Chicken fajitas (Fajitas de Pollo) made in the Instant Pot® is quick and easy but just as flavorful as grilled on the cast iron skillet. Garnish with your favorite toppings, and you'll be transported to Mexico while savoring every bite.
Intro
What do you get when a popular food blogger-turned-cookbook-author Emily Sunwell-Vidaurri of The Art of Great Cooking with your Instant Pot (remember the Citrus Herb Basque Chicken recipe I shared from the book?) and her Mexican chef husband Rudy write a cookbook together? Amazing Mexican Favorites with your Instant Pot, that's what! And what a gem of a cookbook it is!
Amazing Mexican Favorites with your Instant Pot
Their latest cookbook is filled with real authentic Mexican recipes that Rudy grew up with but they reworked the original versions to be made in the Instant Pot, their favorite - and my - kitchen appliance.
According to the authors, the book contains 80 of the most popular, everyone's favorite "time-honored" dishes that have been in many of the Mexican families for generations but are for the busy cooks who try to feed their families quickly after busy days of work, school and activities. Furthermore, these traditional recipes are nutritious with fresh, real food ingredients that can normally take hours to cook. But not in the Instant Pot!
Some of the most popular Mexican recipes include:
- Mexican-Spiced "Barbecue" Shredded Beef (Barbacoa)
- Green Pork Chili (Chile Verde)
- Tender Pork "Little Meats" (Carnitas)
- Red Beef Chili (Chile Colorado)
- Red Mole (Mole Rojo)
- Shrimp Fajitas (Fajitas de Camarones)
- Chile Dip (Salsa de Chile Rellenos)
- Zucchini Corn Soup (Sopa de Calabacitas con Elote)
- Spanish Frittata (Torta Española
- Custard Tart (Flan)
- Hot Chocolate Corn Water (Champurrado)
- and so many more!
Emily and Rudy were generous enough to allow me to share one of my family's favorite Mexican dish, Chicken Fajitas. And while it's totally not necessary to serve it on a hot sizzling fajita skillet, it keeps the food hot a lot longer while you play with, I mean, wrap the food in fajita wraps. We're gluten-free so we love wrapping Mexican food in corn tortillas like these.
Remember these recipes are authentic Mexican recipes so they do contain corn, grains, and beans. If you are on a Paleo-friendly or Whole30 diet, you can easily make substitutions to suit your diet style.
Now go make this flavorful Chicken Fajitas and grab a copy of Amazing Mexican Favorites with your Instant Pot!
Ingredients
This is made with completely fresh and whole ingredients. Here is what you will need from the store. (All the exact ingredient amounts are in the printable card at the bottom of this post):
- Ghee - you can also use butter or avocado oil
- Chicken Breast
- Chicken broth
- Fresh cilantro
- Red onion
- Garlic
- Red bell pepper
- Yellow bell pepper
- Jalepeno Peppers
- Russet Potato
- Tomato
- Sea Salt
- Cumin
- Chili Powder
- Oregano
- Black Pepper
- Lime Juice
Then, you can also add any toppings that you want to it!
Instructions
When you make them in the Instant Pot, the entire process is actually really simple!
First, you are going to saute the chicken breast in your Instant Pot. For this step, you can use either ghee, butter, or avocado oil. Make sure the chicken breast is sliced really thin. If you are using rotisserie chicken, you can skip this step.
After the chicken is browned, remove it and set it aside.
Next, add the chicken broth to the inner pot. If you browned the chicken, use the broth to deglaze the pot. Press the "Keep Warm/Cancel" button after you deglazed it.
Then, add the rest of the ingredients to the inner pot, including the chicken.
Place the lid on the Instant Pot. Press "Manual" button and set it for 5 minutes. When it is finished, press the "Cancel" button and let it release pressure naturally for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, do a Quick Release.
Serve it with your favorite toppings!
FAQ
Use fresh, whole foods for your chicken fajitas. Some of my favorite toppings are fresh guacamole, full-fat sour cream, pico de gallo, or some chopped cilantro.
The best way to store the chicken fajitas is in a sealed container in the refrigerator. They will last about 3-5 days.
Yes, you can saute and brown your chicken on the stove. Lots of people like to do it that way because the saute function on the Instant Pot causes the inner pot to get stained from the food.
Related recipes
If you enjoyed this Instant Pot chicken fajitas recipe, then you will love these pressure cooker recipes too.
Chicken Fajitas (Fajitas de Pollo) in Instant Pot®
Recipe reprinted with permission from Amazing Mexican Favorites with Your Instant Pot by Emily Sunwell-Vidaurri &Rudy Vidaurri, Page Street Publishing Co. 2017. Photo Credit: Emily Sunwell-Vidaurri.
Recipe
Chicken Fajitas (Fajitas de Pollo) in Instant Pot®
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoon butter, ghee, or avocado oil
- 1 ½ lbs chicken breast thinly sliced
- ½ cup chicken broth
- ¼ cup fresh cilantro chopped
- 1 red onion peeled and sliced
- 5 cloves fresh garlic minced
- 1 small red bell pepper stemmed, seeded, and sliced
- 1 small green or yellow bell pepper stemmed, seeded and sliced
- 2 jalapeño peppers stemmed, seeded and sliced
- 1 russet potato peeled and cut into wedges
- 1 small tomato seeded and diced
- 1 ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ¼ cup fresh lime juice
Optional Toppings and Fixings
- Grated cheese
- Guacamole
- Sour Cream
- Salsa or hot sauce
- lemon or lime juice
- Freshly chopped cilantro
- Warm tortillas (gluten-free corn, grain-free, etc)
Instructions
- Add the healthy fat of your choice to the Instant Pot and press "Sauté." When the fat has melted, add the chicken and brown for 2 minutes on each side.
- Remove the browned chicken to a plate and set aside. Add the broth to deglaze the Instant Pot.
- Press the "Keep Warm/Cancel" button.
- Add the cilantro, onion, garlic, bell peppers, jalapeños, potato, tomato, salt, cumin, chili powder, oregano, black pepper, lime juice, and chicken, then stir to coat the chicken.
- Place the lid on the Instant Pot, making sure the steam-release valve is sealed. Press the "Manual" button and set for 5 minutes.
- When the Instant Pot is done and beeps, press "Keep Warm/Cancel." Allow the Instant Pot to release pressure naturally for 10 minutes.
- Using an oven mitt, open the steam valve. If there is any steam left over, allow it to release until the silver dial drops, then carefully open the lid.
- Serve immediately with your favorite fajita toppings and fixings.
Notes
- Make sure to dry the chicken breast strips before browning them. Otherwise, you'll end up with too much liquid for them to brown.
- Do not crowd the chicken strips in the inner pot. I had to sauté them in small batches to get the golden brown color.
- You'll end up with more liquid from peppers and onions so you only need about ¼ cup of chicken broth.
- Cooking time will depend on how thick the chicken strips are. I cut mine about ¼" thick and cooked for 8 minutes on HIGH, and released the pressure manually because I didn't want the vegetables to get too soft.
- If you want more spicy heat, use 4 Jalapeño peppers or more.
PIN IT FOR LATER
