Fajitas are chicken or beef sautéed with onions and peppers, while Carne Asada is marinated grilled meat (beef is most common), all served in a taco. Common sides are Pico de Gallo, Guacamole, Pickled Red Onions, grated Cheddar/crumbled Feta, sour cream, lime wedges, slivered radishes, and anything else you like.
Fajitas
The Carbs are in the tortillas and toppings! There are many varied opinions in our family on how spicy the meat should be, how long to cook the vegetables and how many should go into the taco…..so we tend to let everyone prepare their own. It is easier if you have individual Fajita pans (smaller cast iron), if not come to a consensus and use a large cast iron frying pan.
For a quick meal use chicken or tenderloin because the spices can rest with the meat for up to 30 minutes. If you have 24 hours marinate flank steak (along with Pickled Red Onions if making) as we do for Carne Asada. Then thinly slice the flank steak and prepare as follows:
Ingredients
- 1 lb. (454 gr) boneless, skinless chicken breasts or beef tenderloin 0 CHO
- 2 tsp. ground cumin 0 CHO
- 2 tsp. Tabasco 0 CHO
- 1 tsp. chili pepper 0 CHO
- ½ tsp. salt 0 CHO
- 2 TBSP olive oil 0 CHO
1 – 2 Red/yellow/orange peppers thinly sliced (1/2 cup/60 gr = 5 CHO)
2 – Jalapeno peppers seeded and thinly sliced (1/2 large/22 gr = 1 CHO)
2 – 4 Green onions cut into 2-inch pieces and then thinly sliced lengthwise or
1/4 Red onion thinly sliced
*8 FLOUR OR CORN TORTILLAS AND TOPPINGS WILL DETERMINE CHO
Instructions
- Prepare any sides and refrigerate.
- Cut chicken or beef into ½ inch strips.
In a small bowl combine spices, oil and Tabasco.
- Toss chicken/beef with spice mixture until evenly distributed and set aside.
Fajitas can be sauteed in the oven or stove top. Either heat a little more olive oil in a large cast iron pan on the stove top before searing or place un-oiled Fajita pans in a cold oven. Turn on the oven to 425 for 30 minutes.
- With caution, (because cast iron will heat up in the oven,) add some of the meat to the pan, without crowding and return to the oven. Cook 3 minutes and then add vegetables and cook another 3 minutes.
- *Cooking time may be a personal preference, depending on the cut of meat and how el dente you want the vegetables. If the pieces are cut in thin strips they won’t take very long to cook.
- Serve variety of hot sauces for those adventurous guests and sides of your choice.
