Chicken Fajita Dinner: Your Tex-Mex Favorite Comes Home

Who doesn't love fajitas? They're such a fun experience when you order them out - the veggies and meats come out sizzling and smoking on a cast iron pan, you get a bunch of plates with all your fillings, and you get to build your own! Well, they're just as good when you do them at home, and despite the fact that they're always the more expensive option at the restaurant, they're actually exceedingly easy and inexpensive when you do them at home.

Are there fajitas in here?? Can I have them please??

We planned our week out to start with the Arroz con Pollo so that we'd have leftover rice to compliment our enchiladas and finally our fajitas as well. We really got a lot of use out of that dish! We also served our fajitas with refried beans. The beans we used straight out of the can and into the microwave, which was fine for an after work preparation, but there's definitely a lot of room for improvisation there. But, with only having to reheat the rice and beans in the microwave to make the side dishes, the whole preparation came together very quickly!

Making the Dish

The fajitas are basically just 2 parts - the meat, and the veggies. To make them really sing, you'll want to have your meat nicely seasoned, and your veggies cooked to perfection. You can start by seasoning the meat, and use a simple rub to give it a nice, earthy, spicy flavor. Combine 2 parts sea salt with 1 part black pepper, 1 part cumin, and half parts cayenne, garlic powder, chili powder, and a dash of paprika. Blend these all together and you'll have your rub. Rinse off and pat dry your chicken breasts, and then drizzle with a touch of olive oil. Then, rub the seasoning into the meat.

Rubbing the seasoning into the chicken breast. 

While the meat is resting with the rub (letting the flavors mingle and seep into the meat), prepare your veggies. This part is really up to you, but we recommend a green bell pepper, a red bell pepper, and a sweet onion. Slice them all into strips. You'll want to aim to have the strips be as close to equal size as possible so they all cook at about the same rate. Once you've got these sliced, your basic preparation is pretty much done. 

Sliced red and green pepper with sweet onion. Almost looks like the Mexican flag!

Preheat your oven to 350, and then get a saute pan ready for your veggies and a grill pan (or another saute pan, if you don't have a grill pan) ready for your meat. Make sure those are both nice and hot. Take a couple tablespoons of olive oil and put it into your veggie pan, and then throw the vegetables in. You'll want to start to cook these down until they are soft, but not too soft, and you'll want the onion to caramelize. Season the veggies lightly with some salt and pepper and cook them down, stirring often, for about 10 - 15 minutes or until soft. 

Cooking down the veggies in olive oil, lightly seasoned with salt and pepper. 

While the veggies are cooking, sear your meat in your other pan. You'll want to get the chicken breasts nice and golden brown so that it locks in the flavor and starts to caramelize slightly, about 3 - 4 minutes per side. Then, finish the breasts off in the oven, about another 8 minutes or so. After you're done cooking them in the oven, take them out and let them rest for a few minutes so the juices can redistribute within the meat. 

Searing the chicken on the grill pan with the veggies cooking in the background. 

To get the meat ready to put in the fajitas, slice it lengthwise. Start in the middle, so that if it's not fully cooked it'll be easy to tell and you can put it back in. Get nice long strips about half an inch thick, and then put them on a serving plate. Take the veggies off the heat and heap them on a serving plate as well.

Prepared veggies and chicken on the serving dish, ready to go. 

Warm up some flour tortillas in the microwave (about 20 seconds) and then you're ready to go. You can serve with shredded cheese, salsa, sour cream, olives...pretty much anything you'd like actually. 

Can I have my fajitas with catnip please? 

The Result

These are so easy and always so delicious. The real trick is how you season the meat and veggies and how you cook them down. You don't want the veggies to be too mushy, and you don't want them to be too hard. I've done it before where the onions cooked too long and got mushy and stringy, and that's no fun. Also, you want to make sure not to over season the meat - you want the flavor and the heat, but you don't want it to be too salty or too much. When you've done it a few times and start to get it just to your liking, that's when you'll really start to enjoy the simplicity and the deliciousness of this dish!

Give it a try and let us know how it turns out for you!

Black Bean Enchiladas - The Extra Quick Version

Enchiladas are one of our favorite things to order when we go out for Mexican or Tex-Mex food. These black bean enchiladas are quite different from what you get dining out - and that's a good thing, in my opinion. These are flavorful, hearty, really easy to make, and generally taste better, more fulfilling, and are healthier than what you'll find dining out.

This recipe was originally found by Bryan's dad, who is the true expert at making these. The full recipe calls for all sorts of nifty things to make the flavor robust and complex (bacon, avocado, etc). We'll feature that sometime in the future, but for now we're going to do the quick version of this recipe that requires only a few ingredients but still comes pretty close to the original. The full version also can create a whole tray of enchiladas for you, and if you like leftovers during the week, this is the perfect thing to make on a Sunday night to prepare you for the week. Just double everything that we call for below.

Herbie loves enchiladas, especially when they have chicken in them.

Making the Dish

As I said, this is the simple version. All you'll need is 1 can of black beans, 2 boneless chicken breasts, 1 red bell pepper, 4 tortillas, salsa, 2 scallions, garlic, monterey jack cheese, and some spices.

Prepare everything first and then whole thing should take no longer than 15 minutes before going in the oven. Chop up your chicken breast into cubes, dice your bell pepper and garlic, slice up your scallions (just the green part), and shred your cheese if it's not pre-shredded. Preheat your oven to 350.

Diced garlic and red bell pepper. 

Throw some olive oil (a couple tablespoons worth) into a non-stick pan, and throw in the garlic. Let it cook for a minute or so, and before it starts to turn color add in your chicken. Mix everything together and get it coated in olive oil as it starts to cool. Season with salt, pepper, cumin, and cayenne pepper (and anything else you like, really - chili, paprika, coriander...whatever you like). 

Chicken is seasoned and cooking with bell pepper and garlic in olive oil. 

After the chicken is pretty close to done, add in your red pepper and let them cook together. Then, drain the black beans and add the can in. Take about a cup of salsa  and pour that in as well.Mix it all together, and let it start to simmer. Add some more cumin, salt and pepper to taste. You can also add in cilantro if you have it. Lastly, add in about half of your scallions, and let simmer. 

The scallions are added to our black bean and chicken mixture. 

By this point you should have a nice tasty black bean chicken thing going on. This is your filling. Taste it. If it tastes good, your enchiladas will be good too. Turn off the heat, it's now time to fill your tortillas. Take a tortilla, add a good scoop of filling to it down the middle, and a touch of the cheese.

This is starting to look like an enchilada...

Roll it up, and place it seam side down in a baking dish. Repeat this until all your tortillas are filled. Take any leftover filling you have and pour it over the top of the enchiladas, and an extra cup of salsa as well. Cover the top of the enchiladas entirely. Top with the rest of your cheese, and the remainder of your scallions. 

The enchiladas are rolled, topped with sauce and cheese, and await baking. 

Place the baking dish in the oven for about 15 - 20 minutes, depending on how crispy you like your enchiladas to be. You'll want to make sure the cheese is melted and bubbly, maybe even a little browned if that's what you're into. 

The longer and hotter you cook it, the crispier the tortillas will get. Just keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn. 

Take the baking dish out (be careful when you do this!) and let the enchiladas rest for about 5 minutes. Use a spatula to get them out and put them on a plate. Rice is a great side dish for this - and if you've happened to make Arroz con Pollo the night before and have leftover rice (like we did!), even better! 

Herbie's interest in the enchiladas is not deterred by Alec Baldwin and 30 Rock. 

The Wine

A friend brought this Casillero del Diablo Merlot. It's a Chilean wine, and as we've mentioned before, we're fans of Chilean wine because it's inexpensive, and delicious. This Merlot is usually found for less than $10, and has a big, bold flavor, but is extremely smooth. It's a perfect combination for this somewhat spicy dish as its big body can handle the heat, and its smooth finish makes it quite refreshing. If you happen to see this wine or are looking for a good compliment to a spicy Mexican, Latin American or Asian dish, this is a great one to go with.

The Result

These are always delicious. We served ours with a dollop of sour cream and the leftover rice from the night before. It was a great combination. Simple, quick, and delicious.

Definitely give these a try sometime, and let us know how it comes out for you!