Get out of the comfort zone of the traditional soups, stews and sweets and try one of the most delicious and simple Mexican recipes - fajitas! It's a fast food, which is usually prepared in a skillet (the oven version seems to me drier and not so tender) with pork, chicken or beef and, definitely, vegetables. Ideally, it should be served in tortilla wraps, which can now be found in almost any big store, with some yogurt and with fresh, flavorful and spicy salsa (see the steps for all the instructions).
I liked it so much and I wouldn't necessarily serve it on tortilla wraps. I think this Mexican fajitas would be great with a garnish of rice or potatoes, if you like. The recipe below is with with pork tenderloin, but it can be replaced with chicken breast or your favorite beef.
By the way, you will find the ingredients for the salsa separately, in step 4, so as not to mix them up with the basic ingredients for the fajitas recipe.
First, cut the meat into slices, as thin and long as possible.
In a bowl, combine for the marinade - 3 cloves of crushed garlic, the juice from half an orange, 1 teaspoon oregano, 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar, 0.5 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon paprika or chilli flakes, 1 tablespoon salt and a little ground black pepper.
Pour over the sliced meat, mix well and leave in the fridge to marinate for 1-3 hours.
During this time, you can quickly prepare a homemade vegetable salsa:
- finely chop 1-2 tomatoes, 1 hot (or not) pepper, half a red/white onion, half a bunch of fresh parsley;
- Put everything in a bowl, season with salt (to taste) and the juice from half a lemon or lime.
- Leave in the fridge to marinate while you prepare the fajitas.
This is again for the fajitas (not for the salsa sauce) - cut the 3 bell peppers, red, yellow and green into long slices.
Also, cut thick and long slices of white onion.
Once the meat has marinated, remove from the fridge and start cooking fajitas.
First, heat the oil in a deep, large pan, then add in the sliced peppers and onions. Stir periodically and cook over high heat.
When the vegetables start to brown slightly and soften a little, remove from the pan with a spatula and place in a deep plate.
In the hot oil which remains in the pan after cooking the vegetables, add the marinated meat.
Stir periodically, to allow the pieces to separate from each other.
When the meat starts to brown, add another 1-2 teaspoons of paprika, mix and cook for 3-4 minutes more.
Now return the peppers and onions we cooked earlier to the pan, over the fried meat.
Mix well, let them cook together for 2-3 more minutes and turn off the heat.
Fajitas is served hot, in an exemplary way as follows:
- take a tortilla wrap and grease in the middle with a little fatter yogurt. Put a few tablespoons of fajitas, then season everything on top with fresh vegetable sauce. Fold the wrap in half, or roll, if it's bigger, and enjoy, it's delicious!
I would like to combine fajitas with some rice next time, without the wraps, of course.
Enjoy!