Hi guys, I'm Laura Vitale and on this episode of Laura in the Kitchen we are getting spicy,
we're getting sizzling, we're getting excited. We're making homemade chicken
fajitas which I love, and I am almost certain that in the last 13 years of
being here I have never showed you how I make my chicken fajitas which are actually
so simple and easy to put together I feel like the spice mixture is a game changer.
I am making this in my trusty, old, classic, inexpensive,
beautiful cast iron skillet but you can also do this on your outdoor like flat
top griddle if you've got a Blackstone or anything like that that would work great.
So all you need for the actual fajitas themselves is not a lot,
you're gonna have your chicken of course. I'm using boneless skinless
chicken breast I've also done this with thighs with great, great results.
Peppers, I'm using red orange and green, calm down I know but it's good in here it's good. Onion,
limes and then for the spice mixture it's very simple, you will need some chili powder,
granulated garlic, onion, this is paprika, granulated cumin, oregano, smoked paprika,
a touch of brown sugar. The brown sugar sort of offsets a little bit of this pungent heat from
all of that chili powder and the acid from the lime also helps caramelize the chicken.
Plus some salt, plus some pepper, plus olive oil and it is just sublime. All I'm going to do really
quickly is mix all of my spices together, this is quite a bit but we've got a good two pounds
of chicken and what I'm using here is the sort of whole chicken breast, obviously boneless,
skinless because I am going to show you how I like to cut my chicken for my fajitas.
Okay, if you've got a whole chicken breast I just like to go and cut like strips like
this because it cooks really fast it also stays really flavorful and juicy and it just gives you
it's already ready to go you don't have to cut it after you're cooking it, and then risk
losing all of those wonderful delicious juicy bits so this is just great if there's any bits
that you want to cut out do that now, trim it off now before you before you marinate.
Adding just a little bit of olive oil. I'm only adding the olive oil to the chicken so
that basically the spices adhere and then a good amount of black pepper, freshly ground of course.
Just makes all the difference and then some salt because all of my seasonings and my seasoning
blends are always salt free so that you can always control how much salt you add to your food.
And then your spices, I'm going to add about three quarters of my spice mixture and I'm
going to leave one quarter behind because I'm going to add that to my peppers and onions
because I want everything to have fantastic, beautiful flavor and the juice of some lime.
Now, I'm gonna give you options because life is full of options and we love that
I'm just gonna do one whole one. You can marinate this way in advance you
can marinate this the night before if you want to, or if you're like me and
you're strapped for time you don't have to marinate it any longer than like 10 minutes.
So, the choice is really up to you. Just give it a really good mix. I'm actually just going
to switch to my hands, I already washed my hands from when I cut the chicken, but I just want to
make sure that the chicken's well coated and that's perfect. You don't want to have so much
excess spices because spices will burn and then they become really bitter so you see how the
chicken is completely coated and it's like changed color from that chili and the paprika and whatnot.
That's what you want but if you have lots of like dried up spices everywhere
that it can't even make contact with the chicken it's just gonna burn so
no need to overdo, I promise so what I'm going to do is I'm going to leave this here for now
just so that I can wash my hands, slice my peppers and my onions and that's really the only time I'm
gonna give the chicken to marinate, 10 minutes or so and it's perfect every time you'll see.
A good tip when you're cutting your bell peppers is to cut around the pepper so that you can try
and minimize the amount of seeds you're gonna have to fight with when you're slicing them. So, just
like that go all the way around get rid of any of that stuff right there and then give it a nice
thin slice, not too thin because I really do want to keep some of that
texture on the pepper, especially when you get fajitas they're like I don't
think they're cooked to death they still have a bit of texture which I kind of like.
Alright I've got my big cast iron skillet getting nice and hot, now I want to just
chat about something really quickly. We've got lots of peppers and onions going on we've got
lots of chicken going on. What we don't want a steamed chicken and peppers because that's
not what we're going for here, we're going for caramelization we're going for deliciousness so
I'm gonna have to do this in batches if I want to ensure myself that the chicken will not steam
in its own juice and the peppers have enough space to build that beautiful flavor and color.
If I were doing this on my Blackstone you can do the whole thing at once because it's go-hugic.
I only have a small, well it's not actually that small, I only have my cast iron skillet
here so I'm gonna have to work in batches because I want to create those flavors.
So I'm probably gonna do about three batches of the chicken and the chicken's gonna cook really
quickly because it's thinly sliced and then I'm going to remove it and do my next batches.
Look how good that chicken looks, I did do this in three batches as promised because I want my
chicken to have that kind of color. Look at that, it's delicious it's sizzling it's just a party
and we haven't even added our colorful friends to the skillet.
Add a touch more olive oil don't crank it up as high as it goes,
especially at this point because we are going to be doing the peppers and onions in batches as well
because again we don't want steamed peppers and onions we want caramelized peppers and
onions. Put that in there, a little bit of that seasoning because we're gonna
put this up among the two and then this also needs some salt.
And then just cook them a few minutes until
they developed some color, begin to caramelize, cook down, do all kinds of beautiful things.
Okay, second batch of peppers and onions look fantastic now we just unite everything because
this is how you're going to bring it to the table. You see how the peppers are still really
holding their shape, that's what I want. I don't want soggy poppers for this, I want everything
to really hold her shape and of course I'm using clean tongs because the tongs you use
to handle raw chickens are not the tongs we are going to use to handle fully cooked chicken.
We don't want that cross-contamination. That looks great. I'm going to turn this off,
I'm gonna go ahead and hit it with some cilantro. Now obviously, I don't have to tell you that
there is not an ounce of authenticity in this, but there is so much goodness,
so much deliciousness and honestly I feel like you just gotta enjoy life you know what I mean and
sometimes life is just better when you bring out a sizzling pan of fajitas okay? I'm just saying.
A little bit more lime, I turned everything off by the way
but the cast iron skillet is still quite hot. That is gorgeous, that is what I want. Look how
beautiful, spectacular it did not take much effort at all and now I'm going to build myself one. What
do I like on my fajitas? Tortillas obviously must be charred. Oh! Must be a little bit charred.
Like I said, this is not on but the residual heat is doing really beautiful things.
You can use corn or flour tortillas whatever your heart desires I'm using flour today. Truth be told
when I bring this to the table tonight I'm going to put both on the table because I like options.
Nice and charred. To it, I'm going to set these aside for a second,
I'm going to add my delicious chicken and peppers.
Aw, that chicken is so delicious by the way because I've already had some. And I can affirm
that it is indeed a delight. I like a little sour cream, kind of cools everything down. I like a
little salsa, again not an ounce of authenticity here but you know what? Let's live a little.
Let's live a little.
That is still piping hot and you can hear it.
Hold on this is gonna be piping hot in my mouth.
mm-hmm
You know?
I love a fajita!
I love, listen back in the day, 21, 22 year old Lara, Joe all our friends,
Don Pablo's on a Friday night you always got the chicken fajitas.
That,
total happiness I promise. Laurainthekitchen.com for the written recipe, hope you enjoyed my time
with me and I will see you guys in the next one please make this.
[Music]