I maintain a text-based cooking show in a Discord group to try to lead
@tippy2k2 away from a life of culinary sin. I'll repost tonight's entry.
Yesterday, I made a sort of fajita chicken casserole. The recipe was given to me by a grocery store (HEB, Texans!) that sells fajita-style marinated chicken breast, and was to be composed of chicken, a can of corn, a can of black beans, a garlic-cumin sauce, shredded cheese, and torn tortilla bits.
Well, they didnt sell the sauce anymore, and it probably would have been high in fat anyway.
I decided I wanted to make it more like fajitas (for the non-Southwest: fajitas are kind of like self-assembled tacos, in that you are brought meat that has been
marinated and
grilled (no ground beef allowed!) (and often served with grilled onions and bell peppers), along with fixings and tortillas, and are left to yourself to make your own fajita taco) so I got a bag of frozen sliced onions and bell peppers. Heated them in the microwave. Sliced up some serrano peppers for heat, and roasted some poblano peppers before chopping them up for smokey flavors (roasting peppers really does bring out a lot of flavor; I do mine in the oven under the broil setting). I sauteed all the peppers and onions together with garlic, took them out, sauteed the chicken in batches (my bag had 4.5 lbs of chicken, about 2 kilos). I drained and mixed together the cans of corn and black beans, and added a can of Rotel, which for non-Texans is a brand that cans a mix of diced tomatoes and green peppers. None of that really belongs in fajitas, but it's more veggie-ish nutrients and I only ever said I was making the recipe more
like fajitas anyway. Mixed all the plants with the chicken (technically hit a lot of big groups: fruit, a veggie, a legume and a starch), threw in some salt, cumin, and sweetened lime juice, then layered them into the casserole dish. Layer of filling, layer of torn tortilla, layer of shredded cheese, and repeat. Some oven cooking, and voila.
I actually made a second casserole cuz I misread the recipe: I thought it called for 1 package of chicken (again, mine was 4.5 lbs), when it really called for 1 lb. So I left the other casserole for my folks to have for dinners and packaged the original to come with me back to my room (I'm renting a room out of a house to be close to work, and was visiting my parents yesterday for the holiday, and due to a tortured story my order of groceries had ended up in a store by them and not by where I moved, so I meal prepped there this week).
Heated it up for dinner tonight for the first time in the microwave. Its goooood. Has a nice tingly heat and satisfying flavor. I've had this pre-marinated chicken before and it actually is pretty decent, an excellent option for those without the time or the freedom in the kitchen to marinate their own, a situation I'm in. Wish I could grill it for that real fajita flavor and sear, but alas I could only really cook it in my parents' non-stick at a medium temperature and try to pull it off before it got overdone. Ever since reading Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat I've tried to really be cognizant of the balance of flavors in my cooking, and I think this did a good job. I didn't really salt the chicken due to the marinade, I added some salt to the peppers to bring out their flavors, and the shredded cheese helped carry flavor without being too calorie heavy like a traditional casserole cream sauce would be, which is important for me on my diet.
And there is no such thing as too much cumin.
Coming up next week: you'll probably know it a day after I do.