Authentic Mexican Chicken Fajitas Recipe (Fajitas de Pollo) (2024)

FAQs

What is a Mexican fajita? ›

Fajitas are a popular Tex-Mex dish made from grilled meat, usually beef or chicken, which is served on a sizzling hot skillet along with grilled onions and peppers. The meat and vegetables are served with warm tortillas, guacamole, sour cream, and salsa, allowing diners to create their own unique flavor combinations.

Slicing will save you cook time.

You can avoid overcooking and drying out the chicken by slicing the peppers, onions, and chicken into 1/4-inch strips. For the chicken breast, cutting across the meat's grain will make for more tender fajitas.

Fajitas de Pollo (Mexican Chicken Fajitas)

Tacos de alambre combine carne asada with colourful bell peppers, chargrilled spring onions and Oaxaca cheese. Outside of Mexico they are commonly called fajitas.

The last 30 minutes of cooking, add prepackaged fajita peppers and finish cooking. Remove chicken and shred. You'll know the chicken is done when it is tender and shreds easily.

When cutting an onion for fajitas, you will typically cut the root end off but leave the stem end intact. This helps to hold the onion together while you are making your cuts. To start, cut off the top and bottom ends of the onion using a sharp knife. Then, cut the onion in half lengthwise from top to bottom.

What Is the Best Cut of Beef to Use for Steak Fajitas? You can use either skirt steak or flank steak for fajitas. Although the two cuts come from different parts of the cow, both skirt and flank steak soak up marinades well, cook quickly, and, when sliced thinly against the grain, taste tender and flavorful.

Fajita Marinade Ingredients

Olive oil, lime juice, water. Seasonings. Fresh garlic, paprika, ancho powder, cayenne, onion powder, oregano, brown sugar, cumin, salt and pepper, chili flakes.

Salsa. Salsa is all the sauce you need for fajitas. Sweet and savory with a little kick, it's the greatest addition to any Tex-Mex treat. If you've always used store-bought salsa for your Mexican fiestas, I suggest you make your own this time.

Are fajitas made with corn or flour? ›

Flour tortillas are also preferred for fajitas because they'll stand up to having all those ingredients piled on, in addition to guacamole, salsa, and all the other good stuff. This also holds hold true for any Mexican dish that's rolled or topped with sauce – like burritos and enchiladas.

Pollo Asado – Pollo means “chicken” in Spanish, which means that pollo asado is grilled, marinated chicken. It's a delicious alternative to beef in burritos and tacos.

In traditional Mexican cooking, barbacoa refers to meat that's slow-cooked in savory seasonings and shredded to fill tacos, enchiladas, or burritos.

1 red onion: When it comes to onion, we opt for red onion for fajitas: it has a mellow flavor when cooked, and adds a lovely purple color. 2 portobello mushroom caps: They're optional, but portobello mushrooms add big meaty flavor (especially if you're making vegetarian fajitas).

Some of the best cheeses for fajitas are cheddar, pepper jack, and queso fresco. Cheddar adds a nice sharpness to the dish; pepper jack adds a bit of spice; and queso fresco is mild yet flavorful. Try different combinations to find what suits your taste best!

Fajita meat is marinated and grilled before it is cut into strips and served. The best way to get a tender slice of meat is to cut perpendicular to (across) the grain of the meat. Sometimes the grain is not straight across the whole piece of meat and can change direction several times, presenting a challenge.

Ingredients You Will Need

Cornstarch – It's used to help the spice stick to the food and thicken up the marinade just a bit when water is added. Chili Powder – I like Ancho Chili Powder but you can use your favorite.

Fajita seasoning and taco seasoning are very similar, but they are not the same. Taco seasoning typically has more oregano and chili powder than fajita seasoning. With that being said, however, you can use fajita seasoning and taco seasoning interchangeably in recipes, it may just warrant a slightly different flavor.

Can you overcook fajitas? ›

Can you overcook fajitas? If you overcook your fajita steak, it can become tough, chewy, and dry. I recommend cooking the steak to medium doneness, or an internal temperature of I recommend cooking the steak to medium doneness, or an internal temperature of 130-135º F ( 55-57 º C).

White onions are widely used in Mexican cooking, and for good reason. Popular in salsa and guacamole, they have a mild, slightly sweet flavor and a crunchy consistency. They also hold their shape when cooked and retain their flavor, making them the perfect choice for fajitas.

Skirt steak is the traditional cut used for fajitas. It used to be inexpensive, but now it's not so cheap; oftentimes flank steak costs less. Either will be a good choice.

In restaurants, the meat is usually cooked with onions and bell peppers. Popular condiments include shredded lettuce, sour cream, guacamole, salsa, pico de gallo, shredded cheese, refried beans, and diced tomatoes.

While they use many similar ingredients, taco seasoning has more chili powder and oregano than fajita seasoning. Compare our recipes and you'll see this fajita seasoning is more cumin heavy, whereas taco seasoning is more chili powder heavy. That makes the taco seasoning a bit spicier, too.

This seasoning includes a meat tenderizer, making it ideal for use before cooking; do not add to cooked meats. Use it to marinade popular fajita proteins like steak, shrimp, or chicken to add exciting flavor and create irresistibly tender meats!

The two are similar, but taco seasoning has more chili powder and oregano, while fajita seasoning has more cumin. In general, fajita seasoning is less spicy than taco seasoning, although when you make your own, it can be as spicy as you want it!

Do fajitas use oil? ›

Fajita Marinade Ingredients

Lime juice: Lime juice lends bright flavor and helps tenderize the meat. Olive oil: Two tablespoons of olive oil keeps the meat moist. Garlic: Fresh garlic lends a bold flavor.

Spread soft fillings (refried beans, guacamole, sour cream, or melted cheese) onto the tortilla first, then add the strips of beef, chicken, or seafood and top with any garnishes. Roll up the tortilla and eat it from one end. Your fork is used only to eat any filling that falls to the plate.

The mainstream popularity of fajitas truly began in the 70s as restaurants and concession stands in South Texas awakened the cowboy tradition by grilling skirt steak on sizzling platters and serving them with flour tortillas. Soon, thanks to some very satisfied and loyal customers, their popularity exploded.

Flour tortillas are often softer and vary in size. The flour tortilla tends to be larger than corn tortillas. Due to flour tortilla's soft, fluffy, and more flexible texture, they are best used for fajitas, tacos, and burritos.

Today, the border is the only part of Mexico where the flour tortilla still dominates, while different types of corn tortillas are the de facto choice as you move southward. Americans tend to prefer flour, but corn is gaining ground.

So, if you are looking to prepare a Mexican dish that's as authentic as possible, corn tortillas are generally the way to go. This is also due to the fact that corn is a staple ingredient within Mexican cuisine, which has been the case for thousands of years.

Mexican Chickens tend to be yellower than chickens grown in other countries. This happens because chickens in Mexico are often fed cempasuchil or calendula flowers, which are bright yellow in color.

And this Mexican chicken marinade has them all. Salt – It tenderizes chicken by starting to break down the proteins, and draws moisture (and flavor) from the chicken marinade into the meat (so the marinade goodness permeates the whole chicken cut, not just the surface like a sauce that could drip or burn off.)

Beef is the most popular meat in Mexico. It's often used in tacos, burritos, and enchiladas. The most common cuts of beef used in Mexican dishes are flank steak, skirt steak, and ribeye. Other popular Mexican meats include pork, chicken, and lamb.

Carnitas is a traditional Mexican dish made with pork.

This is in contrast to barbacoa, which is made with beef. Carnitas means "little meats" in Spanish. It's a slow-cooked pork dish that is simmered until it becomes tender and juicy. It's kind of like a Mexican version of pulled pork.

What is barbacoa meat in English? ›

Barbacoa is actually the Spanish word for barbecue. Just as in English, there is a distinction in the Spanish-speaking world between barbecue (barbacoa) and grill (parrilla).

Barbacoa is a method of cooking meat (historically lamb or goat, though beef or pork is often used today) that produces tender and juicy results. It's traditionally steam-cooked underground, but modern barbacoa can be prepared over an open fire, on the stove, or in a slow cooker.

The meat in fajitas usually mingles with grilled or sauteed peppers and onions, which are cut into similarly sized strips. In tacos, the vegetables are often chopped or sliced and kept raw as a topping. “You can have fajita tacos,” Lancarte says.

As a general rule of thumb, fajita ingredients are almost always grilled, including veggies, while tacos often have fresh lettuce, tomatoes, and other raw vegetables on top. When we're talking authentic versions of each dish, there is almost no difference between fajita vs. taco seasoning.

The tortilla for fajitas is normally wheat, and for tacos the vast majority are corn, except that in Northern Mexico, where the tortillas are made with wheat flour, lard and water, in addition to having a much smaller diameter that allows you to eat it in 3 or 4 bites.

Chimichangas are made with wheat tortillas. Enchiladas are made with corn tortillas. Fajita can be eaten with tortillas. Tacos are made with corn or wheat tortillas.

Flour tortillas are also preferred for fajitas because they'll stand up to having all those ingredients piled on, in addition to guacamole, salsa, and all the other good stuff. This also holds hold true for any Mexican dish that's rolled or topped with sauce – like burritos and enchiladas.

What Is the Best Cut of Beef to Use for Steak Fajitas? You can use either skirt steak or flank steak for fajitas. Although the two cuts come from different parts of the cow, both skirt and flank steak soak up marinades well, cook quickly, and, when sliced thinly against the grain, taste tender and flavorful.

What is the difference between fajita seasoning and taco seasoning? The two are similar, but taco seasoning has more chili powder and oregano, while fajita seasoning has more cumin. In general, fajita seasoning is less spicy than taco seasoning, although when you make your own, it can be as spicy as you want it!

Even fajitas are a Tex-Mex invention (offered to tourists in Mexico now because so many Americans associate fajitas as authentic). Tex-Mex is a cuisine only very loosely related to Mexican cuisine.

Is Mexican spice the same as fajita? ›

Fajita seasoning and taco seasoning are very similar, but they are not the same. Taco seasoning typically has more oregano and chili powder than fajita seasoning. With that being said, however, you can use fajita seasoning and taco seasoning interchangeably in recipes, it may just warrant a slightly different flavor.

Flour tortillas are often softer and vary in size. The flour tortilla tends to be larger than corn tortillas. Due to flour tortilla's soft, fluffy, and more flexible texture, they are best used for fajitas, tacos, and burritos.

Fajitas: You wouldn't really use corn tortillas for fajitas, because they usually come with meat, peppers and onions, cheese, guacamole, sour cream, pico de gallo, et cetera. If you tried to fit all those things into a corn tortilla, it would fall apart. Chips: Yup.

Flautas are a type of Mexican food made by rolling a filling, typically shredded chicken or beef, inside a small flour or corn tortilla. The filled tortilla is then deep-fried until it is crispy and golden brown.

The origin of the chimichanga is uncertain. From the Mexican term chivichanga, one account adduces that Sonoran immigrants brought the dish with them to Arizona.

A tortilla (/tɔːrˈtiːə/, Spanish: [toɾˈtiʎa]) is a thin, circular unleavened flatbread from Mexico and Central America originally made from maize hominy meal, and now also from wheat flour.

A chimichanga is basically a deep-fried burrito. While some Americans may associate this dish with Mexico, many food historians agree that the dish actually originated in the United States. To be specific, the chimichanga was born in Arizona in the twentieth century.