Black Bean-Chicken Quesadillas

March 2020. I noticed the news out of China in January. By February, Italy. By March first week, the NBA suspended its season and everything changed overnight. I've been coaching twenty years and nothing has ever felt like the week the world stopped.

The school closed on Wednesday. The athletic director called at six in the morning and said spring practice was suspended indefinitely. By Thursday the state issued guidance and then the guidance became a mandate. Stay home. We don't know when we're coming back.

I sat in the kitchen that first evening and did not know what to do. This has happened to me before — the free-fall feeling, the absence of the structure that gives the days their shape. The last time it was this bad was 2017, after Ruben. I know what to do now when that feeling comes. I go to the kitchen. I cook something real. I let the attention required by actual cooking occupy the space where fear would otherwise go.

Made flour tortillas with the twins, who are at home with nowhere to go. Marco rolled them into perfect rounds on the third try. Elena made one that was shaped like a boot and refused to correct it. "It's a boot tortilla," she said, with the absolute finality of a six-year-old who has decided the conversation is over. I cooked it. I put butter on it. It tasted the same as the round ones. She ate it with satisfaction. There is a lesson in this. There might be several.

We don't know how long this lasts. I'm trying to stay focused on what I can control. Flour. Water. Heat. The things that always work when nothing else does.

That first week of lockdown, flour tortillas weren’t just dinner — they were proof that some things still worked the way they were supposed to. Once the twins and I found our rhythm with the dough, I started thinking about what else we could build around those tortillas, something hearty enough to feel like a real meal but simple enough that Marco and Elena could stay involved the whole way through. These Black Bean-Chicken Quesadillas became our second-night answer: the tortillas we’d already learned to roll, filled with things we had on hand, cooked on the same cast iron that’s never let me down. Elena’s boot-shaped one found its way into the pan again. Some lessons stick.

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

Ingredients

4 large flour tortillas (10-inch)
2 cups cooked chicken, shredded
1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained and rinsed
1 1/2 cups shredded Mexican cheese blend
1/2 cup salsa, plus more for serving
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil or neutral cooking oil, divided
Sour cream and guacamole, for serving (optional)

Instructions

Season the filling. In a medium bowl, combine shredded chicken, black beans, salsa, cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, and salt. Stir until evenly coated.
Assemble the quesadillas. Lay a flour tortilla flat. Spread about 1/2 cup of the chicken-bean mixture across one half of the tortilla. Top with a generous handful of shredded cheese. Fold the empty half over the filling to form a half-moon. Repeat with remaining tortillas.
Cook the first batch. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large skillet or cast iron pan over medium heat. Add one or two quesadillas (depending on pan size) and cook 2—3 minutes per side, pressing gently with a spatula, until golden brown and the cheese is fully melted.
Finish remaining quesadillas. Add remaining oil as needed and cook remaining quesadillas the same way. Transfer finished quesadillas to a cutting board and let rest one minute before slicing.
Slice and serve. Cut each quesadilla into 3 wedges. Serve hot alongside extra salsa, sour cream, and guacamole as desired.

Nutrition (per serving)

Black Bean-Chicken Quesadillas — What the Dough Teaches You When the World Stops