Bob's Chicken Fajita Recipe

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This is my first published recipe.

First make the Pico de Gallo:

• dice tomatoes, Very small cubes. Roma work very well to my taste and dice well. You want a firm tomato.
• dice white onion. About equal parts with the tomato. The kind that make your eyes water.
• chop up cilantro to your taste.  I'd say about 10-15% of what you have so far for ingredients.
• Mix in diced green chilies. I'd say about 10 -15% of what you have already for tomato and onion
• dice up jalapeno pepper, discard the seeds because you only want the flavor, not the heat. You've got plenty of heat opportunity with other side dishes such as chips and salsa. For me, I do about 2 to 3% Jalapeno of what I have for ingredients so far.
• mix that all up well, and squeeze about 1/2 lime over it and toss it in the fridge.

Next get the refried beans ready. I chose a can of refried beans that had green chili added.  Put that in a saucepan and put on very low heat.  Toss in a dollop of butter. Land of Lakes salted of course Monsieur. Stir occasionally.

• For the refried beans you want to have some shredded cheese available to toss on and melt as you dish the beans onto your plate.  I use Sargento 4 cheese Mexican which comes shredded already.
• When you dish the refried onto a side plate, toss on the shredded cheese and pop into the microwave for 15 seconds to melt the cheese.  Regardless how hot the refrieds are they aren't able to melt the cheese. I put on a side plate as I want my main plate for constructing my fajita.

You should have the chicken cut and ready for cooking by now as well. Note that you want everything ready with the exception of the bell pepper strips when you start cooking the chicken.

• your favorite skinless boneless chicken breast.  For two people one large breast should do it. you can always cook more and the side ingredients will stay fresh so no worries.
• slice into strips about the width of your finger and half as long.  Depending on how fat and long your fingers are. :)  
• Cooking options:

1. I cook in a skillet usually with nothing added - there is plenty of flavor in your side ingredients
2. toss on the grill for a minute to put some grill marks and flavor then toss in the skillet for cooking
3. just before you're ready to remove from skillet add in a little taco sauce enough to just coat the chicken pieces.  Sometimes I sprinkle with chili powder as it's cooking.
4. sometimes I do all four.

Tortillas

• I use flour tortilla, but some people like corn.  Have a large skillet with water and a steaming rack to lay the tortillas on.  Bring the water to boil and steam the tortillas.  Probably 3 each is a good number.  I have a plastic container that has a lid, same stuff the cheap coolers are made of, that I store the hot tortillas in it as I take them off the stove.

Vegetables !

• slice some thin strips of green and red bell pepper.  I prefer mostly red, but the green offers a nice flavor too.
• slice thin strips of Vidalia onion and caramelize in a sauce pan. Do this earlier on. You'll add the bell pepper to them later
• Just as the chicken is about done, toss the bell pepper strips into the hot skillet with the vidalia onion and heat them just long enough to get hot but not soggy. You want them crisp. Mix the strips and onion in with your chicken as you take both from the stove to your drooling family.

You're ready to go.
You might have some genuine Mexican chips ready to go with your Herdez Medium hot salsa that your thankless family has been munching on while watching you cook.

Bring it all to the table and dig in.

Grab a tortilla, place some chicken strips, bell pepper and vidalia onion and some Pico de Gallo on and roll that sucker up. Yum.

Don't forget the Jose Quervo Golden Margherita poured into 16 oz Glass glasses with ice cubes and salt on the rim.  Hold your glass under the faucet for a second to wet the rim, then dip your glass upside down into a container of Margherita salt. Or sprinkle the salt onto a small plate and dip your glass on that if you don't want to really overload the rim with salt..


I use the Mexican ingredients where possible.  Ortega, La Victoria, (taco sauce, green chili, re fried etc. and  Herdez (Salsa) as examples.

I'm headed to the kitchen right now to get started on this for Sunday dinner.  Sweetie gets home in about a half hour from work and it's the least I can do after screwing around all day, swimming and drinking.
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