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These delicious 6-ingredient marinated chicken fajitas are made with chicken breast meat for a lean and healthy dinner option everyone will love!
Table of Contents
- Why You’ll Love These Chicken Fajitas
- What to Eat With Chicken Fajitas
- Quick Tips
- Are Chicken Fajitas Healthy?
- How Do You Eat Fajitas Without Tortillas
- Ingredients
- How to Make Chicken Fajitas on the Stove
- Baking Chicken Fajitas in the Oven
- Storage, Freezing, & Reheating
- Have You Made This Recipe?
- More Easy Weeknight Chicken Recipes
- Marinated Chicken Fajitas w/ Chicken Breast Recipe
Why You’ll Love These Chicken Fajitas
This recipe is quick, easy, and perfect for weeknights. Just pop your chicken, onions, and peppers into a gallon zip-top bag with the marinade and toss it in the fridge until dinner time!
When it’s time to cook, all you have to do it transfer the chicken and veggies to a skillet and sauté them until they’re ready. You can prep all of your extras in the meantime, which makes things super quick and easy.
Best of all, chicken fajitas make for an exciting dinner. Not only are they super flavorful and wonderfullt seasoned, but they’re fun because everyone can dress them up to their own taste.
What to Eat With Chicken Fajitas
- These heavenly air fryer sweet potatoes slathered in honey lime glaze are a perfect pairing.
- We love chicken fajitas with rice, so my Instant Pot Mexican Rice is another quick recipe that takes the fuss out of dinner, and without sacrificing flavor.
- More veggies on ours plates is never a bad idea, so grilled asparagus or oven-roasted broccoli with nutritional yeast are great.
- And as a bonus, here’s the recipe for my easy classic margarita! It’s a must for taco or fajita nights. But take note—she’s a potent one!
Quick Tips
- If you’re marinating the chicken fajita ingredients for longer than 4 hours, I recommend omitting the lime juice in the marinade; you can simply add it once everything is in the pan cooking. Marinating meats in acidic liquids like citrus for too long can break down the meat and result in a mushy texture.
- If you’re making this on a whim and aren’t marinating, that’s fine! Toss the chicken and veggies into a bowl with the marinade ingredients until well combined, and move on with the instructions.
- To ensure an even cook on everything, move most of the chicken strips to the bottom of the pan when cooking so they get most of the heat. This way, both the veggies and the chicken will be cooked to where you want them at the same time.
- To minimize waste, I like to label my zip-top bags as I use them, wash them out, and use them again for the same type of meal. I have a “chicken fajita” zip-top bag tucked away in my drawer!
Are Chicken Fajitas Healthy?
Chicken fajitas, whether in a restaurant or at home, definitely make for a complete and nutritious meal. They’re high in protein and fiber, and they offer up various vitamins and minerals with the variety of vegetables included.
Check the bottom of the recipe card for full chicken fajita nutrition facts!
How Do You Eat Fajitas Without Tortillas
Whether you’re doing low-carb or simply can’t eat tortillas for any reason, fajitas are great served in a lettuce cup, like our beloved sesame hoisin chicken lettuce wraps! You can stuff ’em and dress ’em up all the same.
Ingredients
*Exact measurements included in the recipe card below.
- Chicken breasts. Making chicken fajitas with chicken breasts is super simple. I like using chicken breasts because they’re lean and can easily be cut into strips. You could also use tenderloins or, if you really want to, dark meat from chicken thighs. Just go for boneless and skinless.
- Olive oil. You’ll use enough in your marinade, so you won’t likely have to add more while cooking, but have it on hand just in case the pan gets a bit dry.
- Onions. I always use red when I make my sheet pan shrimp fajitas—I love the pop of color! But you can use white or yellow onions if preferred.
- Bell peppers. I opted for the sweeter red and yellow varieties. You could also use green, just note that they’re less sweet and have a subtle bitterness.
- Seasoning. I use this taco seasoning recipe because I always have it on hand, and the difference between the two seasonings are negligible. Use either one!
- Limes. It would be a crime to not include limes. They brighten things up beautifully!
- Flour tortillas. Technically you can use any kind of tortilla you like, but I vote flour tortillas always. They’re soft and flexible, therefore they can handle the more hefty ingredients of a fajita.
- Toppings. This is where you get to make the fajitas your own. Tomatoes, lettuce, jalapeño, sour cream, cheese…whatever makes the perfect fajita for you, include it.
How to Make Chicken Fajitas on the Stove
Slice the chicken breasts into thin strips—about 1/2-inch thick—and place them into a large gallon-sized zip-top freezer bag. Slice up your veggies and add them to the bag as well.
Chicken Fajitas Marinade
In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lime juice, and about 2 heaping TBSP of seasoning. Pour this mixture into the bag over the chicken and veggies, then seal the bag, pushing out any excess air.
Give the bag a good shaking and massage the bag lightly to ensure the seasoned oil coats everything. Then pop the bag into the fridge for up to 4 hours. (See the Quick Tips above if you’re marinating them for longer.)
How to Cook Chicken Fajitas With Chicken Breasts
Remove the marinating bag from the fridge about 15 minutes prior to cook time. Letting the chicken come to room temp helps to get a more even cook.
Heat a skillet (I love using a good cast iron) to high-heat. When it’s hot, reduce the temperature to medium-high and dump the contents of the bag into the skillet and stir everything around, arranging the chicken to be touching the bottom of the pan so it gets the most heat.
Let them cook untouched for about 3 minutes, then give everything a good stir, flipping the chicken tenders over in the process to cook for another 3 minutes. Note: Chicken tenders typically take 6 minutes total to cook on the stovetop, but because they’re sharing the pan with so many veggies, it’s good to plan to give them an extra few minutes.
Once the internal temperature of the chicken reaches 160-165º F (using a meat thermometer), they’ll be cooked through and still tender and juicy! Remove the skillet from the heat.
Set your toppings and extras up in somewhat of an assembly line and start building your fajitas!
Baking Chicken Fajitas in the Oven
Here’s a quick rundown on how to bake these chicken fajitas instead.
- Preheat the oven to 350º F.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Transfer the marinated chicken and veggies to the baking sheet, spreading everything out evenly so nothing is crowded.
- Pop the pan in the oven and cook for about 15-20 minutes, or until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 160-165º F. Check in at the 15-minute mark.
- When done, remove from the oven and serve!
Storage, Freezing, & Reheating
- Leftovers can be stored in the fridge in an airtight container for 3-4 days.
- If you’d like to freeze these, you can freeze them prior to cooking. Once your chicken and veggies are all mixed up in the gallon-sized zip-top freezer bag with the seasoning, label the bag with dish name and date, and pop it in the freezer. Transfer it to the fridge the night before you plan on cooking it up for dinner, and cook as per the instructions.
- To reheat, you can either pop them back into a skillet and reheat over medium-low heat until heated through, or microwave it in 25-second increments until you reach your desired temperature. They make for a super yummy next-day meal!
Have You Made This Recipe?
If you enjoyed this recipe, please consider leaving a STAR rating & commenting below with feedback!
You can also show off your creations on Instagram by tagging @killing__thyme
More Easy Weeknight Chicken Recipes
- Easy Chicken Piccata
- Creamy Spinach Artichoke Chicken Skillet
- Healthy Cashew Chicken
- Greek Sheet Pan Chicken With Baked Feta
- Best Crispy Air Fryer Chicken Cutlets
- Best Chicken Burger
Marinated Chicken Fajitas w/ Chicken Breast
Ingredients
- 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1.5-2 lbs)
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 2 bell peppers, Keep in mind that red, orange, and yellow are sweeter, whereas green has a little more on the bitter side.
- 1 onion, Red, yellow, or white will do.
- 2 TBSP taco or fajita seasoning
- 2 limes; one cut into wedges for serving, the other, zested and juiced
- Flour tortillas, for serving
Instructions
MARINATING
- Cut the chicken breasts into 1/2-inch thick strips and place them into a large zip-top gallon bag. Slice the bell peppers into strips, cut the onions into 1/2-inch thick wedges, and toss them into the bag with the chicken; set aside.
- Whisk the olive oil, lime juice, lime zest, and 2 heaping TBSP of taco or fajita seasoning in a small bowl. Pour this mixture into the gallon bag over the chicken and veggies. Seal the bag shut, pushing out any excess air, and shake/massage the bag to distribute the marinade, ensuring to coat everything evenly.
- Put the bag in the fridge for up to 4 hours. (See notes for instructions if marinating for longer than 4 hours.)
COOKING THE CHICKEN FAJITAS
- About 15 minutes before cook time, remove the chicken and veggies from the fridge. Let it come to room temp—this helps to get a more even cook on the chicken.
- Heat a skillet over high-heat and when it’s hot, reduce the temperature to medium-high. Transfer the contents of the bag into the skillet and stir everything around. Arrange the chicken to touch the bottom of the pan. This way the chicken gets the most heat and it all cooks at the same time.
- Let everything cook untouched for about 3 minutes, then stir, flipping the chicken tenders over in the process. Cook for another 3 minutes. (Take note: chicken tenders usually take about 6 minutes total to cook on the stovetop, but because they’re sharing the pan with so many veggies here, plan for a few extra minutes.)
- When the chicken tenders reach an internal temperature of 160-165º F, remove the skillet from the heat.
- Serve with tortillas and lime wedges, and dress them up to your preference!
This is flat out a game changer! The lime and onions combine for amazing flavor and really set these fajitas apart from all the rest. This will most definitely go into our family meal rotation. Thank you!ย
Love this Marinated Chicken Fajitas w/ Chicken Breast recipe, so juicy and healthy!!! will make it for dinner soon. Thanks for sharing :)
We LOVE fajitas at our house and this recipe looks fantastic! I canโt wait to make these for dinner tonightย
These were so delicious! Loved the flavors.
I found this recipe yesterday and immediately went and got everything I needed for it. Taco Tuesday is going to be delicious tonight!