Sunday, July 8, 2012

Campfire Fajitas

I try to bring different kinds of food camping so we don't get tired of sandwiches, hot dogs and hamburgers. Before I plan on taking a new recipe with us on a camping trip I always experiment with it at home so I know exactly what I am doing at camp and so I can get the ingredients just right. This is a recipe I found online (I wish I remember where so I could give them credit). I will give you the original recipe and then give you the modifications I will be making to it at the end. I always try a recipe how it is originally written and then experiment with it a couple times before it gets written on a recipe card and put in my recipe box to make over and over and over. With this recipe you do part of it at home and then do the rest at camp. The prep work and beginning of the marinating is done at home which means I spend less time stuck in the motor home at camp doing prep work (that's my favorite part!).

Campfire Fajitas

This is what the finished fajita will look like
First step is to gather all of the ingredients:


The Ingredients

 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts (partially frozen is good because it's easier to cut into strips)
2 bell peppers (2 green or 1 red, 1 green)
1 medium yellow onion
5 garlic cloves, minced (you'll notice I use a jarred minced garlic because it's hard to find good garlic where I live - 1 teaspoon = 1 clove of garlic)
1/2 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon dried cilantro
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 tablespoons liquid smoke
juice from 1 lime (I couldn't find any good limes so I used a couple squirts from one of those plastic limes)
2 tablespoons butter
fajita tortillas and any extras you want like cheese and sour cream

At Home:

Slice the chicken in 2 to 3 inch strips (big enough they won't fall through a grill grate) and place the strips in a large zipper bag. Add the olive oil, salt, cayenne pepper, dried cilantro, dried oregano, cumin, liquid smoke and lime juice and place the bag in the refrigerator.
The Chicken Step Completed
De-seed and core the peppers, slice into strips. Slice the onion into strips and mix with the peppers. Store the onions and peppers in an air-tight container and also place in the refrigerator.
The Vegetable Step Completed

 At Camp:

For this part you have to imagine you are at camp. I have the same pans in the motor home as I do my house so that helps with the imagination. I cut my chicken into too small of pieces so I had to use a frying pan instead of grilling on the BBQ or fire grate (it was also really windy outside so the BBQ wouldn't have been very fun). I waited 3 days to do this step because I figured that would be the timeline when I would make it at camp (Day 1 prepare and pack, Day 2 leave for camp and eat on the road or quick sandwich after while we're setting up camp, Day 3 you're set up and ready to make a dinner like this.)
Take out your chicken, pepper and onion mixture and the 2 tablespoons of butter.
 At home I use an electric stove but in the motor home we have gas. I turn the heat up on my electric stove to simulate the hotter heat of the gas motor home stove.

 On a hot fire grate or BBQ grill grate (or frying pan), cook chicken. While the chicken is cooking, melt the butter in a large skillet and saute vegetables over medium heat until the onions are translucent.

 Combine everything into a tortilla, add cheese, sour cream if you want and enjoy!
Campfire Fajita not made on a campfire
These were really good except I burned the chicken a little and the oregano and cilantro overpowered the flavor a little. Next time I am going to cut back to 1/2 tablespoon of dried oregano and 1/2 tablespoon of dried cilantro. I also won't take pictures so I can keep a better eye on the cooking instead of worrying about getting a good picture and keeping my camera out of the way. I think the grill taste would have made it even better so next time I will definitely use the grill.
Try this recipe and post your modifications in the comment section so I can share with everybody!
If you have a recipe to share, please email it to me so I can experiment and share.

1 comment: