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.