Fajitas
Strips of marinated meat seared at high heat with charred onions and peppers, served sizzling on a hot plate with warm tortillas. The smoky char on the vegetables and the caramelized edges on the meat make all the difference.
Ingredients
- 500 gchicken fillet
- 2 bell peppers
- 1 largeonion
- 2 tbspvegetable oil
- 1 lime juice
- 8 smallwheat tortillas
- 1 tspground chili
- 1 tspground cumin
- 1 tsppaprika
- 1 tspgarlic powder
- 1 tsponion powder
- ½ tspsalt
- ¼ tspblack pepper
- optionalsour cream, guacamole, salsa
Method
- Mix all the spices for the marinade in a bowl.
- Cut the chicken fillets into thin strips and mix with the marinade. Allow to marinate for 15-30 minutes.
- Slice the bell peppers and onion into thin strips.
- Heat a skillet with vegetable oil over medium heat. Fry the chicken for 5-7 minutes until cooked through. Set aside. In the same skillet, sauté the vegetables for 3-4 minutes until soft.
- Return the chicken to the skillet, mix with the vegetables and heat for 1-2 minutes. Drizzle with lime juice and stir. Serve hot in warm tortillas with sour cream, guacamole or salsa.
FAQ
Dry chicken in fajitas almost always comes from overcooking thin strips. Chicken breast strips need only 3-4 minutes total in a very hot pan — 1.5-2 minutes per side. The pan must be smoking hot before the chicken goes in; otherwise the meat steams in its own juice instead of searing. Cook in small batches and never crowd the pan. The internal temperature should reach 74°C — anything beyond that and the breast dries out rapidly. Also check your marinade: lime juice is acidic and will denature the surface proteins if left too long (more than 4 hours for strips), making the texture mealy before it even hits the pan. A 30-minute to 2-hour marinade is ideal.
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Comments (2)
Rapido y facil. Los pimientos hay que cortarlos en tiras finas para que se cocinen parejo. Mis hijos se las comieron todas jaja
An instant-read thermometer eliminates all guesswork with fajitas. Chicken is perfectly done at 74°C in the thickest part. Every degree beyond that moves you further from juicy toward dry.