The Hungry Man's Cheese Crisp

You might be wondering why someone would put a cheese crisp recipe on a blog since they're so easy to make, but we're not talkin' your ordinary cheese crisp here... you know the kind, with a little grated cheese put on a tortilla and thrown in the oven until the cheese is just melted, no, we're talkin' a manly style cheese crisp with lots of grated cheese put on the correct side (this is debatable, i'm sure) of a tortilla, and put to the edges, not just placed in the middle, then broiled to a slightly, or more, browned edge and the cheese is melted, but not overly done, you want it to pull apart nicely in every bite... and the main manly part is the HOT sauce; we're not talkin' just any hot sauce here, it has to be HOT, which is poured on the whole surface of melted cheese, then folded and ate at record speed. That's how a hungry man makes and eats his cheese crisp... at least, how mine does, anyway. Here is how Michael makes a mean cheese crisp...

As I just wrote, Michael is making the cheese crisps in these pics, so don't go thinkin' I have hairy, manly hands... Michael made the cheese crisps and I took the pics. Who do you think had more fun?

Here are the ingredients: (looks so simple, doesn't it? well, that's because it is. don't ask me why i just wrote that)



Tortilla (La Suprema 10" Gorditas)

Cheddar Cheese (Tillamook med or sharp cheddar cheese; we use med. not sure what's up with that, you would think sharp would be the manly way to go, but i ain't say nothin') (also, we grate our own cheese, i don't like all the 'extra stuff' in the pregrated cheese. we think there's a difference in taste as well, the block cheese tastes much better, in our opinion)

Hot Sauce and/or **Salsa (Nana's Hot Sauce) (the Ortega brand salsa is good, but you can use whatever kind of salsa you like)

** I included the salsa in the pic since that's what I used on my cheese crisp instead of the hot sauce. I put the salsa on the side instead of in the cheese crisp. You can also put Mozzarella Cheese or Colby Jack Cheese, which is a more mexican style cheese, in addition to the Cheddar Cheese on the tortilla if you so desire; I like the combination of the two (either the cheddar cheese and mozzarella, or cheddar cheese and colby jack), and I sometimes add bits of chicken meat as well. Of course, it is now becoming more like a quesadilla instead of just a cheese crisp.

If you use the brands and use the technique shown in this post, you should come out with a real tasty (and manly, of course) treat.

Here are two tortillas, one showing the bottom, the other showing the top, we use the one on the right, this is what we consider the top side to put the cheese on. Does it make a difference, I haven't a clue, but it sounds interesting, don't you think? ummm... anyway, moving on now...

Here is the side we use. I like to make sure and get the point across.

Turn the oven on to broil and keep the oven door closed right before you start grating the cheese. If you get pregrated cheese, well, find something to do for a couple of minutes while you wait for the oven to get hot.



Grate the cheese while the oven is heating (as stated above).

Now open the oven door, grab some oven mits to pull out the top shelf in the oven, which should be either the second or third shelf down, depending on how many shelves you have in your oven, we have four, so we chose the second one down since it's closer to the broiler. Don't use the top shelf, that would be too close to the broiler. Pull the oven rack out about halfway, place the tortillas top side up on the oven rack, then put the cheese on, covering as much of the tortillas as you can, to the outer edges, and be sure to put lots of cheese, the more, the better; this keeps the tortilla from drying out, which gives it a nice texture and it tastes better too.

Just trying to get my point across (i seem to do this a lot, don't i?)... the more cheese, the better.

Push the oven rack with the soon-to-be cheese crisps on it back inside the oven and close the oven door. You need to pay attention at this point, don't keep the oven door closed too long, I would say leave the door closed about a minute, as you keep checking on it. Here's how they look right before the broiler does its job and converts them into cheese crisps. Just as I mentioned above, you want to keep the cheese crisps from drying out while broiling, and closing the oven door for the first minute or so of broiling keeps that from happening.

...

...

Here's Michael watching and waiting, and drooling a bit too, but don't tell him i told you that.

...

You partially open the oven door and keep on broilin'... about two more minutes or so. Keep an eye on them.

After making sure they're done to your liking, slide them each onto a plate.

You then add the manly HOT sauce... you basically cover the entire surface of cheese.

Then fold it over.

See how gooey it looks?

Yes... nice and gooey... just trying to get my point across... yes, again.



Caitie's wondering what all the fuss is about, she sees melted cheese on a tortilla... ummm, yeah, so? But she does find it to be tasty.

mmm... Just like the original Garcia's used to make; the one off of 35th Ave & Thomas... not that I'm promoting their restaurant or anything, but if anyone that works there happens to be reading this, maybe you could give us a discount, or name a meal after us? Just sayin'... Anyway, Happy 'manly' Eating! :)