Beef Fajitas

These are some great fajitas. The marinade can either go with beef or chicken. Be sure to garnish with some fresh ripe avocado, sour cream and cheese if you want. The recipe was adapted from Cooks Illustrated.

1/3 cup juice from 2 to 3 limes
6 tbsp vegetable oil
3 medium garlic cloves minced or pressed (about one tablespoon)
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp brown sugar
1 jalapeno chili, seeded and ribs removed, minced. (we didn't have this, so we used 3 dried hot chili's. If you want it to be spicy, use the seeds and rib of the pepper)
1 1/2 tbsp minced cilantro leaves
table salt and black pepper
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, or about a pound of skirt steak
1 large red onion (we used a white onion) peeled and cut into 1/2 inch thick rounds, do not separate rings)
1 large red bell pepper sliced
1 large green bell pepper sliced
flour tortillas


In a medium bowl, whisk together lime juice, 4 tbsp oil, garlic, Worcestershire, brown sugar, jalapeno, cilantro, 1 tsp salt and 3/4 tsp pepper. Reserve 1/4 cup of the marinade in a small bowl. set aside. Add another tsp salt to remaining marinade. Place meat in marinade and cover with plastic wrap (or use a ziplock) and refrigerate for 15 minutes. Brush both sides of onion rounds and peppers with remaining 2 tbsp oil and season with salt and pepper (we actually just put the veggies in with the meat to marinate.)

At this point, you can either just start up a grill and do them on that, or you can use a grill pan or cast iron pan in the kitchen, if you are like us and out of gas for your grill, and didn't feel like being out in the cold.

Take out the meat and set aside. We started by cooking the onions first until they well browned and then removed, and then cooked the meat and peppers together, to where the meat was cooked and the peppers still had some crunch to them. Cooks Illustrated, (who never screws around) says that when you want to cook this on the grill, to remove the meat from the marinade and place it on the hotter part of the grill. Then they tell you to place the veggies on the cooler side and cook until the meat is done and the veggies are still crisp and slightly charred. Do what you feel is best. Our way, still provided great fajitas, and not the trouble of using the grill.

Garnish with your favorite stuff and enjoy.