Chicken Fajitas

History & Origin

Fajitas are one of the Tex-Mex dishes with the most documented and fascinating origin. The word 'fajita' is the diminutive of 'faja' in Spanish, which in the culinary context originally referred to the skirt steak - the strip of muscle that hangs beneath the ribcage of cattle. This cut of meat, considered second-rate, was the payment that Mexican cowboys in Texas (the 'tejanos') received as part of their wages in the early twentieth century when they worked in border slaughterhouses. The tejanos discovered that, when marinated and grilled, the skirt steak was delicious wrapped in flour tortillas with peppers and onion. Chicken fajitas are in fact a later adaptation that emerged in the 1980s, when Tex-Mex restaurants in Texas began offering alternatives to beef. It was Ninfa's restaurant in Houston that popularised fajitas on formal menus in 1973. The spectacle of the sizzling cast iron pan arriving at the table became a hallmark of the Tex-Mex genre and one of the most anticipated gastronomic rituals for diners. Today, fajitas are one of the best-selling dishes in Mexican and Tex-Mex restaurants worldwide.