Southeast Meets Western Frontier: Pineapple Black Bean Quesadillas

Ree's Barbecue Chicken and Pineapple Quesdillas were the inspiration/original goal of this recipe.  Since I avoid high fructose corn syrup, I bought an 'All Natural' barbecue sauce... It smelled fine, looked fine, but after grilling the chicken with it, it was not fine.  I chucked the chicken in the trash... this pained me because I don't like to be wasteful, but I just couldn't bring myself to eat it.  Luckily, I had a can of black beans in the pantry, and those quickly became the heroes of this recipe.

 

Step One:  Choose a Ripe Pineapple

Pluck a pineapple leaf to check for ripeness.

 

To select a ripe pineapple, choose the fruit whose top leaves pull out easily.  This trick has always worked for me.  Besides a pineapple, you will also need the following:

• 12 small tortillas
• 1 jalapeno, sliced
• 1.5 cups grated Monterey Jack cheese
• Sour cream for serving
• 15 oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained
 

Step Two:  Peel Ripe Pineapple

Slice off the outside peel.

I slice the bottom from the pineapple first; this gives me a flat surface to sit the fruit.  Next, I rotated the fruit slicing down each side and removing the outer peel.  Finally, I'll slice off the top of the pineapple.

Step Three:  Chop Ripe Pineapple

Cut around the core

The pineapple has a core so I then slice the fruit from around the core.  Those fruit wedges can then be chopped into smaller pieces.  I sliced mine to quarter inch slices and grilled them.  It's likely easier to grill the wedges prior to slicing them smaller.

Step Four:  Assemble Quesadillas

Lots of pineapple is key!

After grilling the pineapple, I assembled the quesadillas on my George Foreman grill.  I layered black beans, pineapple, jalapeno and cheese before placing the top tortilla.  I let each grill until the cheese was melted (~6 minutes).

Step Five:  Store

Store in aluminum foil...

 

I stored these in aluminum foil in the freezer.  The re-heating process was a little too long for my general impatience.  I had to defrost 4 minutes and then heat 2 minutes.  I served them with sour cream.  Enjoy!

 

395 cal/ 46 g carbs/ 17 g fat/ 14 g protein per quesadilla and 4 tbsp sour cream

 

**Notes**

1. I used corn tortillas, but these crumble too easily.  Perhaps the flour tortillas would be a better choice?
2. Always taste your individual ingredients prior to combining them.  I would have been sorely disappointed if I had used the chicken I disliked. 
3. If you haven't had grilled pineapple before, you are in for a treat!  It's delicious.
4. I stored these for a week in the freezer, but I'm afraid I tasted a little freezer burn by day 4 so be careful.