Apple Chicken Quesadillas

End of school year approaching. Marcus's last semester of high school. The countdown is physical — I feel it in the kitchen, in the way I cook his favorites more often, in the way I set his place at the table with extra care, in the way I watch him eat and try to memorize the sight of my son at my table, eighteen years old, eating my food, being here. He will be at Morehouse in August. The kitchen will have one fewer plate. The table will have one fewer voice. The loss is not loss — it's launch. But the launch leaves a space and the space is the shape of a boy who became a man who became a debater who became a cook who became a person who is leaving.

Made Marcus's favorites all month — a farewell menu disguised as ordinary dinners: his birthday steak, my chicken tortilla soup, Mama's fried chicken, Claudette's jerk chicken, his own tacos with homemade tortillas. Each meal is a memory-in-advance, a preemptive nostalgia, the cooking of a mother who knows her son is leaving and wants to fill him up with every flavor that means home so that when he sits in a Morehouse dining hall eating institutional food, the memory of his mother's kitchen will keep him fed in the way that dining halls can't.

He caught me. Tuesday night. Making his tacos. He walked into the kitchen and said, "Mom, you're cooking all my favorites." I said, "I'm just cooking." He said, "You're saying goodbye." I said, "I'm not saying goodbye. I'm saying remember this." He looked at me. He looked at the tacos. He said, "I'll remember." He said it the way Mama said "remember this one" at Thanksgiving 2016. The last good Thanksgiving. The one before everything changed. Remember this one. He'll remember. I'll make sure of it.

The night Marcus caught me at the stove, it was tortillas — his tacos, his recipe, the one he’d perfected himself — that gave me away. Something about working dough with your hands, folding it around everything warm and good, is the most honest kind of cooking I know. These Apple Chicken Quesadillas aren’t his tacos exactly, but they’re in the same spirit: tortillas, something savory, something sweet, the kind of thing you eat standing at the counter and feel full in more ways than one. I made them the week after that Tuesday night, and he had two.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 20 minutes | Total Time: 30 minutes | Servings: 4

Ingredients

2 cups cooked chicken breast, shredded or diced
1 medium apple (Honeycrisp or Fuji), peeled and thinly sliced
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/4 cup red onion, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
Salt and black pepper to taste
4 large flour tortillas (10-inch)
1 tablespoon olive oil or butter, divided
Sour cream, salsa, or apple chutney for serving

Instructions

Season the chicken. In a medium bowl, toss the cooked shredded chicken with chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, smoked paprika, salt, and pepper until evenly coated. Set aside.
Prep the apples and onion. Peel and thinly slice the apple into half-moon pieces. Thinly slice the red onion. Pat the apple slices dry with a paper towel so they don’t add too much moisture to the quesadilla.
Assemble. Lay one tortilla flat on a clean surface. Sprinkle a light layer of both cheeses over one half of the tortilla. Top with a quarter of the seasoned chicken, a few apple slices, and a small amount of red onion. Add another pinch of cheese on top, then fold the tortilla in half.
Cook the quesadillas. Heat a large skillet or griddle over medium heat and brush lightly with olive oil or butter. Place one folded quesadilla in the skillet. Cook for 3–4 minutes per side, pressing gently with a spatula, until the tortilla is golden and crisp and the cheese is fully melted. Repeat with remaining quesadillas, adding a small amount of oil or butter between each.
Rest and slice. Transfer each finished quesadilla to a cutting board and let rest for 1 minute before cutting into 3 wedges with a sharp knife or pizza cutter.
Serve. Plate warm with sour cream, your favorite salsa, or a spoonful of apple chutney on the side.

Nutrition (per serving)

Apple Chicken Quesadillas — The Tortillas That Said Remember This