Sheet Pan Chicken Fajitas with Green Chile Cream Sauce
This post has kindly been supported by The Hatch Chile Store. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
I love sheet pan dinners– simple, quick, and beautiful with brightly colored vegetables and perfectly seasoned healthy proteins such as chicken, beef, and pork- ready to eat in just a few minutes.
This recipe for Sheet Pan Chicken Fajitas with Green Chile Cream Sauce checks all the boxes for flavor, simplicity, fast prep, deliciousness, and healthiness!
Healthy Sheet Pan Chicken Fajitas
Are you gathering healthy, easy, and delicious dinner recipes? Make sure you add some fajita recipes to your recipe box! Fajitas are inherently healthy and delicious- made with lean beef or chicken and lots of vegetables like bell pepper and onion, so you’re getting a great serving of vegetables as well.
To make fajitas even more healthy, serve Chicken or Beef Fajitas on whole-grain tortillas with fresh cilantro, lime juice, and chunks of avocado. Skip the cream or creamy sauces and replace them with diced Hatch green chile or diced tomato.
Fajitas are so delicious because they are not only seasoned with a great blend of spices but are seared at very high temps to create caramelization, which creates fantastic flavor on top of that excellent fajita seasoning.
I created Sheet Pan Chicken Fajitas with Green Chile Cream sauce to take advantage of all the great fajita flavors; for this recipe,the chicken marinates in fajita seasoning, giving it time to really soak up lots of flavor. The onions and bell peppers are also tossed with the marinade before cooking.
What is Hatch Chile Cream Sauce?
Hatch green chile cream sauce is the créme de la créme of chile sauces. It’s fantastic when smothered over stuffed sopapillas, as a delicious dip for taquitos, or as a pan sauce to smother over sauteed chicken. It adds a fun flavor element to Sheet Pan Chicken Fajitas when used to replace plain sour cream or Mexican crema.
There are a few ways to make this sauce- its main components are chopped roasted Hatch green chile and heavy cream. Onion, garlic, and salt are also added to round out the flavors. For this fajita recipe, I opted for a very quick blender version with onion and garlic powders. Normally, I like to use sauteed freshly minced onion and fresh garlic if I have the time.
Related Article: How to make refried beans from canned pinto beans
What are Hatch Chile Peppers?
Hatch Chile peppers are world famous for their delicious flavors, produced by the unique climate and soil composition that exists only in the Hatch Valley of Southern New Mexico. These factors combine to grow exceptional-tasting chile peppers with smoky, sweet, and hot flavor notes. More people discover Hatch Chiles each year, and their popularity continues to grow.
Growing up in New Mexico where chile peppers are an integral part of the culture, I know that Hatch chiles have earned a reputation for being the best of the best. I personally only use authentic Hatch in all my cooking because it simply tastes amazing. You should be able to find canned Hatch chile in any supermarket these days, or you can order it directly like I do. Frozen chile is much, much better tasting than canned!
The Hatch Chile Store is the premiere website for ordering your Hatch chile– they are incredibly good at shipping fresh authentic chile right to your door, whatever variety and hotness lever you prefer. It’s where I get all my Hatch Chile, and I must say the flavor really does stand out above any other chile pepper variety.
Head on over now to The Hatch Chile Store to stock up on the most delicious Hatch chile you can buy anywhere- they’ve always got great deals on your favorite products!
Did you know I have a full-color cookbook with lots more easy and delicious New Mexican recipes? You can learn more about it here!
Should I cut chicken for fajitas before cooking?
Some recipes call for slicing your fajita meat before cooking it, and some recipes say to slice it up after cooking. But which is better? Science has the answer and I’m happy to share it with you, so read on!
Slicing chicken into strips before cooking it for fajitas allows more surface area to be seasoned and caramelized during the cooking process, making your chicken fajitas taste even better. It will also cook faster, so both meat and vegetables finish cooking at the same time.
If you’re worried about serving your family or guests dry chicken fajita meat- simply ensure that you don’t overcook it and allow the chicken to rest for a few minutes, covered, before serving, so all the steam inside the meat will condense back into juice. This will make your chicken fajitas nice and moist!
I hope you find joy in making this recipe and please give me a shoutout if you post a pic of the recipe on social! Follow me on Instagram @TheGoldilocksKitchen, Facebook page The Goldilocks Kitchen, or Pinterest @GoldilocksKitch. Don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave a comment- I want to hear your feedback! (This is a blog after all and that’s the whole point right?!)
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Sheet Pan Chicken Fajitas with Green Chile Cream Sauce
- Total Time: 0 hours
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
Description
A quick and easy weeknight dinner packed full of flavor.
Equipment needed
- 9 X 13-inch rimmed baking sheet
- blender
Ingredients
Marinade
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons lime juice
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 5 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 teaspoons of ground red Hatch chile powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- pinch of ground chipotle or cayenne
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon liquid smoke (optional)
Fajitas
- 1 & 1/2 pounds of chicken breast meat, sliced into strips
- 1 medium onion, sliced
- 1 red bell pepper, stem & seeds removed, sliced
- 1 yellow or orange bell pepper, stem & seeds removed, sliced
- 6 small flour or corn tortillas
- limes, fresh cilantro, and diced avocado to garnish
Quick Green Chile Cream Sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 3/4 cup roasted Hatch green chile, chopped
- 1/2 cup chicken broth
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, mix the soy sauce and lime juice. Stir in the cornstarch, followed by the rest of the ingredients to make the marinade.
- Stir chicken strips into the marinade until fully coated. Cover and refrigerate for 3 hours to 24 hours.
- Move an oven rack to the middle position, place a rimmed baking sheet into the oven, and set the heat to heat to 425 degrees F.
- Remove the chicken from the refrigerator and add the sliced onion and bell pepper. Toss to combine and coat the vegetables in marinade and seasoning.
- Carefully remove the hot baking sheet from the oven and place the fajita mix onto the sheet. Spread around into an even layer, and place back onto the oven. Bake for 25 minutes, stirring once.
- While the fajitas cook, place the onion powder, green chile, chicken broth, heavy cream, garlic, and salt into a blender and blend until smooth. Pour into a microwave-safe container and microwave on high until very warm.
- When the fajitas are done, remove them from the oven and sprinkle them with freshly chopped cilantro. Place a few spoonfuls of fajita filling into tortillas and drizzle cream sauce over the top. Garnish with limes and avocado.
Notes
You may wonder why I add soy sauce to my fajitas- it’s a secret ingredient for extra moist and delicious meat! The saltiness of the soy sauce in the marinade acts like a brine for the meat- seasoning it but also helping to keep it moist when it cooks.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Marinade: 3-24 hours
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: New Mexican
