Fajitas
Fajitas are almost always beef or chicken sautéed with onions and peppers, while Carne Asana is marinated grilled meat (beef is most common), all served in a taco. Common sides are Pico de Gallo, Guacamole, Pickled Red Onions, grated cheddar, radish, sour cream, refried beans, and/or shredded lettuce/cabbage.
Fajitas
There are many varied opinions in our family on how spicy the meat should be, how long to cook the vegetables and how many should go into the taco…..so we tend to let everyone prepare their own. It is easier if you have individual Fajita pans (smaller cast iron), if not come to a consensus and use a large cast iron frying pan.
Ingredients
- 1 lb. (454 gr) boneless, skinless chicken breasts/thighs or beef tenderloin or flank steak
- 2 tsp. ground cumin
- 2 tsp. Tabasco
- 1 tsp. chili pepper
- ½ tsp. salt
- 2 TBSP olive oil
- 1 Red/yellow/orange pepper thinly sliced
- 1 Jalapeno peppers seeded and thinly sliced
- Green onions cut into 2-inch pieces and then thinly sliced lengthwise or
- Red onions thinly sliced
Instructions
- For a quick meal use chicken or tenderloin because the spices can rest with the meat for up to 30 minutes. If you have 24 hours marinate flank steak (and make Pickled Red Onions) as we do for Carne Asada. Then thinly slice the flank steak and prepare as follows: Prepare any sides and refrigerate.
- Cut chicken or beef into ½ inch strips.
- In a small bowl combine spices, oil and Tabasco.
- Toss chicken/beef with spice mixture until evenly distributed and set aside.
- Fajitas can be sauteed in the oven or stove top. Either heat the olive oil in a large cast iron pan on the stove top or place Fajita pans in a cold oven. Turn on the oven to 425 for 30 minutes. (Cast iron on the stove top will heat up quicker.)
- With caution, (because cast iron will heat up in the oven,) add some of the meat to the pan, without crowding and return to the oven. Cook 3 minutes and then add vegetables and cook another 3 minutes.
- *Cooking time may be a personal preference, depending on the cut of meat and how el dente you want the vegetables. If the pieces are cut in thin strips they won’t take very long to cook.
- Serve variety of hot sauces for those adventurous guests and sides of your choice.
Notes
The bold flavours call for a bold wine unless you are drinking a beer.
We’ve paired:
- Ardal Selección Especial Reserva Tempranillo and Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 from Spain