🫑 Sizzling Chicken Fajitas
Ingredients
- 1.5 lb chicken breast
- 3 bell peppers
- 1 onion
- 8 tortillas
- 2 limes
- Sour cream
- Fajita seasoning (pantry staple)
- 2 tbsp olive oil (pantry staple)
Instructions
- Slice chicken, peppers, and onion; toss with seasoning and oil.
- Sear in a screaming-hot skillet until charred at the edges, ~8 min.
- Squeeze lime over; serve in warm tortillas with sour cream.
Tips
- The pan needs to be genuinely screaming hot, and you need to leave things alone. Char is the point — constant stirring gives you pale, steamed chicken and peppers.
- Cook in two batches unless your pan is huge. Everything at once drops the heat and you lose the char entirely.
- Lime goes on at the very end, off the heat. Cooked lime juice tastes flat and slightly bitter.
Substitutions
- Chicken breast
- Thighs are juicier and harder to overcook. Flank or skirt steak sliced against the grain makes beef fajitas; portobello mushrooms work for vegetarian.
- Fajita seasoning
- 2 tsp chilli powder, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp paprika, ½ tsp garlic powder, ½ tsp oregano, salt.
- Sour cream
- Greek yoghurt, guacamole, or salsa.
- Tortillas
- Corn for gluten-free, or skip them and serve over rice as a bowl.
Storage & reheating
Keeps 3 days refrigerated. Reheat hard and fast in a hot pan — gentle reheating makes the peppers limp. Freezes 2 months, though the peppers soften noticeably. Store tortillas separately.
Common questions
Why aren't my fajitas charred like at a restaurant?
Restaurant kitchens use far more heat than a home hob. Get the pan as hot as it goes, dry the chicken first, don't crowd it, and don't stir for the first 3 minutes. Cast iron helps a lot.
What's the difference between fajita and taco seasoning?
Fajita leans on paprika and is milder and smokier; taco seasoning has more chilli and cumin. Interchangeable at a push.
Should I marinate the chicken?
30 minutes in lime, oil and the spices improves it. Beyond about 2 hours the acid starts breaking the meat down and it turns mealy.