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Chicken fajitas are a restaurant favorite, and they're easier to make at home than you'd think! Taking a little extra time to deeply caramelize onions and optionally making your own homemade fajita seasoning blend will make your dinner table feel like a real Tex-Mex restaurant!
Ordering chicken fajitas at a restaurant is absolutely a way to get some attention. That gorgeous sizzling sound and aroma that trails through the dining room is guaranteed to make other tables envious.
I ate my fair share of fajitas when I was growing up. Me and my mom would often split an order at our local Mexican restaurant. When I got married, my husband decided he was going to tackle making one of my restaurant favorites at home.
And let me tell you - he nailed it! We have chicken or steak fajitas with homemade Greek yogurt and easy restaurant-style guacamole at home quite often now, and my family absolutely devours it every single time.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Reader Review
"We had this for dinner tonight and it was delicious! My husband and I both said this meal is going in our regular rotation (and probably tomorrow too, I wish I wasn't full so I could eat more now!) Thanks for this wonderful recipe!" -Melissa Jones
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🧡 Why we love this recipe
- It's a one pan meal, which makes for easy cleanup.
- The chicken only needs to marinate for 30 minutes, up to 4 hours.
- Taking the time to really caramelize the onions deepens the flavor, and it's mostly hands-off.
- Fajitas are a great excuse to bust out a cast iron skillet and a fantastic way to get some colorful produce on the dinner table.
- A homemade fajita spice blend is an awesome pantry staple to make these even tastier, but you can also buy your favorite pre-mixed fajita seasoning from the store.
- The sizzle and aroma when a skillet full of fajitas comes out to the table is just irresistible!
- Leftovers (if there are any!) are delicious!
📝 Ingredients
Here's everything you need to make a batch of chicken fajitas (see recipe card below for ingredient amounts and full directions):
- Fajita seasoning. I used Penzeys brand for years until I developed a copycat fajita seasoning blend. Use your favorite here.
- Water to mix with the seasoning for the marinade.
- Boneless skinless chicken breasts - you can use regular-sized ones or the thin-sliced chicken breast cutlets for this recipe.
- Olive oil
- Freshly squeezed lime juice
- High-heat cooking oil, such as avocado oil or peanut oil
- Yellow onions
- Kosher salt
- Unsalted butter - to add a little richness to the onions while they caramelize
- Bell peppers - I like to use a variety of colors
- Garlic
- Tomato paste - to really deepen the flavor and add a little bit of umami
- Low sodium soy sauce - optional, for presenting the skillet with a little smoky sizzle like they do at restaurants
- Flour tortillas - we like warming them up in the microwave for 30 seconds in a Stasher bag right before serving
- Greek yogurt, sour cream, or Mexican crema - optional, for serving
- Lime wedges - optional, for serving
✅ How to make this recipe
This recipe happens in a few stages - marinating the chicken, caramelizing the onions, cooking the chicken, and cooking the peppers. It all comes together easily in one pan, but it does take a little patience. A lot of the cook time is unattended, waiting for the onions to get nicely caramelized.
- Mix fajita seasoning and water in a gallon-sized zip-top bag.
- Thinly slice chicken and add to the bag of seasoning along with olive oil and lime juice. Marinate in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes, up to 4 hours.
- Caramelize the onions in a large, heavy-bottomed skillet - preferably cast iron.
- Cook the chicken, then cook the peppers.
- Add garlic and put the onions and chicken back into the pan with the peppers. Add tomato paste and stir to combine.
- If desired, add soy sauce to get the sizzle and smoke for serving your restaurant-style fajitas.
See recipe card below for full instructions.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Reader Review
"Loved it! Caramelized onions turned out so delicious. It's worth the time it takes. Thank you!" -Sonji
📌 Fajita-making tips
When I first wrote up this post years ago, my husband provided a list of helpful tips for making homemade fajitas. I'm including them here for reference.
Dino's fajita-making tips:
- For timing purposes, I like to cut the onions while the skillet preheats, and then cut the peppers while the onions are cooking.
- It’s worth the extra time to really caramelize the onions, but if you’re short on time, just put them in with the peppers.
- You want the peppers to caramelize and blister while you’re cooking them – make sure to scrape the bottom of the skillet while you’re stirring to ensure even cooking without burning.
- The acid from tomatoes can be rough on cast iron, so that’s why I add the tomato paste at the end.
- Be sure to clean your cast iron skillet well! Ashley got The Ringer for me one Christmas and it’s a great tool for removing stuck on gunk from the bottom of the pan. We also use scrapers like these.
Our favorite cast iron cleaning tools 🍳
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How to get restaurant-quality fajitas at home
A few small things really make these fajitas taste like they came straight from a restaurant (and are even better, in my opinion!).
If at all possible, use a large cast iron skillet. The seasoning on the skillet and the way it retains heat and chars the ingredients isn't something that's easily done on a standard skillet.
A wok would work, too, but cast iron is just perfect here. There are plenty of reasons to add a cast iron skillet to your kitchen arsenal, and fajitas are a prime example!
Take the time to really caramelize your onions. Many recipes claim to yield caramelized onions in like... 20 minutes. NOPE. This is a labor of love, mostly unattended, but it'll take a good 45 minutes to an hour to really caramelize them well.
The flavor you get from caramelized onions is so much richer than rushing them, but if you're short on time you can just add them in when you add the peppers to get a nice char.
If you want to get that nice smoking sizzle that restaurant fajitas are known for, add a little soy sauce right at the end and march 'em on out to the dinner table.
💡 What to serve with chicken fajitas
I like to serve these chicken fajitas in flour tortillas, preferably set up in taco holders to make filling them easier. I often also whip up a batch of homemade guacamole and a margarita or 3.
My family has been using plain Greek yogurt instead of sour cream for the past several years. It started because my husband is lactose intolerant but can eat yogurt.
I got so used to it that I actually prefer it to sour cream for things like fajitas and tacos now. The contrast of the cool yogurt or sour cream to the piping hot fajita meat and veggies is one of the things I love most about this meal.
Here are some of my family's favorite recipes to serve with any sort of Tex-Mex meal, including these fajitas:
🍴 Variations
- Swap the chicken for steak - check out my recipe for homemade steak fajitas
- Try using mushrooms instead of meat - shiitake, chanterelle, oyster, and hen of the woods (or a mix of mushrooms) are all good choices
- If you like things cheesy, you can add the cooked chicken fajita mixture to a flour tortilla, top with shredded cheese, fold in half, and pan-fry to make a fajita-style quesadilla
- Make chicken fajita bowls by adding the cooked fajita mixture to a bowl of cilantro lime rice, pico de gallo, cooked black beans or pinto beans, a dollop of yogurt or sour cream, and your favorite hot sauce
Looking for other Tex-Mex favorites? Try these:
Doing some online shopping? Check out my Amazon shop page for recommendations!
Print📖 Recipe
Favorite Restaurant-Style Chicken Fajitas
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour 25 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours
- Yield: 1 Hour 40 Minutes (plus 30 minutes to 4 hours marinating time) 1x
- Category: Entree
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Tex-Mex
Description
This is easily the most requested meal in my home. Grab your cast iron skillet and get ready to caramelize some onions because these chicken fajitas are a one pan meal that are so good they'll outshine your favorite Tex-Mex restaurant!
Ingredients
For Fajitas:
- 1 tablespoon fajita seasoning
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breast (or thin-sliced chicken breast cutlets)
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice
- 2 tablespoons high-heat cooking oil, such as avocado oil or peanut oil
- 2 medium yellow onions, sliced ¼-inch thick
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 3 bell peppers, seeded and sliced ¼-inch thick
- 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- ¾ teaspoon low sodium soy sauce (optional)
For Serving:
- Flour tortillas, warmed
- Greek yogurt, sour cream, or Mexican crema (optional)
- Lime wedges
Instructions
- Combine fajita seasoning and water in gallon-sized zip-top bag and set aside.
- Pat the chicken dry with paper towels and trim off any large pieces of fat. Cut meat against the grain into ¼-inch thick slices and add to the bag of seasoning. Add olive oil and lime juice and seal bag, squeezing out as much air as you can. Transfer to refrigerator for at least 30 minutes, or up to 4 hours.
- Heat a large, heavy-bottomed skillet (preferably cast iron) over medium-high heat. Once hot (this takes a few minutes), add the high-heat oil and turn to coat the bottom of the skillet. Add the sliced onions and break them up w a wooden spoon. Lower heat to medium-low and season with ½ teaspoon salt. Stir constantly until it stops sizzling.
- When the pan stops sizzling, add the butter. Let the onions cook, stirring every 10 min or so until caramelized, about 45 minutes to 1 hour. Transfer to a bowl, scraping out all the browned bits and cover. DO NOT CLEAN THE PAN.
- Return skillet to medium-high heat. Pan should be smoking.
- Drain the marinade from the bag of chicken and place the meat in an even layer into the hot skillet. Cook until the chicken is cooked through, about 2-3 minutes per side, stirring as needed. Once cooked, place the chicken in the bowl with onions and cover. Again, do not clean the pan.
- Add the peppers to the pan and season with ½ teaspoon salt. Cook, stirring constantly. When they start to char and stick to the bottom of the pan, lower the heat to medium. Cook until they reach your desired doneness, then stir in garlic.
- Add onions and meat back into the skillet, then add tomato paste, turn off heat and stir in until well combined. At this point, you can pour in soy sauce to get that sizzling sound and smoke for when you bring it to the table.
- Serve fajitas with warmed flour tortillas, Greek yogurt, and lime wedges alongside.
Notes
If using larger chicken breasts, cut them in half horizontally or pound them to make thinner pieces of chicken to work with.
Feel free to use any pre-made fajita seasoning blend that you like, or make your own homemade fajita seasoning blend!
We like using a reusable Stasher Stand-Up bag for marinating the chicken. You can also do this in a container with a tight-fitting lid.
If you don't have time to caramelize onions, put them in with the peppers.
If the peppers aren't charring, you can raise the heat to high for a bit. If they start to burn, lower the beat and add a splash of water.
Make sure you don't clean or wipe out the pan in between steps. The bits that are in the bottom of the pan from each stage really add extra flavor to the final dish.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 2 Fajitas
- Calories: 270
- Sugar: 4.6 g
- Sodium: 367.7 mg
- Fat: 18 g
- Saturated Fat: 3.7 g
- Carbohydrates: 9 g
- Fiber: 2.2 g
- Protein: 18.3 g
- Cholesterol: 60.2 mg
Helene
I love fajitas. That's nice to have a friend like yours.
Patsyk
I love how simple it is to make fajitas at home.
Claire Addlestone
For some reason I've never looked at your fajita recipe until it was in the newsletter yesterday. I have been making them at home with pretty much the same ingredients as you for years. Carmelizing the onions, though, is a GAME CHANGER! I will be doing that from now on!
Ashley
Great minds think alike!! I'm glad you agree on caramelizing the onions. It's torture smelling them for an hour but the end result makes it SO worth the wait!
lorhen82
Dino is such a great son-in-law! I like it when he takes care of my girl!
Dino
Aww shucks!
Hey don't forget the "secret" ingredient: A heaping tablespoon of extra-concentrated tomato paste from the tube. It helps bind it all, turns everything a nice color and happens to taste great.
Donna-FFW
How lucky of you to have someone cook for you when you need it. And I hope your mood has improved and that ou feel better. These sound great! Look even better!!
lorhen82
Now that I've had these, cooked by the Dino himself, I must say that they are most excellent!
Katy ~
Yummm....fajitas! I make them infrequently but we enjoy them. I never thought of adding tomato paste and V8. I'll have to try that. Maybe that's the ingredient I'm missing?!
Ashley
It really is great - it has so much flavor! He uses a big splash, and then drinks the rest of the can 🙂
Chris
Wow, these look exactly like the chicken fajitas we had for lunch today at Flick. They must be reading your blog.....
Velva
I can see why Dinos fajitas turned out so well. Delicious.
lorhen82
You can let Dino know that I do expect to have his fajitas again when you visit next month! They're so yummy!
Penny
I love chicken fajitas and these sound just yummy to me! I think I will whip some up tonight and serve them with my favorite drink - my made at home cafe latte - my husband will thank me@
Orchidea
I love chicken fajitas and the picture looks great!
Ciao.
Gloria
You can never go wrong with a fun and delicious chicken dish for dinner. Our family loves Mexican. Tacos and fajitas happen a lot around here. I know this would be a crowd pleaser for sure.
Ashley
Tacos and fajitas are some of the most requested meals in our house, too. So good!
Gina
What an amazing post thank you so much and to your husband for the amazing tips the cast iron has always intimidated me but I know that it would bring out the most flavor and thank you again for the tips on the caramelized onions I always thought that they could be done in 20 minutes and that was long enough 45 minutes to an hour geez LOL but you right it is worth the wait again thank you for the recipe and in-depth post!
Ashley
I'm so glad this post was helpful for you, Gina! And YES - the caramelized onions take quite a while, and you can do it without going that far with them, but the flavor pay off is HUGE if you're able to wait it out. Recipes that say that you can properly caramelize onions in like 20 minutes drive me batty! Hope you enjoy the fajitas 🙂
Dominique | Perchance to Cook
I feel like I can taste these fajitas through the screen!! YUMMM. It looks just perfect! I love all the colors and all the flavor here. Homemade fajitas are the best!
Ashley
A colorful mix of peppers is so key to making them look and taste even better!
Jyothi (Jo)
my family loves Mexican food and fajitas can't wrong you. This skillet pan chicken fajitas can easily be our dinner any weeknight
Ashley
I hope your family loves these as much as mine does if you give them a try, Jo! 🙂
Whitney Bond
It's the worst when you go to a Mexican restaurant and order something other than fajitas and then smell someone else's walking by! These look like a wonderful way to make my house smell that amazing! Thanks for the tip about caramelizing the onions, for the perfect flavors!
Ashley
Ha - right?! It's like total order envy. Though with this recipe, I'm spoiled with awesome fajitas at home, so I often order other dishes when I'm at a Mexican restaurant now.
Kathryn | FoodieGirlChicago
I'm a big fan of fajitas and these sound super tasty! Love that you added caramelized onion to these - they are the best!
Ashley
Thanks, Kathryn. It really does amp up the flavor in this dish!
Callum
Trying this right now! Although I don't own a skillet so doing it in a normal pan 🙁 onions have a further 40 mins to go! Lol hopefully it works
Ashley
A normal pan is just fine! Let the onions cook as long as you're able to get them nice and golden. Your patience will be rewarded (and they'll still be delicious even if you don't let them get super caramelized). Let me know how it goes!
Lorie
We could make fajitas literally every night. Can’t wait to try this one and switch it up a bit!
Ashley
Aren't they the best?! We usually alternate between chicken and steak, but I'm looking to add some other options to the mix soon, too!
Christina
I didn't have any lime juice so I used pineapple juice instead. Followed the rest of the recipe as is (maybe not proportions tho). It is absolutely delicious! I love it and I'm sure my man will too! Thanks!!!
Ashley
I'm so glad these were a hit, Christina! The pineapple juice sounds like a fantastic addition. I love the sweet/savory combo. Thanks for sharing!
Amanda Mason
Excellent tips for these fajitas!! I agree - caramelizing the onions is so worth the time!! I love how you wrote this to say, "make restaurant quality fajitas at home"...I'm so sold on that! I love fajitas at the Mexican restaurant but if I can make them at home...even better! And we all know...anything made in a cast iron skillet is delish!
Ashley
I hope you love these as much (if not more!) than the ones you get out at a restaurant! Years ago, I would have never thought I could make fajitas this good at home, but shoutout to my hubby for his dedication to the cause 😉
Kitty
My hubby is a HUGE fajita fan. But I don't make them at home much. I'm gonna try this because we also love Penzeys!!!! I could eat a shoe covered in their spices!!! hahaha
Ashley
OMG isn't Penzeys the best?! I am OBSESSED with their spices! The fajita seasoning is absolutely fantastic!!
Stacey
Fajitas are the best, my family loves them and would inhale these as soon as they hit the table! So yum!
Ashley
My family also inhales these! Sometimes my 6-year-old even eats MORE than me and my husband do!
Heather
Cast iron pans are definitely the way to go and great tip about carmelizing the onions .. beautiful recipe and what a happy, healthy dish to serve.
Ashley
Cast iron is such a gamechanger! I love using it for one pan dishes like this, and for things like frittata and steak.
Jessica
I am trying this recipe tonight and and can't wait as it sounds delicious! When does the garlic get added?
Ashley
I hope you love this one as much as we do, Jessica! The garlic gets added in during step 7 of the recipe - after the peppers have been cooking and you lower the heat before the onions go back in. Hope that helps!
Gene
Girl, you are speaking my language. This looks great for a weeknight meal.
Mary Bostow
My husband is a Texan and loves Mexican food, this is going to be devoured at our house!
Melissa Jones
We had this for dinner tonight and it was delicious! My husband and I both said this meal is going in our regular rotation (and probably tomorrow too, I wish I wasn't full so I could eat more now!) Thanks for this wonderful recipe!
Ashley
I’m so glad to hear this, Melissa! It’s one of our favorites and I’m glad you and your husband enjoyed it. Have a wonderful weekend!
Sonji
Loved it! Caramelized onions turned out so delicious. It's worth the time it takes. Thank you!
Ashley
I’m so glad this was a hit for you, Sonji! It’s incredible how much flavor you get from giving the onions extra time, right?
Marie
Just made this and they were SO GOOD!!! Caramelized the onions for a full hour and it was so worth it
Ashley
I’m so glad these were such a hit, Marie! The caramelizing really does make a difference.
Ashley
This is one of the few recipes that's in regular rotation in my house. It's always worth the wait to really caramelize those onions. My family goes to TOWN on these, and they're fantastic as leftovers.