Chicken Fajitas

Friday nights are Mexican food night at my house. This Chicken Fajitas recipe is for my dad who loves fajitas, and for anyone else out there looking for a great recipe to serve their family. If you’re eating a low carb diet this meal is perfect. Rather than piling the toppings onto a tortilla, make a salad and top it with these amazing chicken fajitas.

I like to cut my chicken breast into thin slices so that every surface of the chicken has a chance to capture all of the seasonings and caramelize, which leads to more flavor. The best way to slice chicken is to put it into the freezer to firm up for about 30 minutes.

Remember not to cross contaminate. Use one cutting board for dicing up raw chicken and a separate one for cutting up your veggies. Wash your hands well and wipe down all surfaces with a disinfectant after cutting the raw chicken. Better safe than sorry when it comes to handling chicken.

For a faster fajita recipe, I use shredded chicken. It’s an easy recipe since I usually make a batch of Slow Cooker Shredded Chicken at least once a week. The chicken is awesome when served alongside the sauteed peppers and onions.

In my opinion, the peppers and onions should also be cut thinly, and cooked for a while too. I always chop a pile of peppers and onions up since they shrink down so much and they’re my favorite part of fajitas. The tricolor three pack of assorted bell peppers is perfect for this recipe and is usually cheaper than purchasing individual peppers. I cook them separately from my chicken so they don’t steam and I cook them until they start to form brown (not burnt) edges since it adds intense flavor. I’m not about almost raw crunchy fajita veggies, but to each their own.

Don’t add too much salt because the secret to great fajitas is a tiny bit of Soy Sauce, which has plenty of salt, at the end of the cooking process. Keep that in mind when seasoning if you plan to finish the fajitas off with soy sauce. I would add more salt after the soy sauce if you taste the fajitas and feel that they need more.

I know that these Chicken Fajitas require a little prep work, but they’re totally worth it and the leftovers (if there are any), make amazing quesadillas the next day!! Don’t forget to top them with my fresh homemade salsa!

I hope that you’ll try these fajitas today and that you’ll leave a comment below. Also, please follow @lifeabovethecafe on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest using the social media icons found on this page.

Ingredients:

• Fajita sized flour tortillas
• 2-3 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts, thinly sliced
• 1 large white or yellow onion, thinly sliced
• 2-3 bell peppers, assorted colors, thinly sliced
• 1 garlic clove, minced or 1/2 tsp. of garlic powder
• 2-3 Tbsp. vegetable or canola cooking oil
• 1/2 – 1 tsp. of cumin
• 1/2 tsp. of dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp. of dried cilantro
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 Tbsp. of soy sauce

Toppings for fajitas:

• shredded cheese
• shredded lettuce
• sour cream
• guacamole
• salsa or pico de gallo
• lime wedges
• refried beans
• Mexican Rice or Cilantro Lime Rice

Directions:

This feeds a family of 4, adjust as you see fit for your family.

Wash and dry the peppers and onions. Use a sharp knife to cut the peppers and onions into long thin strips about 1/4 inch wide. Set them aside.

On a separate cutting board cut the chicken breasts into long thin strips against the grain of the meat. I freeze my chicken for 30 min. to an hour to make it easier to cut. Set the chicken aside.

In a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat, warm 1 Tbsp. of oil and cook the peppers and onions, stirring often, until they begin to wilt and start to brown. As the peppers and onions cook, sprinkle them with powdered garlic (if using) cumin, salt, pepper, and dried oregano and dried cilantro. When they are the consistency that you like, remove the peppers and onions from the pan.  I let my onions caramelize and the peppers cook long enough to soften and acquire a little color.

In the same pan, over medium high heat, heat 1 Tbsp. of oil and add the chicken. Do not overcrowd the pan so that the chicken doesn’t steam. Cook it in two batches if you don’t have a large pan. While the chicken cooks season it with the same spices that were used to season the vegetables. Stir the chicken often. You want it to brown a little on the outside but not dry out.

Once the outside of the chicken starts to brown, then add the peppers/onion mixture back to the pan of chicken and add the fresh minced garlic.  Cook for a minute and then add 1 Tbsp. of soy sauce to the pan. Taste the fajita mixture and adjust the seasoning as needed and add more salt if you like a saltier dish.

Serve the fajitas on warmed tortillas. I like to warm my tortillas in a hot skillet or over the gas flame on our stove top. Costco and Walmart sell large, fresh tortillas that are found in the refrigerated section. They need to be cooked on both sides in a pan, but they are like homemade tortillas.

We fill our fajitas with a little scoop of each of the following, the fajita mixture, refried beans, shredded lettuce and cheese, my homemade salsa, sour cream, guacamole, and rice, but make your fajitas how you prefer.

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