Recipe Wednesday: Goal # 58 – Jamie Oliver Chicken Fajitas

Recipe Wednesday was inspired by the Youngrens, California photographers who cook, photograph, and post recipes on periodic Sundays.  Cooking good wholesome food is something that is very important to my wife and I so I’ve decided to start documenting our kitchen adventures.  You’ll see pictures and recipes from books that are quickly becoming our go-to guides.  Hopefully it can give you some ideas for your own kitchen.

Last year my wife and I watched Food Inc. on Netflix and it totally changed our mindset on food, the food industry, and our own eating habits.  In fact the documentary touched us so much that it spurred us to start a blog that would document ways that we were striving to live a life more abundant in all areas of our life.  You can see our revelation on our blog here (particularly in 2011).  The blogging over there has slowed down since I got my blogsite up and running here, but hopefully we can pick it back up again soon.

After we watched Food Inc, we also saw a couple episodes of Jamie Oliver’s show Food Revolution on ABC, and when we found his Food Revolution cookbook in the grocery store, we knew we had to get it.

Jamie’s message about understanding where your food is coming from and his work reforming the school lunch program in Britain and the US really speaks to us and we are now extremely conscious about our food choices and have tons of thoughts on how we’ll pass this information onto our kids someday.

Every recipe we’ve made from Jamie’s cookbook has been phenomenal and most of them are super easy (though one time we didn’t realize that a recipe had to simmer for 3 hours until after we had started to cook).  In support of our food goals, and because we really like to cook together, I decided that one of my 101 goals would be to cook every recipe in his Food Revolution cookbook.

I’ll be posting progress, pictures, and recipes as I work my way through.  Up first, fantastic Chicken Fajitas!

Chicken Fajitas (Serves 2)

1 red bell pepper
1 medium red onion
2 skinless, boneless chicken breast fillets, preferably free-range
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
a small pinch of ground cumin
2 limes
olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 flour tortillas
1/2 cup sour cream or natural yogurt
1 cup guacamole
4 ounces Cheddar cheese

Put your grill pan on high heat.  Halve and seed your bell pepper and cut it into thin strips.  Peel, halve, and finely slice your onion.  Slice your chicken lengthways into long strips roughly the same size as your bell pepper strips.  Put the bell peppers, onion, and chicken into a bowl with the paprika and cumin.  Squeeze over the juice of half a lime, drizzle over a lug of olive oil, season with a good pinch of salt and pepper and mix well.  Put to one side to marinate for 5 minutes.

Use a pair of tongs t put all the pieces of bell pepper, onion, and chicken into your preheated pan to cook for 6 to 8 minutes, until the chicken is golden and cooked through.  As the pan will be really hot, keep turning the pieces of chicken and vegetables over so they don’t burn–you just want to char-grill them lightly to give you a lovely flavor.

Warm your tortilla in the microwave or a warm dray frying pan.  Divide your warmed tortillas between your serving plates.  Squeeze your remaining lime over the pan of chicken and vegetables.  Serve with sour cream/yogurt, guacamole, and cheddar cheese.