Wednesday, March 16, 2011

What's Cooking Wednesday - Better Than Fast Food Chicken "Fajitas"

Monday night Edwin was out of town, so I felt a bit "off the hook" as far as dinner went.  Still, there were six people who needed to eat, so I wasn't really off the hook.  I considered fast food for a few minutes, but had plenty of reasons to think better of it.  I needed to go to the grocery store anyway, so I hatched the plan for the super-easy chicken "fajitas."

I bought a rotisserie chicken, which is what caused me to put the word fajitas in quotes; real fajitas involve some grilled meat.  The key to this plan working for me is that without my husband (and with a Pi Day dessert) I decided we could survive with only one chicken.  We have grown into a 2 or 3 chicken family, which makes the grocery store rotisserie chickens quite pricey!  But if you are a smaller crew or your budget allows, the rotisserie chicken can save a meal now & then.

Here's how to do it:  Heat some olive oil in a skillet or stir fry pan (I like to do this on medium-high heat as long as I am there to pay attention to it.) while slicing up a large onion.  Add the onion to the hot oil once it is ready and stir it around a bit while you slice up a bell pepper or two.  Throw those in and stir them often. 

Remove the skin from the chicken (Do not eat the skin of the rotisserie chicken, especially if you are just standing there picking at it.  Throw it away. It is not worth the fat and calories.  If you want to roast your own chicken and do something to the skin that is worth it, then eat the skin.  But for this, forget it!).  Pull off the meat from the chicken any way you can - I usually just use my clean hands or two forks - and cut/rip/pull it into reasonably-sized pieces.  Throw it into the pan with the veggies, but sprinkle it pretty heavily with cumin before stirring it.  Let it heat up, and you're done.  If it seems dry (mine did), pour in some apple juice, chicken broth (if you have an open container of that in the fridge), or white wine (ditto the open container).  Really you could just add some water, but the apple juice made me feel so much more chef-ish, so I went with that.

Heat some tortillas, grate some cheese (better yet, have the kids do this while you are doing the rest), and serve with avocado slices, salsa, sour cream, and whatever else you can find that sounds good.  Yum!  If I were a real food blogger I would have taken a photo.  Maybe next time!

Here's a more real-looking ingredients list, for those of you who work that way...

Better Than Fast Food Chicken "Fajitas"  (Served 4 big and 2 little hungry people, with not a bite left over)

1 Rotisserie Chicken (or enough left-over cooked chicken for your family)
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
1-2 large onions
1-2 bell peppers, any color
Cumin, about 1/2-1 tablespoon, or more to taste
Tortillas, cheese, salsa, avocados, sour cream, etc. for toppings

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

YUM! I like it and so would my boys. Rotissorie chickens have revolutionized my cooking.

Debbie S said...

Sounds good. Thanks for posting.

M. Helseth said...

Funny. "Off the hook" means something totally different among black people. I didn't know what you meant at first...

:)

M. Helseth said...

Oh, and I always eat the skin of a rotisserie chicken. :) Guess we're just different.

Tracey said...

Marla, I was unaware of our language barrier! ;)You'll have to let me know what that means so I am no longer uneducated!
And you can afford the fat & calories of the skin!