash. This is fine, you will just have an abundance of leftovers you will either have to repurpose or

trash. Both the frozen precubed and the whole squash will have cooking instructions. Follow them.

Then cube the squash roughly the size of the chicken and set it aside as well.

c) Roasting the poblano peppers is easy. On a gas stove or a grill, set the peppers over open flame

and roast until they begin to char in most areas. This is normally about 3-5 min per side. It should

have black spots, but not be solid black. Let it cool, cut the top off and peel the black off. Dice up 2 of the 4 and set them aside.

3. Lay 8 tortillas on a lightly greased cooking sheet.

4. Sprinkle enough mozzarella to form a thin layer on each tortilla.

5. Put 6-10 chicken cubes of the tortilla. (You can reference the picture above to get a good idea of how much you want to put on.

6. Add the butternut squash cubes.

7. Add the black beans.

8. Add the diced roasted poblano peppers.

9. Add minced cilantro

10. Add goat cheese

11. Place this in the oven to bake for about 10 min.

12. After they have cooked and things have melted. Place a "clean" tortilla in a skillet or non stick pan and flop one of the oven quesadilla tortillas on top. Cook each side till it is browned and crispy.

13. Repeat this process for all tortillas.

14. Cut and serve.

For the Roasted Poblano and Avocado Crema:

1. In a food processor combine the sour cream, avocado and remaining two poblano peppers (peeled and cleaned) and blend until smooth. You could add cilantro, you should have some left over. Its your call. :)

2. Spoon the mixture into a sauce pan and all 1/2 tsp of salt, 1/2 tsp of pepper and 1 tbsp of garlic powder.

3. Cook on a low/medium heat until warm and serve with the quesadillas.

Enjoy!