Fajitas are a Tex-Mex dish of grilled meat cut into strips, served with sliced peppers and onions in warm tortillas. The name, pronounced ‘fahitas’, comes from the Spanish faja, a belt or strip, after the skirt steak they were first made with; today you can get them with almost every kind of meat – even prawns.
This version uses chicken breast, seasoned with smoked paprika, cumin and lime and fried on a very hot grill pan. It takes 25 minutes and serves four.
Recipe
Fajitas
Ingredients
Method
- Cut the red peppers in half, remove the stem and seeds and cut the peppers into strips.
- Peel and cut the onions into small pieces.
- Cut the chicken breast into strips of the same size as the peppers.
- Bring peppers, onions and chicken in a bowl together with smoked paprika and cumin.
- Squeeze 1 lime over, spread over olive oil and season with freshly ground black pepper.
- Mix it all well.
- Heat a barbecue pan with high heat.
- Get the bowl of pepper, onion and chicken on the pan – use tongs if needed – and let it fry for 6-8 minutes until the chicken is golden thorough. Keep turning the ingredients so that they do not get burned on the very hot pan.
- Cut ½ lime into wedges.
- Warm the tortillas in the microwave or on a dry hot pan.
- Put it all on the table and let each person "pack" their own food themselves.
- Serve with guacamole, salsa, yogurt, limes and grated cheddar.
Step by step, in pictures
Five drawings for the moves that matter. Everything is cut and seasoned in one bowl, so the cooking at the end is just the card’s 10 minutes at the stove.
Cut the chicken into strips the size of the peppers.- Toss chicken, peppers and onions with smoked paprika and cumin.
- Squeeze over lime, add olive oil and pepper, then mix.
- Fry on a very hot grill pan for 6–8 minutes, turning often.
- Warm the tortillas and set everything out on the table.
Chicken fajitas, Jamie Oliver style – with a twist
I make my fajitas after a recipe by the British TV cook and cookbook writer Jamie Oliver, with a twist of my own: guacamole, salsa and a spoonful of yogurt on the table, so everyone can build their own.
The secret to good fajitas, and the mistakes to avoid
A very hot pan and constant turning. The recipe heats the grill pan on high before anything goes in, then keeps the strips moving for 6–8 minutes until the chicken is golden and cooked through. Keep turning, as the card says, so nothing burns.
The other common mistake is uneven cutting. The card asks for chicken strips the same size as the pepper strips, so the whole panful cooks in the same time.
What to put on chicken fajitas
Guacamole, salsa, yogurt, grated cheddar and a squeeze of lime – the five toppings the card puts on the table. Warm the tortillas in the microwave or in a dry hot pan, set the grill pan in the middle and let each person fill and fold their own.
If you are cooking a bigger Tex-Mex spread, the same guacamole and salsa go straight onto a tray of nachos, and a pot of chili con carne makes a second main that can wait on the stove.
Where fajitas come from: a short Tex-Mex history
Fajitas are usually credited to Mexican ranch workers in South and West Texas in the 1930s and 1940s, who were given the cheaper cuts of a butchered steer – among them skirt steak – as part of their pay, and grilled them over open fires.
That makes them Tex-Mex, a blend of Texan and Mexican cooking. The label itself is commonly traced to the Texas Mexican Railway, chartered in 1875, whose name was shortened to ‘Tex-Mex’ in timetables; only later did it come to describe the food. Today, at least in Denmark, Tex-Mex is a familiar everyday cuisine of fajitas, chili con carne, nachos, tacos and many other dishes.
Fajitas FAQ
What are fajitas?
Fajitas are strips of grilled meat, cooked with peppers and onions and wrapped in warm tortillas at the table. They are a Tex-Mex dish, first made with skirt steak and now also made with chicken or prawns.
How long do chicken fajitas take?
25 minutes in total: 15 minutes to cut and season, and 10 minutes at the stove, of which the chicken spends 6–8 minutes in the grill pan.
How many people does this recipe serve?
Four. It is built around four large tortillas and 500 g of chicken breast.
What are the ingredients for chicken fajitas?
Chicken breast, red peppers and red onions, seasoned with smoked paprika, cumin, lime, olive oil and black pepper, then served in tortillas with guacamole, salsa, yogurt and cheddar. Exact amounts are in the recipe card.
