let's eat a fajita

When I go out for Tex-Mex, fajitas are rarely on the agenda for me.  Not because I don't like them -- I love fajitas -- but because they are just too easy to do at home.  I'm usually a skirt steak fan, but tonight I had a couple of chicken breasts to use, so chicken fajitas were on the menu. 

I like to marninade the meat, though it isn't necessary.  My go-to marinade for fajitas (for a couple of boneless, skinless breasts or a pound of skirt steak) is the zest and juice of a lime and an orange, a couple of cloves of garlic, a canned chipotle pepper along with a bit of the adobo sauce from the can, a glug of oil, and a handful of fresh cilantro leaves, all whirred up in the blender for a minute, along with salt to taste, then poured over the meat and refrigerated.  As I said, unnecessary for perfectly good fajitas, but it does bring some wonderful flavors to the party.  I am especially fond of the back notes of the orange zest with the chipolte chile.

Fajitas are a wonderful "do-it-yourself" sort of dinner, with endless possibilities for simplicity or extravagance.  I like to keep it simple when it is just the two of us -- just grilled meat and veggies, a little salsa, maybe a sprinkling of cheddar, and warm tortillas.  I even had store bought salsa in the fridge, but, oops, it was past its prime.  No problem.  I had a basket of cherry tomatoes, some fresh garlic, a couple of green onions, a hot pepper from the garden, and a sweet pepper.  Salsa was minutes away.

 I roasted the tomatoes, a shallot, a couple cloves

of garlic on a hot griddle.  I also

roasted some hatch chiles I had in the fridge.

One was destined for the salsa, the others for the freezer

The tomatoes, a hot chile, a hatch chile, garlic, tomatoes, a grilled shallot, a couple of green onions, a glug of oil, the juice of half a lime, and some salt went into the food processor.

just a few pulses makes instant salsa

Once the salsa was pureed I stirred in a handful of minced cilantro.  Then it was back on the griddle with the marinated chicken, and sliced onion and red bell pepper.  I prefer the sweetness of the red bells, but certainly use green if you prefer their grassy flavor.

The marinade on the chunks of chicken creates a nice brown crust

The chicken take just 6--8 minutes to cook, depending on the size of the chunks.  Begin to take them off the grill as they feel fairly firm when you press on them.  Set them aside to rest while the peppers and onions continue to cook.  In a separate pan, begin to warm up some tortillas.  Store-bought are fine, but if you are feeling adventurous, I have an earlier post on making flour tortillas.

Once the chicken is rested -- about 5 minutes -- simply slice it into bite-sized pieces, and set it up for everyone to assemble their own.  My evening meal was simple, but you can add various cheeses, sour cream, guacamole, chopped cilantro, fresh onion, lettuce, tomato....

a simple and hardy meal of grilled chicken and vegetables

warm tortillas, and fresh salsa