Arizona Cheese Crisps are open-faced quesadillas made with extra large, thin flour tortillas, toasted with butter and cheese, and served with strips of mild green chiles.
Here’s one of my favorites recipes from my mother – what she calls a“Sonoran Quesadilla,”known in Tucson, Arizona where they’re from as “cheese crisps”.
Unlike our usual stove-topquesadillamadewith corn or flourtortillas and jack cheese,cheese crispsare open-faced, and made with very large flour tortillas, thatare toasted with butter and cheddar cheese, and often topped with strips of mild green chiles.
According to my Tucson-native mom, these open-facedquesadillas aremade with especially large, thin, flour tortillasthatyou couldfindin Sonora, the northernmost state of Mexico. Typically they areserved on a large platter, sometimes cut like a pie, for everyone to share.
They are crispy, buttery, and absolutely delicious.
The tortillas one uses to make cheese crisps are much thinner than the sturdy burrito-sized flour tortillas we found to make these. It just means we need to cook them a little longer to get them crispy. Don’t pile on the cheese too much; as with pizza, doing so will weigh down the result.
Arizona Cheese Crisp Recipe
If you want to have green chiles on your quesadilla (they are optional), you can either roast your own (use Anaheims, Hatch, or Poblano) or use canned whole green chiles.
To roast your own, blacken them over a gas stove, on a grill, or under a broiler, then put the chiles in a covered bowl for a few minutes, then rub off the blackened skin.
(SeeHow to Roast Chiles over a GasFlamevideo. ) Then de-seed them and cut them into strips.
Ingredients
- One large, burrito-size (13-inch diameter or larger) flour tortilla
- 1 Tbsp butter
- 1/2 cup of grated cheddar cheese
- 1 or 2 roasted green chiles, peeled, seeded, cut into strips (optional)
Method
1Preheat your oven to 350°F with a rack in the middle.
2 Butter a flour tortilla all the way to the edges: Place the flour tortilla on a large baking sheet (a dark baking sheet or cookie sheet will work best. Spread the butter all over the top of the tortilla, all the way to the edges. The butter is important for the flavor of a cheese crisp, so don’t leave it out!
3Bake the tortilla until lightly toasted:Bake the plain buttered tortilla for about6 minutesor until it begins to get lightly toasted. (Check on the timingfor your particular oven. )
4 Sprinkle with cheese, add green chile strips, return to oven:Remove the tortilla from the oven and sprinkle with the cheddar cheese, leaving about 1/2-inch from the edges. Add strips of green chiles in a star pattern if you want.
Return the tortilla to the oven and cook for 2 more minutes,or until all of the cheese has melted. Remove from oven and eat!
My motherwill use her oven’s convection setting when she makes these cheese crisps. For convection, she’ll put the buttered tortilla into a cold oven and heat on convection at 375°F for 7 to 10 minutes. Then she’ll sprinkle the cheese and return the quesadilla to the oven for a couple more minutes.
