Shredded Chicken Quesadillas

Quesadillas are just another of the seemingly endless variations of dishes that can be made using tortillas (either flour or corn varieties). Although authentic Mexican quesadillas are usually made from corn tortillas, in the Tex-Mex variation and also in Northern Mexico, flour tortillas are much more common.

The concept is very simple - place the ingredients of your choice in one half of a tortilla and heat in a frying pan or on a comal - a Mexican cast-iron griddle pan. Then fold over and cut into wedges and eat! In Tex-Mex cuisine, 2 tortillas are often used instead of 1. In Mexico this would be called a sincronizada (synchronised) rather than a quesadilla. Confused?!?!

Salsa Roja

There are many different varieties of salsas (salsi?) in Mexican and Tex-Mex cuisine. Some are cooked, like the "salsa roja" (red sauce) here, while others are made with only raw ingredients, like "pico de gallo" (rooster's beak), with the lime juice in this salsa acting as a preservative.

This cooked salsa roja will stay good for several weeks if kept in the fridge. It is a perfect condiment for dishes like chili con carne, burritos, tacos, and also as a dipping sauce for nachos. It is a little bit spicy, a little bit sour but also a little bit sweet, and is great either hot or cold.

Spicy Potato Wedges

This easy side dish is perfect with chili, or with barbecue, but you can also serve it by itself as a starter with some sour cream dip or homemade salsa. Delicioso!

Ingredients

8 medium red skin potatoes

1 tb olive oil

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp coriander powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cumin

Chili con Carne

Is it Mexican? Or Tex-Mex? Should it include beans? What about tomatoes? Minced beef, or pieces of chuck steak? Fresh chilies, dried chilies or chili powder? And that's before we even discuss what to serve it with! Rice? Tacos? Tortillas? Jacket Potato?

There are many claims as to what makes authentic chili con carne (simply translated meaning "chili with meat"), and all the recipes differ in one way or another. People get very heated over chili (pun intended!), and you can find endless arguments across the internet on what ingredients should be included and what should be left out.

Refried Beans

This very simple side dish is a firm favourite in the Tex-Mex cuisine. The first time I ate it was in a Mexican restaurant in Cambridge, back when I was about 10-12 years old; even way back then I loved the contrasting smoothness and "blandness" (for want of a better word) of the beans, compared with the more spicy shredded chicken chili it came with.  From that moment on I was hooked!

The dish is traditionally made using pinto beans, brown beans or even kidney beans.

Crispy Chicken Strips

This is a simple Tex-Mex dish that is excellent as a snack, or as a filling for a tortilla or as part of a main course. I came across it by accident really, while looking for inspiration for dinner in the local supermarket. I saw this packet of seasoning mix for "Crispy Chicken Bites", which looked pretty tasty on the picture on the packet. Just as I was about to put into my shopping basket, I took a look at the ingredient list and thought