Fajita-style chicken tacos

Technically, fajita translates as “little belt” and referred to the cut of beef from which the original Rio Grande dish was made. So unless your dish is made from a skirt-steak, you don't have a fajita, and there is no such thing as a chicken fajita. Of course, over time, the names of traditional dishes take on new meaning, and you can find a “chicken fajita” on bar and diner menus across the country.

So this layman's interpretation of fajita usually only means a sizzling plate of thinly-sliced fixins to be tossed in a tortilla wrap. The platter will usually be brought to the table still crackling as the strips of meat, along with ubiquitous bell peppers and onions are seared. Other fixins such as cheese, sour cream, salsa, and pico de gallo are served on the side. Assembly is usually done at the table.

This latter interpretation of fajita was the inspiration for tonight's dinner. A fairly light, easy dish that is especially enjoyable on a warm summer evening, but which can be enjoyed year-round of course.

I started with a large onion, skinned, and then halved. Cut in half from top to bottom, rather than around the waist of the onion. The grain of the rings should now be “c” shaped. I reserved one half of the large onion for later use. The other half, I layed flat side down, and sliced into thin strips. Again, look at the grain of the onion before slicing, and then slice so that you wind up with a big pile of half-rings which will flatten into nice strips with a little canola oil in a hot frying pan. But not just yet. First we have to slice up the bell peppers to go along with the onion in the hot pan.

You could get away with using only one color of bell pepper, but I prefer the variety in flavor and appearance of using both a red and a green bell pepper. Adding an orange bell pepper to the mix could be fun too. (Don't use yellow for this though, it takes on a sort of sickly color when fried.) Halve each pepper lengthwise, de-seed, and rinse. Make sure you get that little sticker with the PLU number off too. Now halve each half again lengthwise, then each quarter, then each eighth so you wind up with a nice pile of thin pepper strips.

In a large frying pan, pour in a fair amount of canola oil (or perhaps some other cooking oil if you prefer) and crank up the heat. But how do we know when the oil is hot enough? Here's a little trick. I rinse my hand under water and then give a good shake toward the hot pan. If the water droplets crackle and pop real good when they hit the oil, it's hot enough for frying. If nothing happens, give it another minute or two and try again. Be careful you don't get splattered though. Cold water in hot oil will crackle like Pop-Rocks and you really don’t want any of that hot oil to hit your skin.

When the oil is hot, slide in all your strips of pepper and onion for some good sizzle action. Stir occasionally. I find it preferable to leave them slightly undercooked, a little more firm rather than mushy. They will continue to soften a bit after being removed from the heat as well.

Next we have the chicken strips. I used some chicken tenderloins that I had in the freezer and thawed out. One or two packages, depending on how many servings you will need. I always like to cook enough to have plenty of leftovers anyway, so two packs is probably what you will need. Each tenderloin I sliced lengthwise into four strips. Tenderloins can be expensive, so feel free to substitute with thinly sliced strips of whole boneless chicken breast. I am actually a big fan of dark meat chicken, but for this recipe white meat is preferable.

Now we are going to fry the chicken strips in a a nice layer of canola oil the way we did the peppers and onion. Or at the same time in another pan if you can multitask a little. Fry until fully cooked, or do like I did, and kick things up a little bit with some seasonings. Give a good dusting of chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, crushed black pepper, oregano, and parsley. Depending on what you have on hand and how spicy you like things, you might also try adding other herbs and spices such as cilantro, cayenne pepper, ancho chili powder, chipotle, etc. I try to stay away from salt for the sake of a salt-sensitive family member, but a few shakes might make it a little more savory as well.

With the chicken fully cooked, I went ahead and fried some flour tortillas in another pan of hot oil. Some folks might prefer just a warm steamed tortilla wrap, but I like the taste and crispiness of a lightly fried tortilla. This is how I fry tortilla for my more traditional tacos too.

Lay the tortilla in the pan, and fry until golden brown. The tortilla may puff up, not to worry. You can stick a fork in it if you really find that unnerving, or you are getting an uneven fry. Keeping an eye on the edges will help you gauge how done it is on the first side, but peeking will do no harm either. Be careful not to overcook. We are looking for it to be a little crispy, but not actually crunchy. Don't forget, we still have to fold this thing when it is done. Some people choose to only fry one side for this reason, but I go ahead and fry both sides, using a regular metal (not plastic) pancake turner to flip them. Fried to a nice golden-brown, fold the tortilla over in half as you lay it on a paper towel to cool and drain.

Now the assembly. You can either serve already assmpled, or just put out the fixins and let the family and/or guests put them together themselves. Take a nice spoonful of sour cream and smear it inside the folded tortilla. Lay in a few of the seasoned chicken strips next. Top that with shredded cheese. I used cheddar tonight, but Monterrey-Jack would be great no doubt, or maybe something like the Mexican 4-cheese blend that I can get pre-shredded in a bag at my supermarket. Top that with some jarred salsa, or maybe some fresh pico-de-gallo if you prefer, maybe even a few rings of sliced jalapenos for more kick. Then top all of that now with strips of peppers and onion.

There you have it, fajita-style tacos. Not too time consuming, not too much skill required, and fun at the dinner-table while everyone puts their tacos together. And as I said earlier, though very flavorful, it's not a very rich and heavy dish which makes it ideal for a summertime meal, lunch or dinner.

Now go git your sizzle on!

Chicken Tenderloin Dinner

I suppose this is sort of three or four recipes in one. We are going to dress some veggies, spice some taters, and make a nice creamy Parmesan herb sauce for our chicken tenderloins.

I put the veggies on last, but let's get that out of the way first here since it's the easiest part. For this dinner I used one bag of frozen mixed cauliflower, broccoli and sliced carrots. You might also try some Italian green beans or some snap peas if you prefer or want to switch it up for a rerun. Go ahead and heat them up in a pan like you would normally, but instead of adding a little butter, we are going to give the veggies a little douse of a sundried tomato vinaigrette. A sundried tomato pesto could work nicely too. Of course, making your own dressing is much healthier without all the preservatives and trans-fatty oils, but I admit that I usually buy this off the shelf in the bottle. Easy to keep a bottle on hand in the cupboard to use when you are throwing a dinner together as quickly and painlessly as possible. If you would rather steam your veggies, go for it, and then just toss them in a little dressing before serving. You shouldn't need more than, oh, a few tablespoonfuls I guess. Be careful not to overpower the flavor in your veggies tho, the dressing is an accent, not a topper.

Now we're gonna fix up some taters. Redskin potatoes worked really well for the meal and are a real tasty spud, but you may have your own preference or want to work with what you have on hand. I halved the taters and boiled for a bit, but not fully done. I then quartered the halves and tossed them into a pan of hot canola oil for some sizzle action with a little black pepper and red chili powder. (The fresh cracked pepper may be a little too coarse, make sure you have a nice fine powder of pepper.) Once you get them browned up to your liking, the spuds are ready. If they are done before you are ready to plate, toss them on a baking sheet to keep warm in the oven. Alternately, I'm sure you could bake the wedges to a crisp in the oven after giving them a little drizzle of oil and dusted with spices.

Breast tenderloins are usually not on my grocery list because they are more expensive than other cuts, but I got a heck of a bargain on these and bought about six or eight packages to toss in the freezer. This is a white meat cut, smaller than the breast. We are going to cook them much like a “chicken finger” but rather then deep frying, we are going to bread them and pan fry them in a a little canola oil. The Italian-seasoned bread crumbs are best for this, and most other uses for that matter. If you only have plain bread crumbs, you can add some herbs, maybe a little salt and pepper, and even a punch of grated cheese. One at a time we are going to give each tenderloin an eggwash and then dredge in the bread crumbs, then lay them down in a hot pan coated generously with canola oil. I used a big electric frying pan doused with oil. Let them sizzle up nicely til nice and brown, and flip.

Since tenderloins are a lot thinner and more narrow than a breast, they don't take long to cook and you really shouldn’t have to worry much about getting the inside up to proper temp. As long as they have tightened up a bit so that they aren't floppy and are browned up nicely on each side, you can take them out and lay them down on a paper towel to soak up any excess oils.

When I fry the tenderloins this way, I always make a bunch, two or three pans full so that I have plenty of leftovers. Again, you may want to keep them warm by holding in the oven. The leftovers are great for seconds, a snack later on, or to be refrigerated to use in the next couple of days. I have used the leftovers cold to slice up and put on a salad, or you can warm them back up in a toaster oven where they should get nice and crispy again to serve as chicken fingers with a dipping sauce.

Speaking of sauce, now we come to the creamy Parmesan herb sauce. I use an electric fondue pot for this. I usually go ahead and make extra on this too. (If you didn't notice already, I am a big fan of cooking plenty so that there are plenty of leftovers in the fridge to make other light meals out of and to remix the applications.) Keep the temperature low so we don't burn the sauce at all. We will start by melting some butter in the pan. Then we will pour in a small container of heavy cream and bring that up to temperature, steaming, maybe bubbling a little. Finally, we add a bag of shredded Parmesan cheese. You could also shred your own Parmesan of course, but I don't use the best, most expensive stuff when making sauces. I use the good stuff sparingly, usually to dust over a plate of pasta or something just before serving.

Okay, so now we have the basic sauce going. Keep on stirring as the shredded cheese melts into the butter and cream. I went ahead and used two bags of cheese this last time. Keep more heavy cream on hand to add in slowly in order to get a nice constituency. Not too thick, not too thin. It may reduce a little as you are cooking it, and if you happen to add to much cream, continue to cook for a while in order to reduce and thicken up the sauce. A little flour will also help it to thicken. In fact, you might want to add a little anyway to get a rich consistency.

Time to add the herbs and seasoning. Garlic powder, onion powder, parsley, basil, oregano. Be careful not to overseason it, you can always add a few extra bumps to taste. I wound up adding a good extra shot of the garlic powder especially, but you don't want to overpower the flavor of the cheese, or the concert of herbs. All the while, you should keep stirring regularly so that the sauce doesn't stick and burn.

Plate your veggies, redskins, and chicken strips, then drizzle the chicken with the herb-cream sauce. Some may enjoy the sauce over their seasoned potatoes as well.

Now pardon the pictures here, bad lighting and a cheap camera-phone don't make very appealing food pics, but here is the plate I made up for my Mom...

Here is what you should pick up at the grocery store:

A bag of frozen vegetables (mixed broccoli, cauliflower, carrots), a bottle of sundried tomato dressing, a bag of redskin potatoes, chicken tenderloins, Italian bread crumbs, eggs, shredded Parmesan cheese, heavy cream, butter.

If you don't have these in your pantry you will also need:

Canola oil, chili powder, salt, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, parsley, basil, and oregano.

Funky Mojo Wings

I likes me some wings, but why the heck are they do dang expensive? Making them at home is almost as much as buying them from the local pizza shop. Which is probably why this was the first time I actually made wings at home. Well that, and I didn't want to go to all the trouble until I came up with something unique. I didn't want to just smother them in bottled BBQ sauce, and I'm not really a fan of things that are too spicy, so smothering them in hot sauce was off the plate too. But when I saw a bottle of new Chipotle Mojo on the shelf at the grocery store for the first time, it quickly became clear that the time had come.

I got a bag of frozen separated wings, about two dozen or so, and put them into a plastic container when I got home. I poured the entire bottle of Mojo over the wings, and then placed in the fridge to marinate and thaw. As timing went here at home they wound up marinating for about 48 hours before I got back to them, but I would go ahead and let them marinate overnight anyway, especially if they are still frozen of course. You could also give them a shake or flip the container once in a while to make sure they stay covered in sauce while marinating.

Traditional Buffalo wings are deep fried, but to be honest I really don't like them that way. They get leathery and dried out more than they get crispy, so I decided to pan fry mine in an electric frying pan. (Grilled might work nicely for this too.) I glazed the bottom of the pan with canola oil and brought it up to temp, about 350F-degrees or so. I laid down each wing individually, so they weren't all bunched up. You want them all making contact with the pan. I poured a little extra sauce over them, covered, and simmered for about 7 or 8 minutes. Turn, then give them another 7 or 8 minutes.

At this point, I poured off most of the excess from the pan which was a little easier since the wings were sticking to the pan a little. This is a good thing. In fact, we're really going to get them to stick now deliberately, end even start to burn a little. Once you have poured off most of the excess, sprinkle with a dusting of granulated sugar. Turn sugared side down, and sprinkle the other side as you let them sizzle (un-covered now.). Letting them stick to the pan like this, it's going to be hard to not break the skin, but do your best to avoid that, and keep that blackened chipotle goodness hanging on there. I got up under each wing with a regular old pancake flipper. One they are blackened up to your liking, and the sauce is really stuck to them, the wings 'r done man. You should also see the meat just starting to pull away from the bone a little on the drumettes, which will help to verify that they are done all the way through.

Tasting the sauce from the bottle, I was pretty worried that the wings were going to be way too spicy for my liking. The chipotle gave a really deep lingering heat, but as they turned out, they were right on. Some heat, but not enough to make your eyes water or scorch out the flavors. If you really are more of a fire-eater, dribble on some Tobasco or other hot sauce at the end. But the slow-burn of the chipotle should be enough to get your nose running a little without actually being painful.

Bleu cheese dressing is the traditional coolant for wings, so let's go ahead and add the funk to these awesome Mojo Chipotle bad boys. The first time out of the gate, I was not about to stink up my wings with some bottled dressing, and made up my own bleu cheese dressing to dunk. Not too hard to make at all, and oh, so much better than the bottled crap. In a bowl mix at about a 50/50 ration spoonfuls of mayo and sour cream. Fold in crumbled blue cheese. I didn't bother with anything too expensive and found a small tub of it already crumbled for a good price, though some blue cheese can get really expensive. Now we are going to thin it out just a bit with some buttermilk. This is the real funk folks. Buttermilk sounds like it would be sweet and satiny, but actually the opposite is true. Buttermilk tastes and smells like sour milk. Pungent. Mix a little of that in, and your dipping sauce is done. Of course, you can do this while your wings are cooking too, or ahead of time to chill in the fridge. Serving it fresh mixed will give max funk though.

Don't want the dip so funky? You might try a little regular milk, or heavy cream rather than the buttermilk. Don't have sour cream? Try yogurt instead. Don't like blue cheese at all? Get a packet of ranch seasoning and sprinkle that in rather than the blue cheese. Or you might try using Parmesan cheese instead. All of these ideas I might run through sometime in the future. Or if you try them, leave a comment and let me know how it turned out for ya.

Make it a meal by serving with a bowl of sweet corn or some corn on the cob, some rice and beans, or maybe mini-pizzas. 

Here's what to pick up at the store:

1 bag of frozen, separated chicken wings. 1 bottle of Goya brand Mojo Chipotle marinade. Pick up some granulated sugar and canola oil too if you don't have any at home.

For the dip you will need:

Blue cheese, mayonnaise, sour cream, buttermilk.

Spinach Fettuccine alla Chicken Carbonara

I made this for the first time tonight. It was a bit of work, but came out absolutely fantastic. It is a very rich, delicious, and very filling dish. The original versions of Carbonara first appeared during World War II, so it is a relatively new dish in the pantheon of Italian cuisine. The authentic Italian version is somewhat different though, than how it is made throughout the rest of the world today. One key difference is the use of cream outside of Italy, creating more of a sauce We will be making a more popularized, counterfeit version this time rather than the authentic Roman one. But don't worry, authenticity is only subjective. Just ask any pizza-maker outside of NY, lol.

Bacon. I used a nice big electric frying pan to fry a package of smoked bacon. Different variations may use panchetta, or any sort of cured pork, but we Americans do have a certain love affair with bacon and it has become the standard for how most folks recognize the dish here in the States. Guanciale is the authentic meat if you want to give that a shot. Fry the bacon pretty well so that it will be easy to crumble later, but no need to burn it or shrink it to shoelaces. Let the strips drain on a paper towel. It took me about three rounds to cook the whole package. Do not drain the bacon grease from the pan.

Instead, we are going to use that grease to pan fry our chicken. Chicken actually has nothing to do with a Carbonara recipe, but it has become a pairing as ubiquitous as bacon. I had, oh, six or eight breast halves I guess it was. First I separated out the tenderloin from each breast, then sliced both pieces across into chunks the width of my pinky or so. Try to maintain some continuity in the size of the chunks you slice so that it will cook evenly. There was enough chicken to fill my electric fry pan. Cook through, but I left it just a tad underdone, to keep it juicy, since it will be resting for a bit. We don't want it dried out when it's time to finally serve. Remove the chicken from the pan and put in a covered container to keep warm for now.

Now the pan is filled with bacon grease and chicken juices. Go ahead and use that to fry some onion in. I chopped up a white onion into fairly small bits, but later only used about half the onion for this recipe. Cook on high heat then let it stick and blacken just a tad as it caramelizes a bit too. I squeezed it against the side of the pan to drain some of the juices off, before putting the fried onion in a small container and covered it.

Next, in the same pan, we will fry a package of sliced Baby Bella mushrooms. Not a necessary or authentic component, but a variation which is common, especially in America, and a tasty variation it is. Let them sear a little in what is left of the grease and the little pieces left in the pan of all that came before, but don't over cook. The mushrooms sucked up most of the fluid left in the pan at that point. Scrape them on out of the pan and put them in another covered dish.

Now we are going to make our sauce. This is really where authentic and popularized Carbonara go their separate ways. The only “sauce” in the authentic version is beaten egg yolk. Instead, we are making what amounts to an Alfredo sauce. Egg yolk is a primary component in a Carbonara recipe, yet is often omitted entirely in these cream versions, as it takes some flair to execute properly. The yolk must remain raw so that it does not turn to lumps of scrambled egg in the sauce. I too was a bit intimidated, and decided to cheat this first time out as well. So here we go.

In my fondue pot I poured in a medium container of heavy cream. The next size up from the pint size, so I guess maybe two pints it was. Add a half stick of butter to slowly melt. You don't want much heat, don't let it burn at all. I added some whole milk as well, knowing that the incoming cheese was going to thicken it all up.

Yup, go ahead and pour the cheese into the cream now. Pecorino or Parmesan are both traditional and the standard of the westernized version. You can spend a fortune on real good cheese, but I just used store brand shredded Parmesan, which is all you really need. Expensive stuff would be a waste of money here I think. Save the good stuff to dust the dish at the end. Keep stirring and allow two packages to melt into the cream and butter. Season the sauce with parsley, garlic powder, and fresh cracked pepper. I didn't go too crazy with the seasoning, you can always add more later to taste.

Next I added a few spoonfuls of the fried onion bits. They have a lot of flavor and are sweet, so don't go too crazy with those either. I didn't think I used all that much, but it nearly overpowered the sauce. My restraint paid off.

Go ahead and mix in your mushrooms and chicken. Any juices too, left in the holding dishes, go right in. I was worried that the sauce might have been a little too thin, but it was perfect in the end product. Make sure you have kept stirring all the while, not letting the sauce stick or burn. Again, keep the heat low, just enough so that everything melts, and then turn it off. It will stay warm enough for a few minutes while you attend to other steps now.

Crumble your bacon, but don't add it to the sauce. We want it to stay as crispy as possible.

While I was making the sauce, I brought a pot of water up to boil for the pasta. People have all sorts of preferences, any pasta will do really. Spaghetti is actually the traditional cut for the authentic version. I wanted to use fettuccine, since the broad, flat noodle plays well with heavy sauces. At the last minute I saw a box of spinach fettuccine and guessed right that it would play off the richness of the dish so very well. It really grounded the richness of the dish, but you can use a regular semolina pasta as most folks do, if that's all you have or really can't stand spinach. I am not really a big fan of spinach at all, but as I said, it brought a fantastic counterpoint to the richness and widened the taste profile considerably. Once it is cooked, go ahead and drain, then return to the pan.

Pour some sauce over the pasta. Don't drown it. You will have more than enough sauce too. I used less than half of what I had made for one box of fettuccine. Stir, so that the sauce coats all of the pasta, maybe wuth a little low heat under the pan. Dish into a shallow pasta bowl. You won't need a huge portion at all, it is very filling. I took a few more pieces of chicken and mushroom to top the pasta for an eye-appealing presentation. Throw on some crumbled bacon and give a few good shakes of grated cheese. I used a Parmesan-Romano blend that had just enough saltiness that I didn't need to add salt. We're almost there now, but cover your serving for just a moment to keep them warm or hold them in a warm oven perhaps.

Now this is how I got around having to separate eggs and worrying about them overcooking, while being somewhat true to a real carbonara. I decided to do a bit of a “de-contsruct.” Fry an egg in a non-stick pan for each dish you plan to serve. Me and Mom eating tonight, so I put two eggs in the pan and covered. Do not over cook. You want to warm them up enough, but that yolk you want to keep as runny as possible without the egg being slimy. Now we are going to trim the eggs, using a cookie cutter if you have one the right size. I used a small glass. Trim the yolk out with a band of egg white around the outside being careful not to break the yolk.

Set each trimmed yolk right on top of your plated pasta, and serve immediately, with some garlic bread on the side. Break the yolk when you dig in, so that it oozes out into your pasta. Magnifico!

From the grocery store you may need: Spinach fettuccine, chicken breast, bacon, mushrooms, onion, shredded Parmesan as well as grated cheese, heavy cream, butter, eggs, parsley, garlic powder, black pepper, bread.

EDIT for NOTE:

The sauce does not keep well, breaks and turns oily. Only make enough for what you are serving. But your chicken, mushrooms, onion and bacon can have portions reserved for later use when you make another batch of cheeses sauce.