Since tonight it’s Super Bowl, I wanted to share with you some of my favorite recipes for game nights. It’s always comforting to watch big sports events such as the Olympics, the World Cup and of course Super bowl while savouring junk food. But why wasting money ordering junk food when you can make it yourself while controlling the amount of calories you put in there. That’s why this year, instead of ordering pizza or buying already made snacks, I chose to make my own Super bowl snacks for my family and friends.

Usually, I make my chicken quesadillas with rotisserie chicken, however since I got a brand new Crockpot at my disposal, I thought to myself “Hmmm why not trying something new?”. And the next thing I knew, I was using my crockpot to cook my chicken. Since this week was about trying new things, thanks to my love sister, I discovered a butcher shop on The Plateau Mont-Royal, called La Maison du Rôti, and I really enjoyed the trip because the staff was very welcoming in addition to the products of good quality.

I chose to favour chicken thighs over chicken breasts because chicken breasts tend to become dry when cooked in the slow cooker for too long. And since I planned to cook them overnight for 7-8 hours, the thighs seemed like the perfect choice at the moment. Tequila always rhymes with party as far as I’m concerned, so pouring tequila over the chicken really sounded logical in order to add some craziness into this Game night. And the result was quite delicious!

Prep: 30 min         Cook: 7-8 hours           16 servings

INGREDIENTS

For Slow cooker Chicken thighs

1,5 kg of Chicken thighs (approximately 6 chicken thighs)

1 diced onion

1 cup of Salsa piquante sauce

½ cup of Tequila (Sauza Tequila)

2 cloves of Garlic, finely chopped

1 dried chipotle chili

½ teaspoon of chili pepper flakes

2 Bay Leaves

Salt

Black pepper

For Quesadillas

8 Large flour tortillas

Sour cream

1 Avocado, sliced

2 cups of grated Mozzarella cheese

1 cup of Pickled Jalapeño peppers, sliced

2 cups of Baby spinach

Yellow bell pepper, sliced

Orange bell pepper, sliced

DIRECTIONS

1- Season chicken thighs with salt and pepper in your Crockpot. Add garlic, onion, dried chipotle pepper, chili flakes and bay leaves. Then pour salsa sauce and tequila over the chicken and cook on Low for 7-8 hours or on High for 3-4 hours.. (Better to do it overnight if you cook it on Low)

2- Once the time is up, remove the thighs from the Crockpot and with two forks shred it. If cooked perfectly, the flesh should come off the bone very easily. Put the shredded chicken, without the bones, back in the crockpot in order to soak the chicken with the sauce to keep it moist.

3- Over medium heat, in a skillet pan lightly sprayed with oil or butter, place one large tortilla then fill it with ¼ cup of chicken mix, avocado, baby spinach (or/with bell peppers), and pickled jalapeño pepper slices. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Top with a second tortilla. Cook the quesadilla on each side for 2 minutes or until cheese melt.

Repeat the same process with the remaining tortillas

4- With a sharp knife or a pizza cutter slice each quesadilla into at least 4 triangles.

Serve with sour cream or salsa sauce and garnish with chopped coriander or parsley and quarters of lime.

TIPS

You can always replace baby spinach with lettuce

You can use a cast iron sandwich press, if necessary to press the quesadillas, if you prefer your quesadillas perfectly flattened.