Chicken Fajitas

Chicken Fajitas are an awesome choice for dinner, be it at home, on the road at a restaurant or in camp after a long day of hiking. And they don’t have to be hard to make. Be sure to check the notes at the bottom of the recipe for ideas and tips.

The recipe uses all freeze-dried ingredients for a lightweight meal that pulls together quickly. All freeze-dried ingredients used were Thrive Life. Having said that, Thrive Life got stripped this last week due to the huge spring sale they held. But they are restocking quickly (they dry their own items) in Utah. You can sub in diced fd onions or green bell peppers of course.

While designed as a one pan recipe, where the ingredients are pan fried quickly it can also be served as an FBC meal if you are not picky – or want to save cooking time/cleanup.

Chicken at bottom left, red pepper slices, onions slices at top right, and garlic at upper left.

Chicken Fajitas

In a quart freezer bag:

• ½ cup freeze-dried chicken slices (19 grams)
• ½ cup freeze-dried red bell pepper slices (6 grams)
• ½ cup freeze-dried sliced onions (6 grams)
• 1 Tbsp freeze-dried garlic or 1 tsp granulated garlic

Also Take:

• 2 True Lemon packets
• 1 packet or 1 Tbsp oil
• 2 street taco sized tortillas*
• Cheese, if desired*
• 1 small avocado, if desired*

Directions:

In a 1.4 to 2 liter pot size, preferably HAA or non-stick, bring ¾ cup water to a boil. Turn off the stove. Place the freezer bag in a cozy, or wrap to insulate. Add in the water, seal tightly and let sit for 10 minutes to hydrate.

Add in the oil to the pan, add in the rehydrated ingredients and sprinkle the True Lemon over. Heat over medium heat. Stir constantly to pan fry up and crisp up the ingredients.

Serve immediately on the tortillas, with toppings as desired.

Serves 1.

Notes:

To make FBC friendly, skip heating the ingredients in the pan. Drain off any remaining water from rehydrating (this I do recommend to sip on, it’s tasty) and then add to the tortillas.

To heat the tortillas, either quickly heat in the pan before you add the oil (and just stash to stay warm) or run over the flame of the stove. The pan method is far safer.

For cheese, either use hard cheese like cheddar that you carry, or use shelf stable cheese, or freeze-dried cheese. For single night outings, where it isn’t hot, you can carry a bag of shredded cheese. Use part at night, rest in the morning (make eggs in the morning!). With shredded cheese, don’t stick your hand in the bag, keep it fresh by shaking it out. You can freeze it before you leave for your trip, carry in a cooler till you get to the trailhead.

Avocados are something I started carrying a long time ago. They carry quite easily. The small ones are often sold in bags for a discount because they are tiny/ugly. Perfect size for 1 person. Adds lots of healthy fat to your meal, to keep you full. Carry in a mug, wrapped in a paper towel. It won’t bang around that way. I cut in half, then pop out with my spoon. You don’t even need to slice it, it’s good anyway you eat it.

That paper towel? Use it as a clean surface to prep your tortillas on. Easy peasy! Then you have a napkin for after dinner or to use to wipe your pot out with. Multi purpose even!

I weighed the ingredients instead of measuring them. I find for freeze-dried items this works easier and is far more accurate. I added the weights at the end in grams above.

Will dehydrated work instead? Yes and no on this. Freeze-dried comes back far faster and tastes like fresh. Dried bell peppers tend to get a thick skin, almost leathery. It stays chewy. Same with chicken slices. You get chicken jerky which can be less than desirable – and it will be very, very chewy. So splurge on yourself. Enjoy the good things in life!

Last note…Spices? Salt? Because my freeze-dried chicken was seasoned, I didn’t add salt. If you like a saltier profile, add in a pinch with the dry ingredients. I went for lemon juice for the flavor, as I wanted the veggies and chicken’s flavors to shine thru. You can add in spices as you like of course, chili and cumin are are often used. Having said that, I am not a huge fan of either cumin or chili powder. So this is my riff on it. Hike your own hike, or maybe season your own pot. Lol. If you like it a certain way, you can always buy packets of flavoring and sprinkle a teaspoon in with the dried vegetables.

~Sarah