Monday, January 7, 2013

Oven Baked Chicken Fajitas - Winner Winner, Chicken Dinner!

This my friends is a whole 9 x 13 baking dish of goodness.  Yes it is.  Oven baked chicken fajitas that are so good, they knocked my other recipes from the weekend right off the docket.  How is that for a Monday?  You know what the song says, Monday, Monday, can't trust that day.  That is not always true.  This Monday worked out quite well.  By the way, hope you had a wonderful, restful weekend.

There were 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts in the fridge that needed to be turned into something.  On my recipe pin board on Pinterest was a recipe for oven baked chicken fajitas that I had been meaning to try for quite some time.  It is from a blog called Life As a Lofthouse@blogspot.com.  I made a few tweaks, but let me tell you this is a super hit!  A winner!  A keeper!  A we will be making these again recipe.  Some recipes I try from Pinterest are winners, others not so much.  Guess you can tell how I feel about this one.  They are as good as restaurant fajitas.

Tex-Mex is my favorite food.  I like Vietnamese, Thai, and Mediterranean a lot, but Tex-Mex is my first choice every time if I get a choice.  You know when you are sitting in a Mexican restaurant and they come out of the kitchen with a sizzling hot pan of fajitas and the smell of the onions and peppers waft through the air and you wish you had ordered that instead of enchiladas?  That's how your house will smell when you make this recipe.  Yeppers.  A winner.

This took only about 45 minutes to prepare which is awesome.  It's quick, easy and deeeeee-licious.
Here is what you need:

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into thin strips
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp garlic powder (I used two cloves garlic minced)
1 15 oz can diced tomatoes with green chilies, drained
1 large onion sliced (I cut mine in half, then sliced in half moons)
1/2 red bell pepper sliced in thin strips
1/2 green bell pepper sliced in thin strips (my peppers were huge, if yours are small use the whole pepper)
12 small flour tortillas

Toppings (your choice, use what you like)

grated cheese
shredded lettuce
chopped cilantro
salsa/diced fresh tomatoes
sour cream
diced avocados/guacamole
I added hot sauce to mine

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.  Spray a 9 x 13 baking dish with non stick cooking spray.

Put chicken strips into dish along with onions, peppers and tomatoes with chilies.  Mix the olive oil and spices in a bowl  Pour the mixture evenly over the chicken/peppers mix in the baking dish.  Toss to coat everything in the dish.

Bake uncovered for 30-35 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.  I took ours out at 30 minutes while the peppers were still crunchy. (That's the way I like them) Bake 5 minutes more if you want yours softer.

Heat your tortillas and start filling them up!  Here is a picture of one of our filled tortillas.

Doesn't that look delicious?  So colorful.  Yumalicious!  Makes my mouth water looking at it.  We enjoyed ours with black beans and tortilla chips with queso dip.  Just like a restaurant only better!

This recipe makes a huge pan of fajitas.  It really was way too much for the two of us.  We will be eating left overs tomorrow and maybe Wednesday which is quite okay.  It would be simple to cut this recipe in half and still have plenty to feed 2/3 people.  My calculations say you could easily get 12 or more fajitas from this recipe.

Remember this recipe when the Superbowl comes around.  It's easy and so good.  Everyone will love it.  Remember this recipe when you want something for a crowd, or your family, or just because you want fajitas.  Yeah, Monday definitely won this round.  I love when that happens.

Everyday Donna

Things to Remember: