Two fresh homemade tortillas stuffed with seasoned chicken and melty cheese, all topped with a homemade queso fresco sauce. That’s what each serving of this dish includes, and that’s why I call it Dos Pollos Quesos.
In Spanish—a language in which I consider myself low-end fluent after I studied it for five semesters in high school and college—dos means two, pollos means chickens, and quesos means cheeses.
We love all these individual ingredients—homemade tortillas, queso fresco and seasoned chicken—and I had in mind to incorporate them in this way for quite some time before I finally tried it. When I put this dish together, I was pleased with the result the first time. I made it again with a few tweaks and was even more pleased.
If you have members of your family who aren’t big vegetable fans, this dish is all for you! This is nothing but bread, meat, cheese and seasonings. And it is so good!
Dos Pollos Quesos
What You Need (per 2 servings):
2 cups cooked, shredded chicken (use fresh or opt for easy and use canned, which shreds nicely)
½ cup water
taco seasoning, purchased or your own blend
1 cup Mexican-blend cheese (or blend your own)
½ wheel queso fresco
1 cup milk
½ cup heavy whipping cream
½ cup Mexican-blend cheese
2 tablespoons butter
salt and pepper to taste
What You Do:
1. Make your flour tortillas, and place in a tortilla warmer. (We prefer these, but you can use store-bought.)
2. In a medium pot on medium-low heat, add queso fresco, milk, cream, ½ cup of Mexican-blend cheese, butter, salt and pepper. Simmer slowly for about 25 to 30 minutes. Sauce will thicken somewhat, but queso fresco is crumbly, so it will keep some of its texture and be lumpy.
3. While you’re prepping the queso sauce: In a skillet on medium heat, mix cooked chicken, water, taco seasoning and 1 cup of Mexican-blend cheese, stirring to keep from sticking and burning in the pan. Once blended, turn to low to keep warm if you’re still waiting on other steps in the recipe.
4. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
5. Fill each tortilla with chicken-cheese mixture. Roll and place nestled close to each other in an 8-by-8 baking dish. (Use a bigger pan if multiplying the recipe, like a 9-by-13.) Don’t worry about tortillas cracking or chicken-cheese falling out into the dish. Because you’re going to…
6. Cover the stuffed tortillas with your Queso sauce!
7. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until cheese is bubbling and slightly brown.
8. Serve 2 stuffed tortillas covered in sauce on each plate.
This dish serves 2. Just double all ingredients to make for a family of four.
#FoodieScore Pro Tip: We generously fill each tortilla with chicken and cheese. You can make the same filling and sauce amount and add less mixture to a batch of 8 tortillas. You will just spread out how cheesy and filled your tortillas are, and that’s okay!
#FoodieScore