Fabulous Fajitas

Wednesday, August 20, 2008, by Leigh Anne

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As I promised yesterday, today I am sharing the yummy dinner we had for Jim’s birthday celebration.

Because of his Meiner’s Disease (an inner ear condition that causes terrible episodes of vertigo and hearing loss) Jim is on a special diet.

The doctor’s have put him on the Zone Diet. If you are not familiar with it, the basic concept is that you always eat a protein, fat and carbohydrate together and you eat 5-6 small meals throughout the day.

The diet has really helped his condition - he was having episodes every two weeks and hasn’t had one since he began the diet two months ago. The side benefit of the diet is that you lower your cholesterol and lose weight! He’s lost over 15 pounds so far.

Cooking for him has become a bit of a challenge. One thing he can eat though is fajitas (without the tortilla).

So for his birthday I made these fabulous fajitas - a recipe I found over at Our Best Bite.

I have made lots of different fajita recipes and I have to say this will now be my “Go To” recipe for Fajitas - they are fabulous!

Fajita marinade
1/4 C fresh lime juice
1/3 C water
2 T vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic , pressed or finely minced
3 t vinegar
2 t soy sauce
1/2 t liquid smoke* (I used 1 tsp.)
1 t salt
1/2 t chili powder
1/2 t cayenne pepper
1/4 t ground black pepper
1/4 t onion powder
*If you’re not familiar with liquid smoke, you can find it near the bbq sauces in a small bottle And please don’t make this without it! It’s definitely one of the key components. It makes things yummy and smoky and super flavorful. And if you’re wondering, it actually is real smoke in liquid form.

For the Fajitas:
Boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 3-4 large ones). Steak is also great.
Bell Peppers (about 3 large ones) I used a red, orange and yellow.

1 Onion, I used a Walla Walla Sweet Onion.

Mix all the marinade ingredients together and place in a zip-lock bag. Before you put the meat in, reserve a little marinade to use at the end.(about 1/4 a cup) Then toss in the chicken or steak, and bell peppers and onions or if you want more marinade for the meat do not include the peppers and onions. Just coat them with some olive oil and salt before griling. Marinade for at least 4 hours, but longer if possible. Then grill outside on the bbq, or indoors on a skillet (cast iron is best) or grill pan. Use the reserved marinade from the bag to baste meat as you cook. (This is not the 1/4 cup you reserved)

Here are some tips from Our Best Bites to help make your fajitas truly fabulous!

1. I usually double the marinade, or 1 1/2 it because I have this weird thing where I like to see my meat swimming. Once it’s all combined, immediately reserve about 1/4 cup, and set it aside.

2. I then butterfly my chicken, or pound it thinner, because that increases the marinade-to-chicken ratio! 3. I toss all of the meat in the bag of marinade, but leave the peppers and onions out. Only reason being that I usually want all of the marinade for the meat (see above weirdness), and the veggies get a splash of it at the end with the marinade I reserved. But if you have enough marinade, go ahead and do the veggies too. 4. I slice my onion into about 1/2 inch slices, and leave the slices in tact. Then I quarter the peppers. 5 When they’re ready to grill I toss the veggies with a little olive oil and salt and pepper if I haven’t included them in the marinade.When everything is cooked slice the meat, peppers and onions into strips. Combine in a bowl and pour in the reserved marinade (do not use the liquid that the chicken was marinading in.Serve with tortillas (I used the uncooked tortillas from Costco and cook them up fresh!)

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