Homemade Tortillas and Chicken Fajitas

Tonight I decided to tackle homemade tortillas since they seemed easy enough, and make chicken fajitas to go in them. Wow, was I surprised! The tortillas made a huge difference to the meal, and it made me feel better to eat something that had no chemicals or preservatives. They were definitely labor-intensive, but well worth it. I don't think I'll ever buy store tortillas again. This dinner was so delicious, and so filling! Here's a picture of the final product, and then I'll go step-by-step how I made it: 

Yum Yum! :)

First, here is a list of everything you will need for the complete meal:

• 3 cups all-purpose, unbleached flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 1 cup hot water
• 1 big roma tomato
• 1 medium yellow onion
• fresh cilantro
• 1 good-sized chicken breast, sliced
• 1 red, yellow, or orange bell pepper (I used yellow, because they were on sale!)
• cumin
• garlic powder
• oregano
• sour cream
• extra flour for rolling dough
• canola oil for the frying pan
• one large frying pan or a griddle
• a rolling pin

1. Tortillas:

The tortillas were the most time-consuming part of this meal, but it was worth it. I used this recipe for the tortillas, because it seemed the simplest that I found and I liked the fact that it used oil instead of butter or lard. 

First, I made the dough. Here's all my stuff! (Please ignore the jar of peach filling in the background... I promised my husband I'd make him cobbler at some point.) I'm ready to start:

Dry ingredients + oil + hot water:

After I whisked the dry ingredients, I added the oil and mixed with my hands until it was all crumbly. Believe it or not, I thought my hands would get oily, but they didn't! Then I added the hot water and mixed it up and shaped it into a ball:

I had to let it rest for 30 minutes, so I threw a towel over it and waited. While I was waiting, I made the pico de gallo, which I will explain later on. 

After my 30 minutes was up, I separated the dough into 12 smaller balls, and got out my rolling pin. The recipe called for a griddle, but since I didn't have one, I used my giant frying pan:

Worked just fine! :)

Next, I started rolling out the first dough ball. I discovered that a)rolling out dough is tough, and b)it's impossible to make a perfect circle, so here's the best I could do:

It's important to make it as thin as possible and then carefully lay it in the dry pan on medium heat. After approximately 1 minute, after I saw bubbles rising in the dough, I flipped it over. It should have some dark brown spots:

I did the same on the other side, and then put it on a plate and placed a dry, clean kitchen towel over it. The towel helps them stay warm and soft. Then I made the other 11 tortillas. Granted, I messed up a couple of them, but I ended up with 9 great ones, and 3 okay ones, lol. Here's the finished stack:

If you look carefully, you can see the Pikachu face!!! ^_^

Tada!! Tortillas are done! I put the towel back over them to stay warm while I finished cooking everything else.

2. Pico De Gallo

I diced one roma tomato, a small bit of my onion (maybe 1/6 of it) and chopped some fresh cilantro. Here's what it looked like before I mixed it up and put it in the fridge:

3. Chicken Fajitas

I wiped out my frying pan, and put it back on medium heat with some canola oil. I chopped my onion into chunky strips and threw them in the pan:

After cooking the onions until they were just starting get some brown spots, I pushed them to one side of the pan and threw in the chicken strips. Once the chicken was in the pan, I sprinkled in salt and pepper, garlic powder, oregano, and cumin. I didn't measure any of those out, but a couple pinches of each should do it. You can always add more if you want! 

While the chicken was cooking, I chopped up my bell pepper. When the chicken looked like the above picture (nothing raw anymore), I threw in the bell pepper slices. I also tossed in some fresh cilantro. I cooked it for about 3-4 more minutes, and then told my husband it was time to eat!

Yay! I am so happy with how this turned out, I will have to do it again!


Until next time,
J