One Great . . . Asian chicken wrap

I was talking to a friend recently about fast meals and she seemed surprised by one of my favorite tips: Tortillas.

Bread gets stale faster if you refrigerate it, but a pack of tortillas will keep for weeks in the refrigerator. And if you have tortillas on hand, you always have something easy you can make.

You can slap pretty leftover vegetables and meat with a little cheese between two tortillas, heat it on a dry skillet and call it a quesadilla. You can make a burrito with leftover rice and beans. You can slice up dried-up tortillas and toss them in soup to stretch it a little, or stir them into scrambled eggs.

Corn tortillas have more flavor and texture, but flour tortillas are more flexible. Honestly, I love both of them.

A few years ago, my friend Jane Snow, an Ohio food writer, spun off from the flavors of moo shu pork to make a sort of Asian wrap using cole slaw mix, a squirt of hoisin sauce (bottled stir fry sauce will work), rotisserie chicken and flour tortillas. I've been varying the idea ever since, tossing in any leftover meat from the grill for a midweek meal. I've even used sauteed tofu, or skipped the meat and tossed in leftover black beans.

Asian Chicken Wraps

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 (8-ounce) bag coleslaw mix

2 cups shredded cooked chicken

2 tablespoons hoisin sauce 

1 tablespoon soy sauce

4 flour tortillas

HEAT oil in a nonstick skillet. Add coleslaw mix and cook 2 to 3 minutes, until slightly softened but still crunchy. Add chicken and cook another minute or two, to heat through. Stir in hoisin sauce and soy sauce. Remove from heat.

PLACE tortillas on a plate and cover with plastic wrap. Microwave on high for 45 to 60 seconds, until softened. Place a quarter of chicken and cabbage mixture on a tortilla. Fold each end over, then roll to enclose. Place on plate seam down and serve.

YIELD: 4 servings