Chicken Fajitas are a delicious easy dish that every home cook should master. Excellent for Taco Tuesday, Chicken Fajitas always satisfy, but in a healthy way too – pure protein with loads of flavor.
What is a fajita?
First of all, what is a fajita? What does the word mean? The term fajita is Spanish. It’s the diminutive of the word faja which means band or a belt that goes around your waist. Beef cows have a thick diaphragm of muscle inside their abdomen. Butchers call this the skirt steak in English or a faja or fajita in Spanish.
Now as you can probably guess, chickens, shrimp and pigs do not have the same anatomy that a beef cow does. Technically, there is no such thing as a chicken, shrimp or pork fajita. The word fajita has become a cooking style although that is not the original meaning of the word. But if you think of it, we also eat lots of chicken nuggets. As far as I know, a nugget is doesn’t refer to a chicken body part either. We eat plenty of chicken nuggets, right?
The term “fajita” can refer to a cooking method
So if a chicken doesn’t have a fajita, then what part of the chicken do we cook in order to get a classic Chicken Fajita? You should be able to find something at your supermarket called a chicken tender (and no, chicken tenders are not chicken nuggets) sometimes they are called chicken strips. A chicken tender is technically called the pectoralis minor and it sits behind (You guessed it) the pectoralis major which is the chicken breast. It’s a small strip of white meat that is perfect for making Chicken Fajitas.
I know how these Chicken Fajitas are served in restaurants which is on a smoking griddle. The smoking part on the griddle gives a nice brown finish to the chicken. However, you may not want all that smoke in your house. So in the video I posted, I will show you two way to cook your Chicken Fajitas to keep them tender and juicy with that great golden brown finish.
Leave a Reply