Crispy chicken fajitas with charred spring onions and Tex-Mex slaw

Amping up the crunch while staying true to what makes chicken fajitas great, this recipe offers something fresher and brighter, thanks to the piquant pepper slaw and charred spring onions.

“Fajita kits were a mainstay of my childhood, something I regarded as a treat and something my mum loved because they were quick and easy,” says head of food Tom Shingler. “But after a while the aggressive spicing, overcooked chicken (sorry, Mum) and semi-raw peppers stuffed into a tortilla with a suspiciously long shelf life lost their charm. What I once eagerly awaited became an eye-rolling ‘not again’ sort of affair.”

“As I got older and started working in food, I continued to eschew fajitas in favour of ‘proper’ Mexican cuisine, writing them off as a Tex-Mex cliché that could never hold a candle to the birria or al pastor tacos found in Mexico itself. While I’ve shed that snobby approach to the dish (thankfully), I still find fajitas a bit one-dimensional. The spice mix tends to overpower and become the only thing you can taste, and the peppers and onions taste like they can’t make up their mind whether they should be crunchy and raw or softened and cooked through.”

“With a few cheeky tweaks, however, fajitas have become something I look forward to again. I’ve stuck with chicken because – despite the original fajitas being made with skirt steak – it’s what most of us in the UK associate the dish with. But to add some texture and crunch I’ve fried the strips in spiced flour and breadcrumbs.”

“To solve the semi-cooked veg issue, I’ve given the peppers the slaw treatment, cutting them fine, leaving them raw and dressing them in plenty of lime juice. The onions are gone; in their place are beautiful spring onions, which are fiercely charred to bring that smoky allium flavour. All that’s needed to hold it all together in the tortilla is a good dollop of soured cream and generous splashes of hot sauce.”

“The result is a fajita that boasts the same flavour profile as the original but offers a wider range of textures to keep things interesting. It’s a lot more colourful and fresh-tasting, thanks to lashings of lime, and despite the crunchy fried chicken it feels lighter to eat.”

Fancy the classic? Here’s our old-school chicken fajitas recipe.