It seems a bit presumptuous to call something “the best,” doesn’t it? But I couldn’t resist, because these really are the best fajitas in the world. The entire world. No, wait, the entire galaxy.
Because I have an obsession with trying new recipes, I am always on the lookout for different versions of the same thing. I mean, look how many chocolate chip cookie recipes I have on here – and I love every single one. And rolls? Don’t even get me started.
But when it comes to these fajitas, I will not try another recipe. Them are strong words…but that is just how much we love this one. This is in the top three of my husband’s favorite meals (right up there with sweet and sour chicken) and although I hesitate to nail down my own favorite meals, this is definitely up there in the ranks.
Amid all the new recipes I try each month, this recipe still makes a regular appearance and nearly bowls me over with it’s phenomenal flavors each time.
The Best Chicken Fajitas
Printable Version
Printable Version with Picture
*Serves 4-5
*Note: liquid smoke may seem like an unnecessary, optional ingredient but I promise it adds an irreplaceable flavor and smokiness – I keep a bottle of liquid smoke on hand in the refrigerator just to make these fajitas.
INGREDIENTS:
Marinade:
¼ cup fresh lime juice (about 3-4 limes)
1/3 cup water
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 large cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons apple cider or red wine vinegar
2 teaspoons soy sauce
½ teaspoons chili powder
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon liquid smoke
¼ teaspoon black pepper
1/8 teaspoon onion powder
Fajitas:
1 1/2 pounds chicken breasts (about 3 large chicken breasts)
1 yellow onion, cut into thin strips
1 green pepper, cut into thin strips
1 red (or orange) pepper, cut into thin strips
8 ounces fresh mushrooms, quartered
1 teaspoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons water
½ teaspoon fresh lime juice (a quick squeeze of a cut lime)
dash of salt and pepper
DIRECTIONS:
Combine all marinade ingredients in a small bowl. Place chicken in a ziploc bag and pour the marinade ingredients over the top. Seal the bag and place in the refrigerator and let marinate for 2-3 hours.
After marinading, take chicken out of the bag and discard the marinade. Grill or broil the chicken 5-7 minutes per side . Remove from grill or pan and tent with foil to keep warm.
In a large nonstick skillet, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium heat and add the onion, mushrooms and peppers. Stir fry until softened but still crisp tender. Add soy sauce, water, lime juice and salt and pepper. Cook another 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently. Slice chicken thinly on the diagonal and toss with the vegetables in the skillet. Serve immediately with flour tortillas and top with tomatoes, lettuce, guacamole, cheese, sour cream…the options are endless!
Recipe Source: Mel’s Kitchen Cafe/originally from Erin W.
{ 64 comments… read them below or add one }
I made these for dinner tonight! Mmmm! Delish!!!! Soooo yummy.
I’m new to your blog- hi!
Hey Loralee – I’m glad you liked this recipe. I’m off to check out your post.
We served these last night, and they were a hit. I am posting a link to this recipe on my weightloss blog (nasty Holidays!)so the link is http://loseweightnow-loralee.blogspot.com/
if you want to check it out. Or not. I know you’re busy!
The Conrad Family – I agree the liquid smoke makes these amazing…thanks for letting me know you loved them!
Sonya – glad these were a hit! I’m also looking for a good spanish rice recipe and found one on simplyrecipes.com that I have yet to try. Let me know if you find a good one!
Leslie – I was excited for someone to weigh in on these after the post, so thanks for letting me know you liked them!
These were AWESOME!! Seriously the best fajitas I have had in forever! The liquid smoke is killer! What great flavor! Thanks for the great recipe!
I made these on Friday and they are very yummy. The chicken had wonderful flavor and a house full of kids ate them up. Now I just need to find a good spanish rice recipe!
We just made these for dinner and they really are The Best!!! My husband said to add it to a weekly rotation!! Thanks for another amazing recipe!!
I’m glad somebody likes these fajitas as much as I do.
They are totally out of this GALAXY! 
Danielle – I don’t really have a tried-and-true recipe for guacamole…usually I just mash up the avocado, sprinkle some kosher salt and fresh black pepper and then add some lemon juice and diced tomatoes. I know Alton Brown has a highly rated one on the food network if you want to check there.
Awesome! My husband and I were just talking about finding a good fajita marinade since the store-bought ones are so salty! I can’t wait to try this one. I love your site and recipes. I have a bunch flagged to try out!
Your fajitas look really good. I have a good recipe too that I’ll be posting as soon as I have a chance.
I’m on a quest for a good guacamole recipe. Do you have one?
My husband a I love fajitas. I haven’t made them in ages. Thanks for the reminder. Your name for the recipe does seem very fitting. It looks amazing! :0)
It’s nice to meet you. Your blog is terrific!
I’m pretty hungry and this isn’t helping. Looks super!
girl, if you say these are the best, then they must be the best. i can’t wait to try them!
I’m sold; these look fabulous.
Becca – liquid smoke is basically smoke in liquid form (I know, way to restate the obvious) and it gives meats a delicious, smoky flavor without cooking over specialty woods (like hickory).
Jenna – so glad you like this recipe!
Cammee – I do use mushrooms in mine but it is up to preference. I’ll add it in as an optional ingredient in the recipe.
Jordan – I find liquid smoke by the barbecue sauce/ketchup/worcestershire sauce in little glass bottles, about 4 ounces each.
hey have you read my email i sent ya at hotmail yet? let me know? ps its me giselle from nibley
good ol’ fajitas–they’re a surefire hit with me. my grandma, on the other hand, doesn’t particularly care for them, nor does she understand why we laugh whenever she talks about “fa-jai-tas.
We absolutely LOVE fajitas! I just so happen to have 3 large chicken breasts left from a family-size package I bought yesterday and I think I’m going to use them to try out this recipe! Your picture is making my mouth water already!!!!!
we’re huge fajita fans! I can’t wait to try this!!
Jordan, grocery stores are set-up differently, but I find liquid smoke in the condiment aisle (pickles, olives, etc.). A popular brand is Colgin Liquid Smoke and it comes in a 4 oz. bottle. It’s normally by the chili sauce, hot sauce, etc. I have two bottles in my fridge now and I use it a lot – also good putting some in raw hamburger meat (before you grill), stews, chili and of course, fajita meats.
Thanks for another great recipe – just wrote down the ingredients I don’t have on hand…this is supper tonight.
Lucky me, I just bought a bag of bell peppers from Costco! I spy mushrooms in your picture, do you add those with the peppers and onions?
I wish I had found this recipe a few days ago because we had fajitas last night for dinner…but yours sound better!
Where can you usually find liquid smoke at the grocery store? My family loves fajitas so i will me making these soon!
This is one of the first recipes I ever tried on your blog and you are right, it is FANTASTIC. There is no way I would ever use another recipe for fajitas. I have even used it on venison and man alive, it is outstanding! It’s one of my favorite meals to make. Thanks for sharing!
yep you should really make all these AMAZING recapies into a book!!!!
Can’t wait to try this one! We love fajitas! This will make an apperance at our house soon! Thanks!
Marcie and Doug – so glad you liked these and welcome to the blog! Thanks for commenting and stopping by.
Hi Melanie! These are seriously the BEST fajitas. We just had them for dinner. In fact, I ate two.
Quick note – you might already know this, but on the printable version without pics (I didn’t look w/pics), the mushrooms have been omitted.
WhollyMothers – so glad you liked these, and don’t worry, I usually eat two (if not more after I’m done picking at my kids’ plates) also.
Thanks for the note about the printables. I’ll fix!
oh so yummmmmy!!!! these were ‘dinner’ last night!!!! thank you so much! fabulous recipe!
Thanks, mia!
Just found your website and I’m excited to try it all! I’ve been on the lookout for the “best” recipes for quite some time and I think this may just be the last place I look. As for guacamole, I think the secret ingredient is Miracle Whip. I know, you’re going to say, “no way”. But I get rave reviews every time I make mine! I do the avocados, lemon juice, garlic, chopped onion, pepper, salt, diced fresh tomatoes, cilantro, and Miracle Whip. FABULOUS!
Made this using top sirloin – delish!! My kids new favorite. They all want it for their birthday dinners.
PottsFam – that’s adorable that this is the birthday request. My kids do that all the time, although there requests never stay the same so I usually have to ask them the day before their birthday just to make sure something hasn’t changed!
I made this tonight for my husband. I don’t eat peppers and onions but he liked it. I used beef instead of chicken and kept some of the meat separate and cooked it for myself. We both really loved the flavor profile of your marinade (We let it marinade over night.).
Thanks, Casper – I’m glad that this worked out well for you and your husband!
Well this was yet another winner of a recipe! I made this yesterday for some friends who came over. My friend doesnt eat white sugar or flour so we actually just ate this as is and it was SO DELICIOUS! believe it or not this was my first time eating fajitas! wat took me so long?! I could seriously see this being served over white rice too..infact I know for sure I will be trying it that way. I want to experience it with the flour tortillas and everything else so I will be making this again..probably this week..lol Thank you!!!
Sonya – yes, this fajita base would be delicious on many other applications. So glad you liked this!
These look delicious! Do you think that using skirt steak would work well with the marinade too? (It’s on sale this week)
Missy – yes, I think skirt steak would work great here and if it is on sale, even better!
Just tried these tonight–they were fantastic!!! Thanks so much!
Thanks, Lisa! Glad you loved these.
Delicious!
Hey there – Just made these for lunch and they were IN-SANE!!! We absolutely LOVED, LOVED, LOVED them and they have been promptly put in next weeks menu plan as well! I will definately be blogging about these….seriously, WOW!
Sieglinde – thank you! I’m glad I’m not the only one who could seriously eat these babies for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
I’ve made lots of homemade fajitas, but this recipe is definitely the best one yet. My husband was going crazy over them. Thanks so much! (I love “The Best Recipe” section and wish more recipe blogs did something similar!).
This might be a really dumb question, but what is an indoor grill pan? I’m wanting to make these. They look so yummy.
brihoopes@gmail.com (here’s my email address, I don’t see a subscribe to comments on here).
Hi BriAnn – an indoor grill pan looks like this and basically is a pan with ridges that you can heat on your stovetop and grill indoors. Hope that helps!
We made these tonight for the second time. This time I cut the breasts in half and marinaded it over night. OH MY GOSH! These really are the BEST chicken fajitas EVER! The flavor of the chicken was so perfect that I did not add any salsa to my fajitas burrito because the flavors alone were so yummy.
I have a night that I have to cook for everyone at Lake Powell in June and this is going to be the meal. I plan to freeze the chicken in the marinade before the trip to save a step. Do you think that would work?
Any ideas for lunch at Powell to feed 20+ people? Lunch is my nemesis.
I made these for the second time the other night and they are wonderful! I only omitted the mushrooms which I don’t like, but yes, this has earned a place in my cooking repetoire, but only with corn tortillas! Thanks!
Hi Melanie,
Have you ever made your own flour tortillas?
You aren’t kidding when you say these are the best. We LOVED them!!! My husband even claimed we would no longer be going to the dive mexican restaurant in our town. How in the world does a suburb of Chicago have NO good mexican food?!
Best. Fajitas. Ever. My husband could not stop talking about how good they were! Thanks for another great meal!
I have made these a few times and I must say, I like them better without the soy sauce. When you leave it out, the lime really shines, which I like because it tastes more Mexican-y. I think if I had to choose one thing to eat the rest of my life, it would be these. I can’t wait to try it with beef. I used chipotle chili powder and left out the mushrooms….I love mushrooms, just not in fajitas. I also just cooked the chicken in the pan before i did the veggies…my grill is on winter vacation and I wasn’t in the mood to turn on the oven. They were perfect. I will try the grill this spring. I have a friends old family recipe for tortillas….I love them because not only are they divine, but the recipe calls for oil instead of shortening. These fajitas were amazing on homemade tortillas. I love food and have a hard time committing to say what my favorite is, but I think I can commit to saying these are in my top 5. Thank you for an amazing recipe!
Mel thank you so much for bringing me back to cooking. I stumbled upon your site by mistake or what I now feel was a prayer answered from God! I have a 4, 3, and 1 year old so cooking has taken a back seat until recently. I just love your blog and the best recipes section. I’ve tried many recipes and have enjoyed them all! Tonight it fajitas and I knoiw they will be great! Thanks again for making me feel like a cook again instead of just a diaper changing child chasing mama
Made these for dinner tonight and they were wonderful. What a great recipe!
These are really good we had them for supper tonite, I added black beans and small chucks of pineapple instead of the mushrooms. Awesome thanks Mel!
these are the best fajitas i have EVER had!!!! just simply amazing, made them tonight, and everyone loved them!!!! my dad said it was the best chicken he has ever had!!!
These really are the best fajitas. I made them tonight, along with your yummy Mexican rice, sliced avocado, and the toasted corn black-bean salsa from America’s Kitchen Healthy cookbook. Just one was super filling but super good. I can’t wait for leftovers for lunch tomorrow. The chicken marinade is so easy and super flavourful– I would make the chicken on it’s own again too.
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