fajitas: once more, with chicken

[edenfalling]

Below you see four peppers that I have picked over the past week or two -- where by "picked" I mean "trimmed and saved after they were chewed off their plants by squirrels." I sliced them up last night to serve as one of the two peppers in my latest batch of fajita filling, and stored them in the freezer overnight with the other sliced veggies.

To make fajitas, I use two bell peppers, two onions, an Ortega spice mix packet, some additional cumin, chili pepper, garlic powder, and oregano to taste, and a pound to a pound and a half of whatever meat is on hand. This time, the meat was four chicken thighs. I hate slicing meat, but here is a secret: it is about ten million times easier to cut half-frozen meat than fully thawed meat. Now you know! So I only moved my chicken from the freezer to the fridge around 5pm, and did my cooking around 9pm while it was still nicely firm and solid.

The results taste pretty good, if I do say so myself. :)


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[[original Tumblr post, for when the embedded images inevitably break]]

Comments

[heliopausa]

Admirable and appetising! :)

[edenfalling]

:D

[krait]

Yum!

[edenfalling]

Fajitas are just such a good flavor profile. :)

[monkey5s]

I learned about the necessity of having meat partially frozen for well controlled slicing from the butcher we used for years. I had wanted to try having steak for breakfast (I knew I needed more protein for breakfast, but at the time all pork was disgusting, eggs made me nauseous, and chicken was still kind of pricey. Also, this was before vegetarian was a thing I would do). I told Mr. Ed that I needed something super thin, to be able to fry up quickly. He asked me to come back the next day so he could have something *partially* frozen to slice for me. It was awesome- he handed over two steaks that were 1/4 inch thick.

[edenfalling]

Oh, cool!

How did they taste?

[monkey5s]

They were *amazing*, a quick pan fry and they were tender and delicious. That's why we kept going to that butcher shop. He and his wife emigrated from Germany decades ago, found their way to rural Ohio and set up a small business next door to their home. They were very focused on their work life- the store was closed on Mondays only- because that was the day he took the truck up to Amish country to buy his meat for the week.

His wife was 84 when she died, and he kept working after for a few months until he joined her. Their kids had no interest in the shop, tried selling it to someone who had been long-time customers. Those people just did not have the single-minded focus to make it succeed, and after that the place changed hands a few times. Last I went past, it was a pizza place/convenience store.