Yesterday we received more ingredients for the Sandwich Awards. Time to enter is running a little thin, so we thought it best to crack on with an ingredient that just keeps crossing out path. Mexicana cheese has been haunting us for a while, so we decided to give it a turn in the quesadilla toastie.

While the actual story began even earlier; in a freakishly coincidental turn of events the online records begin exactly one year ago. Since then it keeps cropping up, so we figured it was about time to get on it.

Quesadilla Toastie – Santa Queso

  • Edam
  • Cooked Chicken
  • Sliced fried peppers and onions (with a dash of hotsauce)
  • Corizo

Quesadilla Toastie – Santa Pollo

  • Mexicana Cheese
  • Cooked Chicken
  • Sliced fried peppers and onions

quesadilla toastie construction
Taste
Santa Queso had around twice as much cheese in, and was off to an unfair advantage. It also contained the three magic components of a great toastie: Meat, cheese and more meat. Alas, there was only a very vague heat from the chorizo and the hotsauce. The edam was good, but a little plain. 8/10

quesadilla toastie - queso

Santa Pollo was all about the chicken. The Mexicana gave it great heat, but we should have used twice as much. It was also stringy once melted, which I hadn’t anticipated as it’s a cheddar-based cheese. I was perfectly happy with that, because you want something stringy in a quesadilla. If we had had the chorizo and more cheese, this would have been a fantastic toastie. 8/10

quesadilla toastie mexicana

Appeal
It’s spicy, it’s meaty and it’s full of cheese. I would. 9/10

Suitability as a signature
Ooh, tricky one. We don’t make a name for ourselves on spicy or Mexican flavours, so I’d say probably not. 5/10

Difficulty rating
Cooking peppers and onions required a bit of prep. Cooking chicken could as well. I’m going to rate this one “a leetle”.

Summary
If you are trying quesadilla toasties at home, use lots of Mexicana and add chorizo to the Santa Pollo for best results. Barny recommends hot sauce as well. I do a lot of mean things to my body and consider that one step too far.