Chicken fajitas with Sautéed plantains
A quick & easy meal
Ranch hands near the Mexican border in the 1940s were partially paid with meat from butchered steers, typically receiving the least desirable cuts. When they received the tough skirt steak, they pounded, marinated, grilled, and then sliced it and served it in tortillas. This was the beginning of the Tex-Mex dish fajitas. Today, fajitas are basically any cooked and sliced meat served with tortillas.
iwannabeacook’s chicken fajita recipe is flavorful but quick and easy enough for a weeknight dinner. The main ingredients are chicken, onions, and bell peppers. The marinade takes only a few minutes to make. If you have time, marinate the meat 1 – 4 hours. The flavor is both spicy and tangy. This recipe takes 20 minutes, start to finish. Serve it with corn or flour tortillas, guacamole, sour cream, cilantro, and cheese.
This recipe is also flexible. Instead of the spice mixture, use taco seasoning or chili powder. Instead of chicken, use beef or shrimp. For shrimp, limit the marinating time to 1 hour. Add or change the vegetables. Use zucchini or summer squash. Add jalapeño slices or chipotle powder.
Plantains, also called cooking bananas, are not known to most households in the US, but they are a wonderful side dish to grilled and roasted meats. They have less sugar than a regular banana and are more suitable as a side dish. Cutting the plantain on the bias provides more surface area to brown.
Plantains are used in two forms, unripe and ripe, but they are almost always cooked. Ripe ones can be eaten raw, but it is rare. The blacker it is, the sweeter it is.
This recipe is quick and easy and provides something slightly unusual. If you want to learn about a new food, try this one.