I’ve made many different types of Fajitas and tried out all sorts of methods. I’m sure that this isn’t an “authentic” recipe by any stretch of the imagination, but it includes most of the classic flavours in a way that works well for me!
When I first used to make them when I was a teenager, I tended to marinade the meat that I was using for a really long time, soaking in beer and spices, plus of course an obscene amount of chilli.
Times have changed since being in education full time however, and my cooking now is much more about cooking quickly, so I’ve changed the recipe to maintain the flavours from my former approach, but now only marinade whilst I chopping the rest of the ingredients.
This makes it much faster – you prepare the meat whilst chopping everything to go alongside it, and by the time that chopping is done, the meat is ready to be cooked. This recipe is for 2, but can be easily scaled up and down as required:
Steak, Chicken & Chorizo Fajitas
A quick and easy Steak, Chicken & Chorizo Fajitas recipe
Ingredients
- 1 Small Rump Steak, cut into strips
- 1 Large Chicken Breast, cut into strips
- 60g of Chorizo sausage, cut into pound coin like chunks
- 1 large onion, cut into semi-circle strips
- 1 large red pepper (or a few smaller mixed colour ones), cut into strips
- 2 teaspoons of Ground Cumin
- 1 teaspoon of Smoked Paprika
- 1 teaspoon of Sweet Paprika
- 1 teaspoon of Cayenne Pepper
- 1 to 8 teaspoons of Hot Chilli Flakes (I’m usually not far off 8, and am happy to add any fresh chilli too)
- 4 cloves of Garlic (crushed)
- Tortilla Wraps
- Grated Cheese
Instructions
- Get your steak and chicken into a mixing bowl (if you like your beef a little rarer, you may wish to keep them separate), and add the cumin, both types of paprika, the cayenne pepper, chilli flakes (and fresh if using them) and the crushed garlic, giving everything a good stir. I often use scissors for cutting my meat into strips this way.
- Add about a tablespoon of Olive Oil, perhaps 2, the same amount of beer and the juice of half a lime. Give a good stir and set aside.
- Chop your onions, pepper and chorizo (it gives the meat enough time to infuse and we’re then ready to cook).
- Start heating frying pan on full heat – I have stopped adding oil at this stage now due to the chorizo. Once the frying pan starts to heat up, get all your chorizo coins into the frying pan and wait for the oils to start oozing from the sausage.
- If you want the steak to be rarer, make sure you separate the chicken from the beef and add the chicken to the pan at this stage. If you skip the chicken, I’d cook the veg before the steak, but I like it a bit pink. Drain any excess liquid away from the marinade before adding to the pan, as you want it to fry and not steam.
- Add the onions and peppers to the pan once you have sealed all the chicken meat.
- Fry for about 5 minutes, and if wanting the steak rare, add this in now.
- Cook for another 5 minutes until everything is cooked through
- Serve in a nice dish, put a side salad on the plates, grab your wraps and get stuck in! Garnish with coriander if its available and something you like
Preparation time: 15 minute(s)
Cooking time: 20 minute(s)
Number of servings (yield): 2
Put enough different types of chilli in (I like to mix them up where I can) to try out different amounts of flavour. Whilst the recipe I used today *only* uses chilli flakes, I often use scotch bonnets, jalapenos and whatever else I can get my hands on to mix it up. I also find that if I don’t have one of two of the spices that it is just as excellent, so I wouldn’t panic if you only have 1 type of paprika for example (I think the smoked one is best personally).
If you are not fond of spicy food, I’ve made really tasty versions of these for friends with no chilli at all, and it still retains a great flavour. Just be careful with the amount of cayenne pepper as well, as it’s hotter than you might imagine and has killed the taste buds of a few of my friends that I had tried to cook mild food for. It was mild to me, but it still burned!
I like to serve this dinner with a small side salad, a tin of sweetcorn, an avocado or pea guacamole, a mountain of cheese, some crème fraiche or sour cream and of course some tasty tortilla wraps!
This is without doubt one of the most popular dishes I ever cook for friends, and when I haven’t completely scorched them with chilli, they nearly always want more.
You don’t need to use Steak, Chicken & Chorizo – this just happens to be my most decadent version. Leaving out any 1 of the 3, or replacing the steak and chicken with Prawns will also work excellently.
I hope you try out this recipe and let me know how you get on with it!
