Chicken Fajita Pasta

Chicken Fajita Pasta, a delicious marriage of spicy Mexican Chicken Fajitas and creamy Italian Pasta Sauce. With only 10 minutes of prep, this Chicken and Pasta recipe is a perfect weeknight dinner. I specially love how bow-tie pasta and creamy sauce burst with flavor of fajita spices and chicken turns out moist and delicious. I bet it's more flavorful than Pasta dinner. Far better from my favorite Italian restaurant. Give it a try! 

Today's recipe is special because it's two-dinner-recipes-in-one. You can serve Chicken Fajita Skillet or Creamy Chicken Fajita Pasta following the same recipe. (read on to know more)

Oh, shout out for the Fajita Veggies - bell peppers and onions which sneak good serving of veggies into this dinner for nutrition. 

CHICKEN FAJITAS

Chicken Fajitas is Mexican Chicken dish which is prepared by cooking chicken with aromatic fajita spices, bell peppers and onions. Served with splash of lime juice and fresh warm corn tortillas to scoop the spiced chicken and veggies. It is traditionally served in hot sizzling cast-iron skillet. 

CHICKEN FAJITA PASTA

Today's recipe is all of delicious spicy Chicken Fajita flavors with creamy sauce and pasta instead of corn tortillas. This recipe is our favorite fusion pasta dinner when I'm craving pasta but also craving Mexican bold flavor and spices. Inspiration credit goes to Cheese Cake Factory's Cajun Chicken Pasta. (my all time favorite)

Here's what you need to make Chicken Fajita Pasta at home. The main ingredients of chicken fajita pasta are:

1. Creamy Fajitas Sauce with fajita seasoning (heart of this dish is Fajita Seasoning)
2. Fajita Veggies.
3. Chicken
4. Pasta

FAJITA SEASONING 

Fajita Seasoning is packed with flavorful spices. This is what makes sauce The Fajita Sauce. As soon as spices hit the pan, the flavor and aroma will ask you to dig in.

I often blend fresh seasonings at home for freshest possible flavor and save cost of buying various seasonings. But you can by all means use a good quality store-bought Fajita Seasoning. To make Fajita Seasoning from scratch at home, try my homemade fajita spice mix recipe. Also adding the list of ingredients to make fajita seasoning below: 

1. Oregano 
2. Garlic Powder
3. Chili Powder 
4. Paprika 
5. Black Pepper
6. Onion Powder
7. Parsley 
8. Mustard Powder 
9. Cumin Powder

Mix all dry ingredients in a clean jar.  Cover and shake well. Use as desired. Keep the leftovers in airtight container in a cool dry place. 

Note: If using homemade fajita seasoning, skip adding the additional Oregano in the fajita sauce recipe.

Tip: When buying instead of mixing own seasoning, go for a smaller jar of seasoning that you can finish in 2-3 times. This way open box of spices won't sit in pantry and loose freshness. Flavor of fresh seasoning makes exceptional Chicken Fajitas.

FAJITA VEGGIES

There are two usual vegetable suspects in homemade fajitas:

1. Sweet bell peppers – I love to use a mix of colors. Red, yellow, green, and orange peppers (even though they’re not pictured) would be great.
2. Onions – Although, I prefer white onion. You can use red onion for more sharp and yellow for more sweetness. 
3. Don't stop at these veggies. If you like mushroom or summer squash? Go for it! These make great addition to Fajita Sauce. I only recommend to use less quantity so that flavor of sauce and pasta can shine through.

Cook these veggies in skillet and add minced garlic, oregano, onion. These veggies are ready in minutes to brighten up any summer weeknight dinner!  You can even serve Vegetarian Fajitas with these.

FAJITA SAUCE

Fajita Sauce is the heart of this Creamy Chicken Pasta. Making Fajita Sauce is super easy and quick. You need only 7 ingredients.

1. Fajita Seasoning 
2. Oregano
3. Garlic
4. Heavy Cream or Cream Half and Half.
5. Lime juice
6. Roasted Diced Tomatoes (my secret weapon. Not so secret now. :-))
7. Chicken Bouillon - I used one cube to give delicious depth of flavor to the sauce without any chicken stock. If you have good quality homemade Chicken Stock, use that. Please don't use any other stock or broth. As per my experience, I tried and did not like the strong flavored stocks in this sauce. In-fact, choose plain water if you don't have bouillon or good quality stock.

Make Ahead: Make Chicken Fajita Sauce ahead of time and refrigerate. When ready to eat, cook pasta, warm the sauce, add pasta. That's it. Ready to serve.

CHICKEN

To enhance the flavor of Pasta, I first cook diced chicken with the half of fajita seasoning. It takes few minutes but makes a lot of difference in overall flavor of pasta sauce. I love this for two reasons:

1. Chicken turned out bursting with fajita flavors. 
2. Fajita seasoning coated juices of chicken helps make fajita sauce extra special.

I used chicken breast tenders for this recipe. However, diced chicken breast or thigh will work perfectly for this recipe. (Thigh meat is more worked-out meat. So it will be even more moist and juicy.)

PASTA

Whether you like penne, farfalle, spaghetti, or tagliatelle. All these pasta shapes work with cream fajita sauce.  The options are endless! My personal favorites for this recipe are Penne and Farfalle (commonly known as bow tie pasta or butterfly pasta). It works well with creamy fajita sauce. Pasta holds the sauce into nooks and crannies making every bite so so delicious. (pure yum)

No matter which pasta you choose, always cook pasta al dente, according to package directions. 

HOW TO MAKE CHICKEN FAJITA PASTA

Chicken Fajita Pasta comes together in 30 minutes (only 10 minutes to prep.). I start boiling the water for pasta after I prep the ingredients. Start cooking sauce and pasta at the same time. This way sauce comes together about the same time the pasta is boiled and al dente.

Here's how I make the Chicken Fajita Pasta; 

1. Cook Pasta: Bring a pot of water to boil. Season with salt. Add pasta until al dente according to package directions. 
2. Cook Chicken: Season diced chicken (or chicken tenders) with fajita seasoning and sauté until chicken starts to develop some color. 
3. Cook Fajita: Add garlic, bell peppers, onions with remaining seasoning. Sauté with chicken for 2 minutes. This step blends flavor of spices in both; chicken and veggies.
   
4. Make Sauce: A add remaining ingredients and simmer to make cream sauce. 
5. Assemble: Mix in cooked pasta and you have it - the delicious and spiced Chicken Fajita Pasta!

Chicken Fajita Skillet: Cook Step 2 and 3 above and you have the Chicken Fajita Skillet. Mix in some lime juice and little butter. Make sure chicken is cooked through. Serve as Chicken Fajita Skillet with side of warm corn Tortillas and Sour Cream. (Picture 1 above)

MAKE IT YOUR OWN

You can also easily fix this Pasta Recipe as per your family' preference. For example:

1. Replace chicken with lean protein such as shrimp.
2. Go vegetarian and use tofu or mushrooms instead of chicken.
3. Make lite sauce - replace cream with half and half.

Cook any protein the same way as Recipe Directions describe to cook chicken. I mean, with seasonings for full flavor. Only make sure to not overcook. Specially, shrimp will need very less time compared to chicken.

This Chicken Fajita Pasta recipe has amazingly flavorful chicken, crisp-tender bell peppers with onions, coated in zesty spicy fajita sauce with hint of lime. This will become your new favorite weeknight dinner. Flavors speak for itself. Try some tonight.  

Happy Cooking! Savita x