Chicken Fajitas with Crunchy Lime Cabbage

*I do this with beef, too :o)

I made a new dish tonight for dinner and sheee, mama, it was good. (I told you there was some salsa in our future!)

The kids gobbled it up (Nathan kept saying “I like tor-tee-uh, mama! Good! I like it!”) and Abby helped with most of the preparation. She especially loved grating the lime peel. And while the stuff was marinating, she and Nathan gave Bruce and I pedicures! (Don’t tell Bruce I told you that, though!)

The original recipe is HERE on epicurious but because I tend to adapt things, I’ll write how I did it below.

Chicken Fajitas with Crunchy Lime Cabbage

Ingredients:

• 1 pkg chicken breasts - (I bought them pre-trimmed and small, ready for fajitas)
• Sliced small peppers - red, orange, & yellow (I got a package of these which was cheaper than buying the red, orange and green ones seperately - I opted out of green all together)
• Zest of 1 lime
• Juice of one lime, plus more if you have it (I added about a tablespoon more of ReaLime from the fridge)
• 1/2 head purple cabbage - sliced into strips
• Chopped fresh cilantro
• Avocado - Firm - Sliced (Or make guacamole!)
• Fresh Crushed Garlic - 6 cloves (2 for the salad, 4 for the fajita chicken)
• Red Onion
• Tortillas
• Olive Oil
• Salt / Pepper (I always use the kind you have to grind - both the S&P - It’s better fresh and coarse, IMO!)
• Cumin

**Make the cabbage garnish ahead of time. The marinating process makes it SOOOOOO delicious!

• In a large bowl, mix up the sliced cabbage, chopped cilantro, 2 cloves of crushed garlic (USE FRESH GARLIC FOR THIS RECIPE IF YOU CAN!) and most of the lime juice / zest (I saved some to cook with the fajitas.) Dress with Olive Oil, Salt and Pepper to your taste. (I used a pretty liberal amount of olive oil.) Put in the fridge to marinate.
• Put chicken, sliced peppers, sliced onions, garlic, rest of lime juice/zest, a little olive oil S&P in a separate bowl. Mix well. Put in the fridge to marinate for 30 mins - 1 hour.
• Get a pedicure from your 4 year old.
• In a large skillet, cook the fajita / chicken mixture. It will need to get good and brown and the veggies get soft.
• I heated up the tortillas (with a sheet of wax paper in between each one) in the microwave for about a minute . (I am sure there is some study saying that microwaved wax paper causes cancer or something. If there is, tell me but otherwise, this is an easy trick! You can also use slightly dampened and wrung out paper towels between each one in the microwave *or* wrap the tortillas in aluminum foil and put in a warm oven while you’re cooking.)
• Slice avocado into nice thin wedges.
• Slice another lime to use on your plate, if desired.
  When the meat / veggies have finished cooking, spoon some of the mixture in to the warm tortilla and top with the cabbage / cilantro “salad”. Avocados can go on the side of in the fajita.

I also made some homemade salsa to go with this but it would be good without it. (Cherry tomatoes, cilantro, lemon juice, garlic, onion, cumin, S&P - Just pulse in the blender.)

Serve with sparkling water with lime or even better, a frozen strawberry margarita!

THIS WAS SO DELICIOUS!