Skillet Chicken Fajitas

I've been trying a variety of marinades over the last several weeks so we can grill outside while the weather is nice. I came across this Skillet Chicken Fajitas recipe from my Cooks Country Meats cookbook and decided to give it a try. Needless to say, Dr. Sweetpea and I were blown away by how good these fajitas turned out. We grilled our chicken instead of cooking it on the stovetop but I'm willing to bet it's just as good cooked when it's cooked using a skillet. I'm posting the skillet version of the recipe below. If you're going to grill the chicken like we did, just cut the chicken into chunks before marinating. Then skewered the chunks on to a metal skewer and grilled until done. 

Skillet Chicken Fajitas

(Source: Cooks Illustrated Meat Cookbook)

1/4 cup vegetable oil

2 tablespoons lime juice

4 garlic cloves

1 1/2 teaspoons smoked paprika

1 teaspoon granulated sugar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Trim away any excess fat from the chicken breasts and pound them until they are 1/2″ thick. In a medium bowl, mix vegetable oil, lime juice, pressed garlic, paprika, sugar, salt, cumin, pepper, and cayenne together. Whisk to combine, add the chicken to the bowl and toss to evenly coat. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and allow to marinade at room temperature for 1 hour. Set skillet over high burner and preheat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil until it begins to smoke. Cook chicken for 4 minutes without moving; until the bottom becomes charred. Flip chicken, cook for 2 minutes until the chicken registers 150 degrees. Bake for about 10 minutes until chicken internal temperature of the chicken reaches 160 degrees Put cooked chicken on cutting board, tent loosely and allow to rest for 5 minutes. Don’t wash the skillet. Cut chicken cross-wise into 1/4″ wide slices. Put the chicken back into the skillet and coat slices with the juices remaining in the pan. When serving, put a few chicken slices in a warm flour tortilla. Put some vegetable mixture, cilantro on top. Squeeze a lime wedge.