Monday, September 8, 2008

Fajitas & Football!

After the heavy dinner we had earlier this week, I needed to make something a little more healthy & light.
The hubs signed me up for a fantasy football league and I have become obsessed. Seriously, in one week I have a serious problem. And it doesn't help that Tom Brady was my QB. Man Tom! I used to really like you.
Anyway, onto my food. I decided fajitas & football sounded good and easy. I found a recipe for a fajita marinade on foodnetwork.com. I usually just buy the packet, but realized I have all of these spices in my house. Being that it was a Paula Deen recipe, I knew it would be great!

Gold Medal Sizzling Fajitas
Paula Deen

1/4 cup vegetable oil, divided
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
Dash hot sauce (I used cayenne pepper in place of the the hot sauce
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 pounds meat (boneless, skinless chicken breast, skirt steak or peeled and deveined shrimp)
1 medium onion, halved and sliced lengthwise
1 green bell pepper, sliced
1 red bell pepper, sliced
8 (8-inch) flour tortillas
1 lime, juiced, for topping
Sour cream, for topping
Salsa, for topping
Guacamole, for topping
Cheddar cheese, shredded, for topping

In a heavy duty resealable plastic bag, combine 2 tablespoons of the vegetable oil, lemon juice, garlic, cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, hot sauce, salt, pepper and your choice of meat. Seal and toss the bag around to coat. Marinate in the refrigerator. *Cook's Note: 15 minutes for shrimp, 20 minutes for chicken and 1 hour for skirt steak.
Preheat your cast iron servers in a preheated 400 degree F oven for at least 20 minutes, to get a good sizzle when you plate the fajitas. I don't have these fancy skillet things.

Heat the outside grill or a large indoor grill pan to medium-high heat. Remove the meat from the marinade and place it on the hot grill, discard the marinade. Cook chicken until cooked through, about 5 minutes per side, skirt steak about 3 minutes per side for medium-rare and about 2 minutes for shrimp. Slice the chicken and steak into strips if you are using.


In a large skillet heat up the remaining 2 tablespoons vegetable oil and fry the onions and bell peppers until crisp-tender with some salt and pepper.

Wrap the tortillas in foil and warm them in the oven with the servers for 15 minutes.

When you are ready to serve, remove the cast iron servers from the oven and quickly arrange the meat and peppers and onions on it. It will immediately start to sizzle from their fat and moisture. Serve sizzling immediately with the warm tortillas and other accompaniments. I just served them on plate.

A few changes, I used green peppers, onions & mushrooms. They were so good & just the light meal I was looking for. I served them with the infamous mexi-rice.

1 comment:

What's Cookin Chicago said...

Looks wonderful! I love fajitas and this recipe sounds great!