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

Chocolate zucchini cupcakes

125g butter, softened

1 ½ cups sugar

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

¾ cup milk

2 ½ cups self raising flour

5 tablespoons cocoa powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon salt

2 cups grated zucchini

This made about 22 decent sized cupcakes. It could also make one big cake, just adjust the cooking time to about an hour and reduce the temperature to 180C.

Method:

Preheat oven to 190C.

Cream together butter and sugar in a large bowl.

Add eggs one at a time until well combined. Continue beating in vanilla.

Mix the flour, cocoa, cinnamon and salt in another bowl, and mix this into the butter-sugar bowl in three batches, alternating with the milk.

Using a large spoon, gently mix in the zucchini.

Spoon the mixture into the patty tins.

Cook for about 25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the cupcakes comes out clean.

Decorations:

I made a simple butter cream icing with cocoa and choclettes, but you could also just sift some icing sugar on the top for a lighter dessert. 

Boccincini, basil and tomato skewers

These little nuggets of deliciousness came out of an old “Women’s entertaining” cookbook, and they really are quite awesome. And easy, which makes them even better.

They look naughty and a little bit fancy but only take a couple of minutes to throw together, and can be as simple or complex as you like.

I opted for simple, as I was putting on a bit of a feast and just ran out of time to marinate the cheese, but if you have an hour spare to let it marinate, definitely give it a whirl.

This makes 6 short skewers (similar to the picture)

Ingredients:

9 cherry tomatoes, halved

4 boccincini balls, quartered

About 30 basil leaves

3 long wooden skewers, cut in half  (could also use toothpicks and just make shorter versions of these)

For the marinade

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon fresh diced chives

1 tablespoon fresh diced parsley

A good crack of black pepper

Once the cheese is cut, coat them in the marinade for about an hour before putting on the skewers

Just thread everything onto the skewers in the order of tomato-basil-cheese-basil-tomato, and voila! They’re done.

So easy and really delicious.

Muesli bars

Just about anything can go in this, just need the oats and enough binding stuff like honey, egg etc to keep it all together

2 cups oats

1 cup dried fruit – sultanas, craisins, blueberries etc

¼ cup seeds – sunflower, pumpkin, chia etc

1/2-1 cup nuts – any kind will work

1/2 cup honey

1 egg

¼ cup flour – or hazelnut or almond meal

1 teaspoon each of cinnamon, mixed spice, nutmeg (not all necessary, just adds a nice fruity flavour)

Mix it all in a big bowl. Add more honey or oats depending on the consistency. You want it to be pretty chunk, not liquidy at all.

I prefer to make these in patty tins, so that I don’t have to slice them into bars and create more mess. It also means I’m less likely to eat more than one.

If you don’t have patty tins, spray a big baking tin with oil and line with baking paper and just put it all in there, flattening it down firmly.

Bake in a 180C oven for about 15 minutes, just to get it all stuck together.

Eat when they’re cold.

Done!

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.

The easiest chocolate cake

I'm not lying. This cake is easy. And it's pretty good. 

You can either make it as one bg cake, or as a batch of about 20 cupcakes. 

Ingredients: 

125g butter, softened

2 eggs

1 tspn vanilla extract/vanialla essence

1 1/4 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups self raising four

1/2 cup cocoa powder

2/3 cup milk

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. 

Grease and line one 22cm cake tin with baking paper, or about 20 patty tins.

Beat the first four ingredients in a bowl until well combined. Then add the last three. Mix to combine.

If cooking one cake, bake for about one hour. For cupcakes, about 20 minutes, but keep an eye on them. 

Basic icing: 

1 cup icing sugar

1 tbspn butter

2 tbspn milk

2 tbspn cocoa powder

Beat well in a bowl. 

Ganache icing

1/2 cup or 125ml cream

200g dark eating chocolate

Bring cream to the boil in a small saucepan. Remove from heat and stir in the chocolate until smooth. Stand for at least 10 minutes before smoothing over cake/s. If it's still too runny, pop it in the fridge for a little while but be careful as it gets very thick and hard quite quickly. 

Butter cream frosting (yes, frosting. I'm not American obviously, but this is definitely frosting)
185g butter, softened
2.5 cups icing sugar
2 teaspoons water or milk
any food colouring - add this at the end, not at the start

Beat it all together in a large bowl until it has lightened in colour slightly and is thick, but still spreadable. About two or three minutes. Add more icing sugar or liquid to adjust if necessary. 
Add 2-3 drops food colouring, mix and add more as desired.