Easy Chicken Fajitas – A Beautiful Mess

If you want a fast, easy and healthy dinner option, then you need to make these easy chicken fajitas. These can be made and ready to serve in under 30 minutes with just four ingredients, plus serving items (like salsa, tortillas, etc.). I love to serve these chicken fajitas over rice, for an easy rice bowl situation.

When I think of fajitas, I can’t help but picture a sizzling hot plate being delivered to our table at a Mexican or Tex-Mex-style restaurant. Traditional fajitas were originally made with skirt steak most often, which is where the name comes from. Fajitas translates to something like “little sashes” or “little belts,” which referred to the skirt steak, or strips of meat, bell peppers and onion the dish is typically made of. Most often at our house we use chicken.

Related: Next up, learn to make homemade enchiladas or quesadillas or other easy weeknight dinner options.

Ingredients

• Boneless skinless chicken breasts
• Bell peppers – I like to use 3 different colors
• Onion – I use white but yellow or red onion work well too
• Fajita seasoning
• Oil

For serving, I typically include flour tortillas or rice, as well as salsa, pico de gallo, guacamole, sour cream and shredded cheese.

How to make Fajitas

First, slice up the bell peppers and onion into thin strips. Place in a bowl and toss in 1/3 of the fajita seasoning.

Cut up the chicken into thin strips. Place in a bowl and toss in the remaining fajita seasoning.

Add a tablespoon of oil to the pan and over medium/high heat pan fry the bell peppers and onion until softened. Avoid stirring or disturbing them much so they can develop a little charred bits here and there. Then remove them from the pan, which will take about 3 minutes.

Now, add the chicken and cook for about 2 minutes on each side until the pieces all look cooked through, about 8-10 minutes. Use a meat thermometer in the thickest piece to check that the internal temperature reaches 160°F. If you do not have a meat thermometer, you can check the chicken by cutting open the largest, thickest piece to make sure it’s cooked through.

Once the chicken is done, add the peppers and onions back into the pan so everything gets warm. Serve with whatever accompaniments you like.

Tips and Notes

• I like to use olive oil most of the time in cooking, but any cooking oil will do fine here.
• You can swap the chicken for steak. Keep in mind steak does not necessarily need to be as thoroughly cooked through as chicken, so you can cut down the cook time by a few minutes.
• Fajitas are best the day they are made IMO. But you can store any leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for at least 2 days. Rewarm on the stove top or in the microwave.

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