Dinner - "Light" Chicken Fajitas

I found this recipe for chicken fajitas in the Jan./Feb. 2011 issue of Cooking Light magazine. Two of these fajitas apparently net a value of just under 400 calories, which is pretty incredible based on how delicious they were. Of course, we added some cheese and a little sour cream to ours, which pushed the calories up a bit.

The nice flavor on these fajitas comes from marinating the main ingredients in dark Mexican beer, coupled with soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and lemon juice. We didn't realize that the ingredients needed to marinate an hour, and we were in a hurry to eat, so we probably only marinated them for about 40 minutes. The flavor was still delicious, but next time we make these we will leave them sit at least an hour!

As for the beer selection on these, they recommend a dark Mexican beer, and we used the magazine's particular suggestion of Negra Modelo, which had a nice chocolate/stouty flavor.

Cooking Light's Chicken Fajitas

Ingredients:
-3/4 cup dark Mexican beer
-2 tablespoons lower-sodium soy sauce (we used 1 tablespoon regular soy sauce and 1 tablespoon water)
-2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
-1 tablespoon canola oil (or vegetable oil)
-1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
-3 garlic cloves, crushed
-1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut across the grain into 1/2 inch thick strips
-1 cup sliced onion
-1 orange bell pepper, seeded and sliced (we subbed 2 red bell peppers for the other peppers since they were the cheapest!)
-1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and sliced
-1/4 teaspoon salt
-1/4 teaspoon pepper
-8 (6 inch) flour tortillas

Combine first 6 ingredients. Place chicken in a zip top bag and add 3/4 cup of the beer mixture. Seal and marinate in refrigerator 1 hour.
Place remaining beer mixture in a second zip top bag, and add onion and bell peppers, sealing and marinating 1 hour at room temperature.

Heat a skillet over med-high heat and coat pan with cooking spray. Remove chicken from bag, discarding marinade. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper, add to pan, and cook for 2 minutes on each side (or until done). Remove chicken from pan and keep warm.

Remove onion and peppers from bag and discard marinade. Add mixture to pan and cook 6 minutes or until tender, turning after 3 minutes. Combine chicken with onion and pepper mixture and cook an additional minute.

Meanwhile, toast tortillas in pan, if desired, and keep warm.

Ready plates for serving by placing 2 tortillas on each plate. Divide chicken mixture evenly between tortillas. Garnish with jalapeno slices, salsa, light sour cream, salsa, cilantro and cheese if desired.
Makes 4 servings.