Valentines Day Recipe: Sizzling, Smoking, Spicy Chicken Fajitas

What are you doing this Valentines Day? Are you heading to your favourite restaurant for a meal? Are you preparing something special at home? If you're cooking at home on Valentines Day, you are not going to want to be spending a great deal of time in the kitchen at the last minute preparing your meal. This chicken fajitas recipe is perfect in that it is prepared with precooked chicken and takes minimal time to throw together, meaning you will have more time to spend with your spouse or special someone. So why not prepare roast chicken for dinner on Monday, ensure you have some leftovers and let this delicious dish put some heat and spice in to your Valentines celebrations?

Ingredients for Two People

2 small chicken leg and thigh portions (or equivalent amount of chicken meat)
1 red bell pepper
1 medium white onion
1 medium strength green chilli
Generous pinch of dried red chilli flakes (optional)
Salt and black pepper
Freshly chopped coriander/cilantro to garnish
Vegetable oil for stir frying

To Serve:

6 tortilla wraps
2 small ramekins of homemade guacamole (prepared earlier or even the night before)
2 small ramekins of soured cream
2 small ramekins grated Cheddar cheese

Method

Put the serving dishes for the hot stir fry and two plates to serve the tortilla wraps in to a low oven to heat.

Remove the seeds from the red bell pepper and slice. Peel the onion, quarter it and separate the leaves. Discard the skin from the chicken and pull the meat from the bones in fairly large pieces. Half the green chilli, scrape out the seeds and membrane and moderately finely chop.

Bring your wok to a high heat and add about a tablespoon or so of vegetable oil. Add the peppers and onion and stir fry for about a minute before putting in the chicken and chilli flakes. Stir fry for a further minute. Season with salt and pepper.

Carefully spoon the stir fry in to the serving dishes and plate with the ramekins of guacamole, soured cream and cheese. Heat the tortilla wraps one at a time in a hot dry frying pan for about fifteen seconds (or follow the instructions on the pack) before transferring to the heated plates.

Below you will find a suggested way of assembling the wraps.

Looking for More Valentines Recipes, Including Starters and Desserts?

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Homemade Valentines Dinner for Two

Add some guacamole along the diameter of a wrap, about two-thirds of its length. Top with soured cream.

Spoon on some of the chicken stir fry and finally add some cheese.

Fold the empty flap of the wrap over and one side over that before rolling and tucking in.

Whatever you are doing or eating on Valentines Day and whomever you are spending it with, I hope you have a wonderful time and to see you back here very soon.

Steak Fajitas with Homemade Guacamole and Cheese

Fajitas are not the traditional Mexican dish many people think. They are rather a product of the, "Tex Mex," cuisine culture, which is largely a development of Mexican immigrants to the United States, making the most of the ingredients available in their adopted country. Fajitas were originally produced using skirt steak but have of course now developed to incorporate a great many different meats, particularly chicken. Skirt steak is not generally known for its tenderness, so any type of frying steak can actually be used in this recipe.

Ingredients per Serving

1/4lb frying steak
1 red bell pepper
1 small onion
2 closed cup mushrooms
Salt and pepper
Sunflower oil for frying

1 small ripe avocado
1 red chilli pepper
1 clove of garlic
Juice of 1/4 lemon

2oz grated cheddar cheese

3 tortilla wraps

Method

Ideally, the guacamole should be prepared an hour or more in advance. This will allow the flavours time to infuse. It is vital that the avocado be fairly ripe in order that it can be peeled and de-stoned effectively. Note that not all varieties of avocado darken in colour as they ripen and the way to judge ripeness is that they should be moderately soft to the touch. For full details on how to effectively and safely de-stone and peel an avocado, click here.

The avocado should be put in to a small bowl with the lemon juice and mashed with a fork. The red chilli pepper should be de-seeded, finely chopped and added to the mix, along with the peeled and grated garlic clove. Salt and pepper should be added, the guacamole stirred well and covered with clingfilm, to be refrigerated until required.

The serving dish will require to be pre-heated, so prior to starting frying, I placed it in to a low to medium oven. I have used a wok to cook the meat and vegetables in this recipe but a large, deep frying pan will suffice. The wok should be brought up to a high heat and around one tablespoon of sunflower oil added. The steak should be cut in to strips and fried quickly to seal the meat. The heat should then be reduced slightly and the pepper, onion and mushroom added to the wok, to stir fry for a couple of minutes. The heated serving dish should then be removed from the oven to a wooden board and the hot steak and vegetables dished up.

The tortilla wraps served here were supermarket bought but making them yourself is a fairly straightforward process. The wraps should be presented on a dinner plate, along with the grated cheese and the guacamole in small bowls.

There are no rules for assembling steak or any other form of fajitas. What I like to do, however, is spread a little guacomle on the tortilla, add some steak and veg and top it off with cheese before rolling it up.