Pork quesedillas 2.0

On a recent afternoon I was unsure what to make for dinner and bored with just about everything, so I pulled package of boneless pork ribs from the freezer. I had tortillas, salsa, rice and cheese on hand, so I aimed to go Mexican for our meal. That is always a winner with my family and the tortillas were large ones – big enough for quesadillas or burritos.

I thawed the pork in the microwave and then put it in a 2-quart casserole dish. I sprinkled the meat with salt, pepper, crushed red pepper and about a teaspoon of sugar. I covered the dish in foil and slipped it in the oven at 300 degrees. This was around 3:30 p.m., just before my son gets home from school.

I let the pork cook for about an hour or 90 minutes, when it looked like this:

I drained off the excess fat, then added about 2/3 cup of salsa.

Again, I covered the pan with foil and put it back in the oven. I let the meat cook for another hour or so. Around 6 p.m., the meat was tender and shredded easily.

I warmed some tortillas in a pan, added the shredded pork and made quesadillas with some shredded cheese. And yes, they were gone in a flash. I used about ¾ pound of pork to make this dish – it produced four large quesadillas.

Normally I would make a dish like this in the slow cooker, but I wasn't thinking about dinner (whoops) until the afternoon. Slow heat in the oven gave great results.