Saturday, July 22, 2006

Baptist Fajitas

I'm a fan of quick and easy dinners that taste good. I'm not a fan of heavily processed and frozen food. Most methods of packaging and preserving foods destroy flavor. To make up for this these foods are usually chock full of flavor enhancers like MSG or Sodium. So they're unhealthy but keep for a long long time.

My fajita recipe is something I developed because I was really sick of making Viola frozen dinners. It is pretty simple but yummy and there are easy ways to make it your own. This recipe will generally feed two adults with health appetites. The ingredients you need are:

1 package of Chicken Breasts (1 to 1.5 lbs)
4 to 6 oz. of your favorite salsa. We use whatever mild chunky salsa is on sale.
Appropriately sized flour tortillas. I like burrito size myself, but I have a big mouth.
Fajita fixins of choice. We use lettuce, cheese, and sour cream. You might want avacado or more tomato. Refried beans are doable but will take more time. You generally won't need any flavored taco sauce because of the salsa used in cooking.

Start by cutting the breasts into strips. My strips are usually a quarter to half to an inch wide and a few inches long. Placing them into a medium sized frying pan. Ideally the pan should be large enough that they're all in contact with the heated surface.

Turn a burner onto medium-high heat and cook the strips' exteriors, turning regularly. Once the outside are all white, turn down to medium heat and add the salsa. This will favor the chicken, keep it moist, and help it cook evenly. Let it cook for 5 to 8 minutes.

While the chicken is cooking, prep the fixins. The salsa itself is going to cook down some, so if you want salsa for fajita fixins, then have extra. Grate the cheese, wash and size the lettuce, set the table.

When the chicken is done, we generally set it in the middle of the table on a trivet. Put a flour tortilla on your plate and build yourself something yummy from the various ingredients. I recommend you put the grated cheese next to the chicken, it gets all melty that way. Enjoy.

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