Easy Chicken Fajitas Recipe
Posted Mar 04, 2022, Updated Feb 19, 2024
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In this chicken fajita recipe, chicken is infused with a flavorful marinade, then cooked with bell peppers, onions and garlic. Served with your favorite tortillas, guacamole, and homemade salsa, these chicken fajitas are an easy, healthy & delicious weeknight meal.
Whenever we go out for Mexican food, I almost always order chicken fajitas (or chicken enchiladas). Since going out with 6 young children isn’t always easy, I decided it was past time for me to make the best chicken fajita recipe at home!
In this recipe, chicken is infused with a flavorful marinade, then cooked with bell peppers, onions and garlic.
Serve them with your favorite tortillas, guacamole, refried black beans, cilantro lime rice and homemade salsa for a Mexican feast that’s easy, healthy & delicious.
Chicken Fajita Recipe: Ingredients and Substitutions
- Chicken breasts. use prefer boneless, skinless chicken breasts.
- Lime juice. Fresh-squeezed or bottled both work well!
- Olive oil. Avocado oil is a great substitute for olive oil.
- Minced garlic. I use jarred, but freshly minced garlic is great too.
- Spices (cumin, paprika, chili powder & coriander). I have included our favorite fajita seasoning blend. You can adjust it to your tastes however you see fit.
- Bell peppers. I like to use a variety of colors for presentation, you can use your favorites (red, orange, yellow, red).
- Onion. Use a sweet yellow or white onion or red onion.
How to Make Chicken Fajitas
This chicken fajita recipe is relatively easy, and if you follow my tips and suggestions they are certain to turn out perfectly every time!
Marinate the Chicken
Begin this recipe by marinating the chicken. First, cut the chicken breasts into thin strips 1 to 1.5 inches long.
Then, whisk together lime juice, olive oil and minced garlic in a medium bowl. Next, add the chicken and stir to coat.
In a small bowl combine spices and stir to combine.
Next, add the fajita seasoning to the chicken and turn to coat. Cover the bowl and marinate chicken for at least 1 hour at room temperature or longer in the refrigerator.
Make sure to remove chicken from the refrigerator at least 15 minutes before cooking so it is not too cold when cooked (this will help it brown quickly).
Cook the Chicken Fajitas
When you’re ready to cook, drain excess liquid from the marinated chicken.
Heat 1 Tablespoon olive oil in a large cast iron skillet until shimmering
NOTE: you do not want to over-crowd the skillet. If you only have a smaller skillet (10” or less) then you will need to cook these chicken fajitas in two batches. Keep the first batch warm in the oven while making the second. It’s important the chicken is in a single layer and the pan is heated with the oil to brown the meat.
Next, add the chicken, onions and garlic and cook over medium-high heat until chicken is browned, stirring occasionally.
Then, add the peppers and remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil.
Cook over high heat until seared/browned (3-5 minutes). If necessary, add more olive oil to brown the fajitas.
Serving Suggestions
Serve immediately! We love serving these with tortillas, or as a yummy Mexican bowl/salad with these recipes:
- The best Homemade guacamole is a must-have companion for this chicken fajita recipe.
- Also, homemade salsa – yum!
- Cilantro lime rice is a great side dish!
- These refried black beans are healthy and delicious.
Store/Freeze
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for up to 1 month.
Reheat in the microwave or on the stovetop.
Chicken Fajitas Recipe FAQs
I suggest cutting the chicken in thin, longer strips. Use a very sharp knife!
Yes, you can replace the fajita seasoning in this recipe with taco seasoning, if you prefer.
Yes, absolutely. You want to use thinly sliced chicken so it browns well!
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Chicken Fajitas
Ingredients
Fajita chicken
- 2 pounds chicken breasts sliced into very thin 1 to 1.5” long strips
- 2 Tablespoons lime juice
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- 1 Tablespoon minced garlic
Fajita seasoning:
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- ¼ teaspoon chili powder
- ¼ teaspoon ground coriander
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Fajitas
Serving:
- Sour cream, guacamole, a drizzle of extra lime juice, cheese, salsa, tortillas, etc.
Instructions
Marinate the Chicken
- Cut chicken breasts into thin strips 1 to 1.5 inches long.
- In a medium bowl whisk together lime juice, olive oil and minced garlic, add chicken and stir to coat.
- In a small bowl combine spices and stir to combine.
- Add the fajita seasoning to the chicken and turn to coat. Cover the bowl and marinate chicken for at least 1 hour at room temperature or longer in the refrigerator. Make sure to remove chicken from the refrigerator at least 15 minutes before cooking so it is not too cold when cooked (this will help it brown quickly).
Cook the Fajitas
- Drain any excess liquid from the marinated chicken.
- Heat 1 TBS olive oil in a large cast iron skillet until shimmering (NOTE: you do not want to over-crowd the skillet. If you only have a smaller skillet (10” or less) then you will need to cook these fajitas in two batches. Keep the first batch warm in the oven while making the second. It’s important the chicken is in a single layer and the pan is heated up with the oil to brown the meat).
- Add chicken, onions and garlic and cook over medium-high heat until chicken is browned, stirring occasionally.
- Add peppers and remaining 1 TBS olive oil.
- Cook over high heat until seared/browned (3-5 minutes). If necessary, add more olive oil to brown the fajitas.
- Serve immediately.
Video
Notes
- Chicken breasts. use prefer boneless, skinless chicken breasts.
- Lime juice. Fresh-squeezed or bottled both work well!
- Olive oil. Avocado oil is a great substitute for olive oil.
- Minced garlic. I use jarred, but freshly minced garlic is great too.
- Spices (cumin, paprika, chili powder & coriander). I have included our favorite fajita seasoning blend. You can adjust it to your tastes however you see fit.
- Bell peppers. I like to use a variety of colors for presentation, you can use your favorites (red, orange, yellow, red).
- Onion. Use a sweet yellow or white onion or red onion.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I’ve refrain from making fajitas at home. They’ve always turned out dry and tasteless so I gave up years ago. I randomly decided to give it another shot and am I ever glad I did! I used this recipe and ended up with amazing results. It’s so quick to pull together and so tasty! I did minor things differently; I put a tablespoon of the marinade to the side to use for the veggies while they cooked, cooked the veggies after the chicken was cooked and put to the side, through some salt, pepper, garlic powder, chili powder and cayenne on the veggies while they cooked, and I like the veggies softer so I also tossed in some broth so soften them up. I threw the chicken back in and everything was delicious!
I’m so glad you decided to give fajitas another go and love this recipe, Hayley! I love the idea of using some of the marinade for the veggies!
Very tasty, and easy to make! Also, the chicken was very tender and moist. As it turned out, I forgot to purchase a lime, and therefore used orange juice in its place. So. the next time I use this chicken fajita recipe, I will have a lime or lime juice.
I made this dish last night; very tasty. I doubled the quantities for the spice mix and I didn’t have any limes so I skipped the marinade. At the end I added some chopped fresh tomatoes so that the sauce was not so dry. Much tastier than the Fajita kits that you can buy and it was super easy and quick to make. I served it with basmati rice. It was a winner with the family and I have added the recipe to my list of top favourite meals to make.
Not only was this such an easy recipe to make but my daughter and husband loved it! …and I am not the best cook! Thank you! I will definitely be saving this recipe!
Can you marinate the chicken overnight?
Your chicken fajitas look delightful. Very clear and complete instructions. However, I can not locate the nutritional values??
Well Cyndi, that’s because I forgot to include them! So thank you for bringing that to my attention! I went ahead and added the nutritional information – based on this recipe making 8 servings.
Hi. Thanks for the recipe. But you ought to make a correction that you can keep leftovers in the FREEZER for about a month (rather than storing in the refrigerator for up to 1 month)!
Yikes! I fixed that! Thank you!