Thursday, January 8, 2015

Taco-ish Tuesday (Fajitas!)

The grandboys are here for supper at least a few times during the week, so if they’re here on Tuesday night, we have Taco Tuesday! Sometimes this really means tacos, but I try to switch it up and serve a variety of our favorite Mexican dishes. One of those favorite recipes is for fajitas. Most usually I use boneless skinless chicken breasts, and several years ago I found a fajita marinade recipe that works for any kind of meat on allrecipes.com. The link is to the same recipe, but a different person than the original post I printed out in 2001.

I make this marinade as written here. If you look at the recipe I linked to, there are comments with some changes some people made to make it work for them.

¼ C lime juice

1/3 C water

2 T olive oil

4 cloves garlic, crushed

2 tsp soy sauce

2 dashes liquid smoke

1 tsp salt

½ tsp cayenne pepper

½ tsp ground black pepper

Combine all ingredients in a one gallon zipper bag. Add meat to marinade and store in refrigerator overnight, or at least 2 hours.  This recipe makes 1½ cups of marinade, enough for 2 pounds of meat.

I usually put it all together in the morning and marinate the meat all day. Sometimes the chicken breasts are still frozen, so they thaw and marinate at the same time.

 a cast iron grill pan is the next best thing to cooking outside…

The peppers and onions don’t get a marinade soak, but do cook alongside that flavorful meat when I have to cook it inside. If the meat is grilled outside, the veggies are sautéed in the cast iron skillet on the grill. The meat is let to rest for a few minutes after cooking, then sliced for serving. The meat is juice and tender and so flavorful. Depending on how much cayenne pepper is used, it can also pack a bit of heat. It is so, so good! Besides the chicken breasts, I have used round steak, and one time I had some shrimp that was very tasty.

We always have multi-colored peppers and white onions, but you can use whatever color of pepper you prefer. You could add sautéed mushrooms as well.

These are served in warmed flour tortillas with a sprinkle of sharp cheddar cheese and sour cream. Side dishes always include refried beans, and sometimes homemade Spanish rice, and/or a tossed green salad. Greg likes to have picante sauce with his.

I’d love to hear if you have a favorite fajita recipe. We’re always open to trying a new twist on old favorites!

 

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1 comment:

  1. Mmm, I love both tacos and fajitas! I make my chicken fajitas pretty much the same way you make yours, but I'm going to try your marinade recipe next time. As for tacos, this week I'm going to make vegetarian tacos. Instead of using ground beef, you use a lentil-brown rice mixture. Should be interesting!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for sharing!