Kid’s BBQ Chicken & Pineapple Pizza-Dillas + Snack: Grilled Cheese Dippers with Three Sauces
Does planning, cooking, and packing kids’ lunches + snacks feel like your part-time (or full-time) job? We feel you, and we’re here to help. This 20-minute lunch is the perfect make-ahead lunchbox time-saver: a kid-approved BBQ chicken and pineapple pizza-style quesadilla complete with apple and cucumber slices, and waffle sticks for a sweet treat. But that’s not all—it’ll be snack time before you know it! Serve up buttery grilled cheese sticks with a bevy of crowd-pleasing dipping sauces: marinara, ranch, and guac. That’s right: We’re thinking outside the lunchbox (so you don’t have to!). This recipe is designed to provide lunch and snack components for multiple days. For each lunch and snack meal, 3 servings and 6 servings are provided for a 2 person and 4 person box respectively. Nutrition information under the Nutrition Values section below is for the lunch portion. Nutrition values for 1 serving of the Grilled Cheese Dippers snack is as follows: Calories: 480, Fat: 34g, Saturated Fat: 15g, Cholesterol: 65mg, Sodium: 870mg, Carbohydrates: 41g, Fiber: 2g, Sugar: 4g, Protein: 13g. Download the nutrition labels to see final nutrition information for both lunch and snack components.
Ingredients
- 4 oz pineapple
- 1 apple
- 1 mini cucumber
- 1 belgian waffle
- 10 oz chicken breast strips
- 4 tbsp bbq sauce
- 6 flour tortillas
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese
- 4 slices sourdough bread
- 1 cup cheddar cheese
- 2.5 oz marinara cup
- 1.5 oz buttermilk ranch dressing
- 4 tbsp guacamole
- salt
- pepper
- 2 tsp cooking oil
- 2 tbsp butter
- 8 oz pineapple
- 2 apples
- 2 mini cucumbers
- 2 belgian waffles
- 20 oz chicken breast strips
- 8 tbsp bbq sauce
- 12 flour tortillas
- 2 cups mozzarella cheese
- 8 slices sourdough bread
- 2 cups cheddar cheese
- 5 oz marinara cup
- 3 oz buttermilk ranch dressing
- 8 tbsp guacamole
- salt
- pepper
- 2 tsp cooking oil
- 4 tbsp butter
Instructions
- • Wash and dry produce.
• Drain pineapple. Halve, core, and
thinly slice or dice apple (whichever
your kid prefers!). Thinly slice
cucumber into rounds. Cut waffle
into 1-inch-thick strips. - • Pat chicken* dry with paper towels and
season all over with salt and pepper.
• Heat a drizzle of oil in a large pan over
medium-high heat. Add chicken in a
single layer; cook, stirring occasionally,
until browned and cooked through,
4-6 minutes.
• Turn off heat; transfer to a medium
bowl. Wash out pan. - • Add BBQ sauce and pineapple to
bowl with chicken; toss to coat.
• Arrange tortillas on a clean work
surface. Add chicken mixture to
bottom half of each tortilla. Top
with mozzarella.
• Fold tortillas in half to create
pizza-dillas. - • Heat a drizzle of oil in pan used for
chicken over medium heat. Add
pizza-dillas and cook until tortillas
are golden brown and cheese melts,
3-4 minutes per side. Transfer to a
cutting board. (Depending on the size
of your pan, you may need to work
in batches, adding a drizzle of oil for
each batch.) - • To serve: Halve pizza-dillas. Divide
between plates and serve with
apple slices, cucumber slices, and
waffle sticks.
• To stash: Let pizza-dillas cool
completely before halving. Refrigerate
pizza-dillas, apple slices, cucumber
slices, and waffle sticks in separate
containers and pack as desired! - • Fill bread slices with cheddar to form
sandwiches.
• Melt 2 TBSP butter (4 TBSP for
6 servings) in a large, preferably
nonstick, pan over medium heat. Once
butter has melted, add sandwiches
and cook until bread is golden and
cheese melts slightly, 2-3 minutes per
side. (Work in batches if necessary,
adding more butter for each batch.)
• Cut sandwiches crosswise into 1-inchthick strips. Divide between plates
and serve with marinara, ranch
dressing, and guacamole on the
side for dipping.
Chicken is fully cooked when internal temperature reaches 165°.