Chicken Fajitas

In the cookbook I got this recipe from, the picture of the fajitas had always drawn my eye. They looked all colourful and bright and happy, HAHA! I've never had a fajita before, I've never even had Mexican food before! But I decided, I want those fajitas, hehe. So, here we go!

What you need:
3 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
3 tablespoons maple syrup or clear honey
1 tablespoon vinegar (I used rice vinegar)
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1-2 teaspoons dried chilli flakes
Salt and pepper
6 boneless skinless chicken thighs
1 red pepper and 1 green pepper, deseeded and cut into 1 inch strips
6 plain tortillas, warmed
Guacomole, soured cream, salsa and iceberg lettuce, to serve

What you do:

1. Place the oil, maple syrup, vinegar, garlic, oregano, chilli flakes and salt and pepper to taste in a large bowl and mix together.
2. Slice the chicken into i-inch thick slices. Toss in the marinade until well coated. Cover and leave to chill in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours, turning occasionally.
3. Heat a frying pan until hot. Lift the chicken slices from the marinade with a slotted spoon, lay on the griddle pan and cook over medium-high heat for 3-4 minutes on each side, or until cooked through. Remove the chicken to serving plate and keep warm.
4. Add the peppers, skin side down, to the pan and cook for 2 minutes on each side. Transfer to the serving plate.
5. Serve immediately with the warmed tortillas to be used as wraps. Serve accompaniments separately.

The boys really really really liked this. They claimed that this is my best dish ever. Excluding even buttermilk chicken? Hmmm, I find that doubtful. :P I think, the reason they were so enamored of it was because it was quite different from what we usually have, i.e. Asian-based cooking. We've never had Mexican food before, and Western-based dishes are quite rare, so this was a "breath of fresh air", as Justin put it. Or maybe that was just all the peppers, hehe. Plus, its chock full of chicken so being the meat-lovers they are, of course they would like it. I bet they would have liked it even better if it was beef. :P

Actually, I have to admit that this wasn't quite my taste at all. Eating it was quite funky, reminded me of our home-made kebabs, hehe. Assembling the fajita was quite fun as well. But I didn't like the overall taste all that much. First, the chicken was a bit bland. I added some more salt while cooking the chicken, but didn't seem to help all that much, weirdly enough. The chilli flakes gave a nice zing to it, but I didn't quite like the oregano very much. Its nice on pasta, but its a bit weird here for me. Hadi couldn't even taste it, heh.

And yes, I bet some of you readers would be surprised, but I ate the chicken with the bell peppers as well. For my first fajita anyway. I don't *really* like bell peppers, but I've eaten them before so I can take a bit, I guess, heh. They taste a bit weird for me, sweet yet... I don't know... Not my taste, really. So no second helpings for me, hehe. The boys like bell peppers though, so they had no problem finishing up.

The recipe suggests FOUR different things to serve the fajitas with. Because of the salad side-dish, this was already quite an expensive dinner. (The fajitas themselves though, were relatively cheap.) So I picked only one of them and decided to buy a jar of salsa (Old El Paso Chunky Salsa). I bought the supposedly "hot" flavour, but the boys complained that it wasn't spicy at all. Even for me, when I had a taste. Which means its really not spicy at all (I can't take much spiciness). So... is it because it was adapted for Western tastes, or because Mexican food is really not spicy at all? Who knows :P But anyway, the salsa was still very flavoursome and added quite a lot of flavour, so the boys finished the whole jar anyway. Oh, and if you're interested, Cookie Monster has a recipe for guacamole which he is quite proud of, I think. ;)

On the whole, I thought it was a rather interesting dinner. The boys, for sure, enjoyed it a lot. I probably won't be making this again (unless I change the seasoning or something, but then it might taste a bit Asian, haha!) but I'm pretty sure that most of you out there would like it. So don't be afraid to give it a try! :D

Quote of the day: He that eats till he is sick must fast till he is well.