Okay, it might be a long list of ingredients (you probably have a lot on hand). But actually it’s all made in a flash, and, man, is this delicious. So let nothing demotivate you from getting started!
In this fajita recipe we make everything ourselves and since it involves spices, a marinade, a salsa and vegetables, we have to prepare a few things. Fortunately, a food processor works wonders.
Fajita is a classic Mexican dish that incorporates onions, jalapeños, chicken or beef. Roughly translated, fajita means strips of meat. Then you also know why the meat is always cut into strips with fajita.
What’s in it?
Often a fajita recipe consists of cream and guacamole. We are going for a smokey chilli pepper salsa in this recipe. We marinate the meat in a chipotle marinade and a homemade tex-mex dry rub. We use canned chipotles in the salsa and marinade. These are smoked jalapeños and are available at the supermarket. In addition to these jalapeños, we also use the moisture from the can. This liquid is called adobo and is rich in flavour and spice.
We use canned chipotles for the salsa and the marinade. These are smoked jalapeños and are also available at the supermarket. In addition to these jalapeños, we also use the moisture from the can. This liquid is called adobo and is rich in flavour and spice.
We also prepare a pico de gallo. That is a vegetable salsa from the Mexican kitchen consisting of onion, tomato and avocado. A tasty addition to the fajita.
We grilled the chicken and vegetables on the barbecue. We have a plancha that makes this easy. That’s a cast iron griddle. If you don’t have this, you can of course also easily prepare this in a grill pan.
Chicken Fajita with a Smoky Chilli Pepper Salsa
Ingredients
- 1 kg chicken fillet
- 8 tortillas
Pico De Gallo
- 2 tomatoes in cubes
- 1 onion finely chopped
- 1 avocado in cubes
- 1 jalapeno finely chopped (optional)
- 1 tbsp lime juice
- tex mex dry rub
- 3 tbsp sea salt coarse
- 2 tbsp caster sugar light or dark
- 1 tbsp paprika powder
- 1 tbsp black pepper
- 1/2 tbsp chilli powder
- 1/2 tbsp cumin powder
- 1/2 tbsp oregano
- 1/2 tbsp cocoa
Chipotle marinade
- 3 plum tomatoes
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1/2 onion peeled and halved
- 80 ml lime juice
- 1 tbsp orange juice fresh
- 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 2 canned chipotles
- 2 tsp chipotle juice canned
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp sea salt coarse
Smoky chilli pepper salsa
- 4 guajillos dried red peppers
- 200 ml water
- 1/2 onion peeled and halved
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 can chipotles
- 2 tsp adobo liquid from the can of chipotles
- 1 tsp lime juice
- 1 tsp sea salt coarse
- 2 tbsp cilantro optional
Instructions
Preparing the tex-med dry rub
- Put all the ingredients for the tex-mex rub in a bowl and mix well.
Preparing chipotle marinade
- Heat a little oil in a frying pan. Add the tomatoes, onion and garlic and cook at medium heat until brown. The garlic can be removed after about 4 minutes. The tomatoes and onion after about 10 minutes.
- Then place it in a food processor. Add all other ingredients and grind to a thick paste.
- Cut the chicken fillet into thin strips. Place them in a bowl or zip bag and add the marinade. Also add two tablespoons of the tex-mex rub. We’ll use the rest later. Stir everything and let it marinate in the refrigerator for two hours.
Preparing the chilli pepper salsa
- Soak the guajillos or dried red peppers in a bowl with 200 ml of water for half an hour. Then remove the peppers and keep the water. Remove the seeds from the peppers.
- Heat a little oil in a frying pan and caramelise the onion and garlic.
- Put them in a food processor with all the other ingredients. Be careful with the water. It is better to add a little bit of water first and add more later if necessary. It has to become a salsa. If you add too much water, it will become too watery. If it is too watery, put everything in a sieve with a bowl underneath. You can use what remains in the sieve for the salsa.
Preparing Pico de Gallo
- Finely chop the onion and jalapeño and dice the tomatoes and avocado. Put everything in a bowl, add a tablespoon of lime juice and possibly some salt to taste.
Grilling
- Prepare the barbecue for direct grilling. Maintain a temperature of about 250 degrees. In case you are using a pan, heat a grill pan at high heat.
- Cut the onion and red and green bell pepper into long strips.
- Put some oil on the plancha or in the pan and grill the onions and peppers at high heat for a few minutes. Then let them continue cooking at a lower heat.
- Grill the chicken strips. Add the rest of the tex-mex spices. At a certain point you will see that the strips start to caramelise. That is a good sign.
- Meanwhile, heat the tortillas.
- Remove everything from the heat and divide it into bowls. Place a tortilla on a plate and add the chicken on top, then the onion and peppers, the pico de gallo and finally the salsa on top. Enjoy!
