Chicken Fajitas with Guac and Pico

Despite an almost endless ability to procrastinate, I'm finally sitting down to get this last post out for 2016. Whether it's taking the time to tie up loose ends at the end of what feels like a particularly long year, or just that I'm in the mood for something exciting and spicy, this is one of those dishes that I've been meaning to write about for a long time now.

Chicken fajitas is probably the most common, and perhaps most ill-treated of Mexican imports to the British isles. Sprung forth from terrible El Paso ads in the 90's and slowly course-corrected by Wahaca, it's a dish that everyone is pretty familiar with in some terrible form or another. Thankfully, I've had the fortunate opportunity to try fajitas in both Mexico and the US (California / Texas), and while I can hardly testify as to its authenticity, what I can say for certain is that this version will slap the hell out of anything you might encounter on the back of a packet. It packs a ton of flavour and heat with clean, fresh and vibrant complements, and is the perfect comfort food with friends.

Don't be this guy

The big game-changer in this recipe is the marinade, and more specifically the lime zest. The eagle-eyed among you will notice that there's no lemon or lime juice in the marinade at all, and that's deliberate. When marinating the chicken that acid will change the texture and bite of the meat, generally for the worse. Instead, lime zest gives the chicken all the lightness and vibrancy of citrus without impacting the meat itself. The ancho chilli flakes are now easily found in most large supermarkets, and add a lovely richness and warmth. You'll get the best results if you marinade the chicken overnight, so start this recipe the day before you want to eat.

It would be a crime to have fajitas without proper guacamole and pico de gallo, so I've thrown those in too. Once you've made this stuff by hand, trust me you'll never go back. Both are best freshly made on the day you want to eat, as they start to break down within 24 hours or so.

Lime & Chilli Chicken Fajitas
Serves 4

Ingredients
Marinade:
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 limes worth of zest
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon ancho chili flakes
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
4 tablespoons groundnut oil
500-750g chicken breasts (depending on whether you've invited eaters)

Everything else:

1 large white onion

2 red/green peppers

Sugar & Pepper

Salt

A glass of water

Coriander

Small flour tortillas (aim for four per person, on average)

Cheddar, freshly grated

Sour cream (if you must)

Start by getting all of the marinade ingredients except the chicken into a gallon-sized ziploc bag. It will help if you shove the bag into a measuring jug or small saucepan to keep things tidy. Mush up the oil and spices well until you're left with a luscious looking spice mix, as below: 

Slice the chicken breasts into thin strips, toss them in the bag and then squeeze out as much air as you can before sealing it firmly. Toss the bag into a roasting dish/baking pan and flip it over several times to move the contents of the bag around and massage the marinade into the chicken. Leave it in the fridge overnight, inside the dish if you're worried about leaks.

The next day, slice your peppers and onion into half-inch wide strips and toss these into a separate ziploc bag with a solid pinch of salt, sugar, pepper and a couple of tablespoons of oil - rustle the bag as you did with the chicken to coat thoroughly. Get a large pan onto high heat and when ready put in half of the onion/peppers mix. Unless you have a massive pan, you don't want to throw it all in at once as this will crowd the pan. Instead, fry it in batches to get a good brown colour. As soon as they start to brown a little, pour a small sip of water into the pan and stir everything around. Do this a couple of times until the vegetables are nicely browned (but not burnt!).

Once cooked get all of your veggies into a big serving bowl and keep this close to hand - the chicken will go on top!

Wipe out your pan, and get it back onto high heat. Once it's ready, once again put in half of your chicken. You want the chicken to have room to breathe (and not steam) and the temperature to stay high so that you can get a good sear and colour on it. The trick here is not to cook the chicken into oblivion: in thin slices it really won't take more than a 5-10 minutes to cook through, and once it's got a golden brown colour on it, get it out of there. Some of you will recall that I typically prefer chicken thigh to breast as it has more flavour, but in this case chicken breast is actually a better fit for the dish as long as you don't overcook it.

Add the chicken to your veggies and toss with a little bit of lime juice and freshly chopped coriander. At this point you can either serve immediately, or cover with foil and leave in an 60℃ oven to stay warm. 

Pico de Gallo & Guacamole

Ingredients:

5 medium tomatoes (fresh plum/Roma tomatoes are the best if you can find them)
Half a white onion
1 lime, halved
2 fresh jalapeno chillies (jarred is fine too)

Coriander, roughly chopped
3 whole avocados
Cumin
Cayenne Pepper

1 clove of garlic, crushed

Pico de Gallo is basically fresh salsa, and a million miles away from the gloop you get in jars at the petrol station. This is deliberately a less watery version, but you can easily retain more juice if you want by not draining the tomatoes.

We're going to start with the Pico first, as that's also part of the Guac recipe. In both cases you want to give them a bit of time for the flavours to develop, so ideally whip these up an hour or so before you eat.

Dice the onion and jalapenos finely, and toss into a large bowl with the juice of half a lime and a pinch of salt. Let them sit while you do the tomatoes.

Take the tomatoes and slice into small chunks - the aim here is to try and keep as much flesh as possible while discarding all the extra juice. Roma/Plum tomatoes are great for this as they have way more flesh:juice than other tomatoes. In a pinch however, you can use any tomato, chop them up and then dump in a strainer in the sink to let the juice run off. If using cherry tomatoes you can also use the Jamie trick of crushing the poor little things in your hands over the sink before chopping them up (fair warning: this is a lot of fun, but a major stain hazard).

Add them to the onion and jalapenos, toss in a handful of chopped coriander, season to taste. It should have crunch, acid and heat. If it's too spicy it will mellow a bit over time but you can add some sugar to calm it down.

The guacamole is beautifully straightforward - stone three avocadoes, and roughly mash up the flesh with a fork. Just do this briefly, you want to keep a bit of texture without it turning into a smooth paste. Add the juice of the other half of the lime and the crushed garlic clove and mix. Toss a heaped spoon of Pico on top, and spinkle over cumin and cayenne pepper. Give the whole lot a quick mix and adjust seasoning as you like. Take a sheet of clingfilm and press it right down on top of the guac to push the air out, and leave at room temperature for 30 mins before serving.

Once you're ready to go, heat up a stack of 8 or so tortillas either in the microwave or wrapped in tinfoil in the oven. Get your accompaniments into small bowls, crack open some beers, and you are all set. Chuck another stack of tortillas on to warm up when you make short work of the first set.

P.S: everyone has different ways of doing their fajitas, from the contents to the folding. For me, my favourite order is cheese, meat, pico, guac. Start by folding the bottom up first, then bring the sides across and roll. Eat!