Sunday, May 1, 2011

Chicken Tostada with Queso Fresco


Thursday my wife and I celebrated our 28th wedding anniversary. My wife had taken Thursday and Friday off, I surprised her and told her I took Friday off and told her we were heading for the beach. We live close enough to the beach where we can make it a day trip. The weather was perfect 80 degrees with a light breeze. We arrived just in time for lunch. We found a nice restaurant on the beach and Annette had crab cakes and I had Lobster Newburg served over linguine. After walking the beach and exploring downtown Wilmington, NC. We headed for the Airlie Gardens. The gardens definitely had and Italian influence but with a southern twist. Check out the gardens if you are ever in the area, definitely worth the trip. Then we swung by the beach for a short stroll, it seems our shell collection was a little short and my wife needed to add a few more to complete it. Then we had to grab a little more seafood before we headed home. I had a salad with shrimp and crab, completing the seafood trifecta (shrimp, crab and lobster) all in one day. My wife had shrimp and seared tuna served over Thai noodles. I think it was probably the best day off we have had in a long time.

Friday night is usually when we do our grocery shopping, but since the beach messed that up we went Saturday. Since Saturday we have a farmers market we decided to go there first. I am glad we went. The market is bigger this year with more vendors and a better variety of foods. I bought some Queso Fresco which inspired today recipe. We also bought mixed greens (in todays recipe), strawberries which are now jam thanks to Annette, radishes and cilantro (also in todays recipe).

Chicken Tostada with Queso Fresco

Tostada and Miscellaneous Ingredients
1 tortilla per person
no-stick cooking spray
2 oz Queso Fresco, crumbled

Salad
This makes enough for 2 people
1 cup mixed greens
1 radish, sliced thinly per person
1/2 lime, juiced
1 tbs canola oil
salt and pepper to taste

Chicken
I chicken breast per person (I think we bought sparrow breasts as the one we got were so small)
1 tsp Southwestern seasoning per breast

Salsa
1/2 pint cherry tomatoes, halved, quartered if large
1 tbs red onion, chopped
1/4 Jalapeno, finely chopped My wife likes very mild salsa add more if you like some spice
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat grill.
While grill is heating mix salsa ingredients together and let them sit to the flavors can mingle.
Sprinkle both sides of chicken breast with southwestern seasoning. Grill the breasts to desired doneness.
While breasts are grilling mix lime, oil, salt and pepper in a bowl. Toss the greens in the bowl to coat and set aside.
Spray the tortillas with no-stick cooking spray and place on grill when you take the breasts off. Cook until they get brown spots and start to bubble.

To Assemble
Put the tortilla on the plate, top with greens. Put the radishes on the greens. Put the chicken breast on top of the greens. Top the breast with the salsa. Sprinkle the whole thing with Queso Fresco.


Airlie Gardens in Wilmington NC.

9 comments:

  1. Congrats, Greg! 28 years of togetherness—that's really something. And so is that colorful tostada!

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  2. Wow that is quite wonderful to celebrate so many years together in this day and age, actually something to be proud of indeed. Souonds like the perfect day together, love that lobster newburg havent had that in years! I have to tell you I have no clue what Quesno fresno is... but this chicken tostada is in perfect timing for Cinco De Mayo so sounds like a great time to try whatever that is too! Thanks for stopping by and glad she liked the tiramisu...Happy Anniversary and may the next of many many more years be better than all the rest combined~! congrats to both of you!

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  3. Thanks Claudia. Queso Fresco translates to fresh cheese. It is a very simple to make cheese, like farmers cheese. Very similar to feta in texture, it crumbles very easily. The taste is very neutral.

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  4. That looks so fresh and vibrant! Oh how I wish I had some of that for much lunch at work today! Would cheer up the cloudy day here in the Northeast

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  5. Mmm this looks soo delicious!! I can't wait to try this myself :) You've got such a great blog here and I'm happy to be a new follower!
    http://cookskinny.blogspot.com/

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  6. Thanks Ravie! I was just browsing your site and saw the Pesto Gnocchi, I have leftover pesto. I just might have to make this.
    Thanks Kelly! Glad you like it.

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  7. How much do you love queso fresco?!?!?!?!? :) This tostada looks amazing!

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  8. Hey Tiffany. I got the queso fresco at the Durham Farmers Market. I haven't noticed it there before, but last year I hardly ever went. Duke started a farmers market so my wife just picked stuff up there.

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