Chicken fajitas

While we’re on the Mexican train, fajitas are a close second to the Chicken and Rice Burritos in our house.

It’s pretty simple – for those new to cooking Mexican from scratch, some of the ingredients might sound a bit weird, but just go with it! 

Ingredients:

3 chicken breasts

Grated rind and juice of two limes

2 teaspoon dried oregano

½ teaspoon cayenne pepper (skip this if you don’t want it too spicy)

2 tablespoons caster sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 onions, diced

3 capsicums of varying colour, sliced

Eight tortillas

To serve with:

Guacamole

Tomato, onion, basil salsa to serve

Sour cream

Method:

Slice the chicken breasts into strips

Mix up the lime, oregano, caster sugar, cayenne and cinnamon – put the chicken in here and mix well. Leave to marinate for half an hour.

If you’re planning to heat up the tortillas in the oven, preheat the oven now, and wrap the tortillas in foil. Pop them in when you start cooking the chicken. If you prefer to use the microwave, you can wit until the chicken mix is nearly done.

After the half an hour of marinating, heat a frypan with a little oil and cook the chicken for about five minutes, then add the onions and capsicums. Cook for another four or so minutes until chicken and veges are all cooked.

It’s ready to serve – the chicken mix in the tortillas with sour cream, guacamole and salsa – any combination of these, as simple or as complex as you like.

Burritos with chicken and rice

Mexican food is pretty much the latest fad everywhere we go. Hipster bars are popping up all over the country. And since I find forking out $12 for a taco to be a bit excessive (especially when my man could chow down quite a few) I got myself a good Mexican cookbook and starting making a few recipes up.

The first thing I realised is – Mexican food is awesome! It’s fresh, has heaps of herbs and spices, and can be prepared super fast.

This recipe is one that has quickly shot to the top of the favourites list.

Ingredients:

1 cup cooked rice

2 chicken breasts

1 onion, diced

1 garlic clove, diced

½ teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 can chopped tomatoes

1 capsicum, diced

12 mushrooms, chopped

8 tortillas

Optionals for serving: grated cheese, sour cream, mashed avocado

Method:

Put the chicken breasts in a saucepan of water, bring to the boil and simmer for about 10 minutes. Once cooked, lift it out of the pan and allow to cool on a plate.

Preheat the oven to 170C

Meanwhile, in a frypan, heat a little oil and add in the onion, cloves, garlic and oregano, frying for three minutes. Stir in the capsicum, mushrooms, rice and tinned tomatoes, and cook over a low heat for about 10 minutes.

Wrap the tortillas in foil, and place in the oven  for about five minute, or place in the microwave for about a minute to soften.

Shred the chicken using two forks, then add it into the mixture.

Spoon the mixture into the centre of each of the tortillas, folding both sides over the middle, ten folding over the remaining two sides to form a square-ish block. Use a toothpick to secure them in place. (NOTE: If you like things a bit cheesy, add a bit of grated cheese inside the tortillas and it’ll be all melty.)

Pop each of the tortillas on a tray as you make them and place them in the oven, keeping them warm.

Serve with the sour cream or avocado – also goes well with just a simple salad.

Mexican-inspired peanut chicken and potatoes

I came across this recipe in my go-to Mexican cookbook. But, as usual, I didn't have all the ingredients so I adapted it to suit my pantry. It didn't require a lot of altering, and it was still damn delicious, so I thought I would post the recipe, with my alterations, so you can see how you go. 


Ingredients
2 chicken breasts, cut into chunks
4 potatoes, sliced 
1 onion, sliced
1/2 cup peanuts OR 1/4 cup peanut butter
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon cumin
2.5 cups chicken or vegetable stock
salt and pepper, to season
rice with or without veges to serve

(The recipe also called for 2 boiled eggs, sliced to serve, as well as 2 pork loins chopped into chunks, cooked the same as the chicken, and added the same time as the chicken. On this thinking, you could also have this as a pork-based dish, or have both the chicken and pork in there together.)

Brown the chicken in a heavy-based frypan. Once cooked through, set aside in a bowl. (if using pork as well, do the same)
cook the onions in the same frypan for about five minutes. 
add the potatoes, stirring for about two minutes.
add the paprika, garlic and cumin, stir and mix through for about a minute. 
add the stock and peanuts or peanut butter
stir it all through well. bring to the boil and let it gently simmer for about 10 minutes. 
Add the chicken and/or pork - allow to simmer for another five to ten minutes. 
whille that's all happening, cook your rice. 
I added some steamed finely diced carrot, capsicum and spring onion to my rice - but I think anything like that would work - beans, peas, brocolli, caulifower, asparagus etc - nothing too overpowering. 
Spoon the rice into your bowls and then spoon the delicious chicken mixture and sauce over the top. 
I topped mine with a freshly chopped chilli just to give it a bit of a kick

Rice paper rolls

It only takes the slightest warm change in the weather for me to start craving rice paper rolls again.

When I make these bad boys, they’re not those dainty little wraps you see in Vietnamese restaurants. I make some absolute whoppers, like, a fatter Chiko roll.  There’s no reasoning behind this, I just get carried away with trying to add as much salad and deliciousness as I can, and then the battle to wrap it successfully begins.

In short though, they’re amazing. When I know they’re on the dinner menu, I get excited all afternoon.

I have popped on two different meat marinades: I interchange them for the meat – pork, chicken or beef. But a simple boiled prawn would also be amazing, as would a simple grilling of the meat with no marinade at all.

Ingredients:

Marinade # 1 – Stickier BBQ flavour

2 garlic cloves, crushed,

1 teaspoon crushed ginger

½ teaspoon crushed chilli (optional)

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon brown sugar

1 tablespoon BBQ sauce

Marinade # 2 – herbier, lighter

10 basil leaves

3 mint leaves

2 garlic cloves, crushed

½ teaspoon crushed chilli (optional)

2 tablespoons soy sauce

Ingredients for the rolls

1 carrot, sliced julienne

1 red capsicum, sliced thinly

Quarter head of lettuce, sliced

Half cucumber, sliced julienne

Large bunch fresh mint leaves

50 grams rice vermicelli noodles, cooked, drained and cooled

Pack of fresh rice paper rolls, ready to be soaked in water

 Hoisin sauce, to serve

Unfortunately (for you guys) I have no method that is easy to describe. I visualise it like a cigar – picture a rectangle in one-third of the circular wrapper that you place all the ingredients onto. And then it’s a matter of folding the short end over it long-ways, then folding the sides over, and then rolling it all the way over.

There is a number of online tutorials, I quite like this one.

This is what my table looks like just before we chow down - salads, mint, chicken, noodles, rice paper wrappers and a tray with warm water to soften the wrappers. 

Mexican chicken pies

This was something of a one-pot wonder for when I couldn’t decide if I wanted a casserole, something spicy or something all vegetabled up! So I created this based on a Mexican recipe for burritos with chicken and rice.

This made quite a lot – enough for dinner for probably six or more, mainly due to the amount of rice I inadvertently cooked. 

Ingredients 

2 chicken breasts diced

3 garlic cloves, crushed/finely chopped

1 onion, diced

2 carrot, diced

½ zucchini diced

1 capsicum, diced

10 or so mushrooms, diced

2 chillies, chopped or equivalent in dried chili

½ teaspoon ground/minced ginger

1 teaspoon ground cumin

½ teaspoon ground cloves

3 teaspoons dried oregano

1 heaped tablespoon tomato paste

2 tins diced tomato

2 cups rice, cooked

4 sheets pre-packaged pastry

Method

Heat frypan, add in garlic and onion.

After a couple of minutes, add in chicken.

When the chicken is sealed, add in the spices, vegetables and stir occasionally for a couple of minutes.

Add in the tomato paste and tinned tomatoes, and about 1 cup of water

Preheat oven to about 190C.

Allow to simmer for about 15 minutes until the flavours are developed.

Turn off the heat, add in the rice.

 Prepare the tins  (I made a couple of small party-pie tin sized ones, and one big pie)

Cook for about 20 minutes, until pastry is cooked and brown.

Apricot chicken

Sometimes, you just can’t be f**ked cooking anything exciting. This is one of my go-to recipes for when I’m just not inspired to cook but still want something substantial, and home cooked.

Ingredients:

About 8 pieces of chicken (drumsticks, wings breasts on the bone)

1 big can of apricot nectar

1 packet French onion mix

½ cup milk

Optional extras: (depending on what you’ve got in the cupboard)

Onion, chopped chunky

A couple of carrots, diced

Potatoes, diced

To serve -  steam some rice, mashed potatoes or just some bread or rolls.

Dissolve the French onion soup mix in the nectar, mixing it up well.

Chuck everything in a big casserole container, with a lid if possible, otherwise with some foil on top.

Put in the oven for about an hour, taking it our once or twice to stir it all together, then take off the lid/foil and continue cooking for another half hour or so.

Take it out of the oven and leave it to sit for about 10 minutes, and the sauce will thicken. 

 Meanwhile, prepare whatever sides you want – steamed rice, vegetables, bread rolls – whatever you’ve got.