Jack builds a fajita like he's laying a brick wall. Cheese goes down first as the foundation, then exactly three strips of chicken, then sour cream spread all the way to the edges with the back of a spoon. Nora puts peppers on only one half of hers so she can "control the ratio." Ryan puts pickled jalapeños on every bite and then asks if there are more. No two plates look alike, and that's the whole point.
This is the dinner we make most. I've kept a grocery spreadsheet since January, and boneless chicken thighs and a three-pack of bell peppers show up on almost every receipt. We've had it twice in the last two weeks: once on a Tuesday after Jack's first baseball practice of the spring, and once on a Sunday in between practice chess pies, when I needed a supper I didn't have to think about.
Getting both kids to eat it came down to two decisions. The spice mix is mild, because Nora does not do heat, and every hot thing lives in a bowl on the table where Ryan can reach it. And the building is their job, not mine. An eleven-year-old who picked her own toppings has a hard time complaining about them.
Ingredients
- 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, sliced into 1/2-inch strips
- 3 bell peppers (red, yellow and green), sliced into strips
- 1 large sweet onion, sliced into half-moons
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoons chili powder (regular, not hot)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon brown sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 lime
- 12 flour tortillas (8-inch)
- For the table: shredded Mexican-blend cheese, sour cream, salsa, a diced avocado, cilantro and pickled jalapeños
How I make it
- Put a large rimmed sheet pan on the middle rack and heat the oven to 425°F with the pan inside, so the pan is screaming hot when the food hits it.
- Stir the chili powder, cumin, paprika, garlic powder, oregano, sugar, salt and pepper together. Toss the chicken, peppers and onion with the oil and the spice mix in a big bowl until everything is coated red-brown.
- Pull the hot pan out carefully and spread everything in one layer. It should sizzle.
- Roast 18 to 20 minutes, stirring once halfway. Then switch to broil for 2 to 3 minutes to char the pepper edges. Stand there and watch it.
- Thighs are safe at 165°F, but I take them to 175°F because they're more tender there. I don't own an instant-read thermometer yet (it's on the list), so I borrow one of Ryan's smoker probes. Without one, cut the fattest strip open: no pink, and the juices run clear.
- Squeeze the lime over the pan. Wrap the tortillas in foil and warm them on the bottom rack for the last 5 minutes.
Why thighs and not breasts? Thigh meat has more fat and connective tissue, so it stays juicy at the high heat it takes to brown peppers. Breast strips go from done to dry in about two minutes, and on a sheet pan full of vegetables you can't pull them out early. Thighs give you a margin, and on a school night I want a margin.
The one time this went badly, it was the chili powder. Last fall I grabbed a jar marked "hot" without reading it and mixed a triple batch. Nora took one bite, drank two glasses of milk and ate a plain cheese quesadilla for supper. I read labels now the way I make my students read a recipe in cooking lab: all the way through, before anybody touches a measuring cup.
Stretching it to lunch
When I want lunches out of it, I buy 3 pounds of thighs and a fourth pepper and use two sheet pans, one on each rack, swapping them halfway. It's the only time this stops being a one-pan dinner, because piling more onto one pan makes the peppers steam instead of char. The extra goes into two glass Pyrex containers over rice with a spoonful of black beans and salsa, and that's my lunch Thursday and Friday in the teachers' lounge microwave. The kids get a quesadilla made the night before and cut into wedges, which tastes fine cold. I don't tell them that's leftovers.
Make-ahead: the spice mix above comes to about 3 tablespoons, so I mix a triple batch and keep it in a jelly jar labeled FAJITA in Sharpie. On Sundays I slice the peppers and onion and keep them in a zip bag, which brings a weeknight pan down to about ten minutes of hands-on work.
A pan for four with all the toppings runs about $20 at Kroger right now, with thighs on sale at $2.99 a pound, and the lunch version adds about $5. Jack gives it a 9 every single time. He says the tenth point is saved for a restaurant.
