Fajitas Spiced Chicken Breast with Guacamole and Salsa

Chicken fajitas normally sees sizzling hot strips of spiced and flash fried chicken served with onions, bell peppers and dips such as guacamole, salsa and soured cream. The individual elements are then spooned on to wraps before being rolled up and eaten by hand. This recipe combines many of the traditional ingredients of the dish but sees the chicken in particular cooked and served in an alternative way. The traditional fajitas flavors are all present but this idea makes for a very different eating experience.

Ingredients (Serves 1)

• 1 skinless chicken breast fillet
• 2 tablespoons supermarket fajitas spice mix
• 1 medium sized baking potato
• 2 teaspoons medium chili powder
• 1 large garlic clove
• Salt and pepper
• 1 ripe hass avocado
• Juice of one lemon or lime (½ each for guacamole and salsa)
• ½ small red onion (¼ each for guacamole and salsa)
• ½ medium size and strength red chili
• 1 tablespoon freshly chopped cilantro/coriander leaf (½ each for guacamole and salsa), plus extra to garnish
• 2 small to medium tomatoes
• 2 inch piece English/hothouse cucumber
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• Vegetable oil

Directions

Spoon the fajitas spice mix in to a deep plate and pat the chicken breast fillet in it all over until evenly covered.

Cover the dish and leave to dry marinate, ideally for a couple of hours.

Put the chili powder in to a large glass or stone bowl. Peel and grate in the garlic clove and season with salt.

Wash the potato but leave it unpeeled and slice to a thickness of around a quarter of an inch.

Pour plenty of cold water in to the bowl with the chili and garlic and stir well. Add the potato slices and leave to steep while the chicken is marinating and subsequently cooking. This will not only draw out the excess starch from the potatoes, it will provide them with a good seasoning.

Sit the avocado broad end down on a chopping board and cut down through the top with a very sharp knife until you feel the resistance provided by the stone. Turn the fruit away from you until you have cut all the way round the circumference and can twist the two halves apart. Protect the palm of your weaker hand with a folded over towel and sit the half containing the stone on the towel with the stone facing up. Tap the knife on to the stone with moderate force to embed it, twist it gently and the stone should pop free.

Use a teaspoon to scoop all the flesh out of the two avocado halves, careful not to pierce or otherwise damage the skins. Add the flesh to a small bowl, pour over the juice of half the lemon and season with salt and pepper. Mash with the back of a fork until smooth.

Put the avocado skins in to a bowl of cold water to keep them in pristine condition as they will later be used as serving boats for the guacamole and the salsa.

Finely chop quarter of the peeled red onion and add to the mashed avocado along with the seeded and chopped chili and half the cilantro

Stir the guacamole ingredients together, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate until required.

Slice the tomatoes in half and the cucumber also in half along its length. Use a teaspoon to scoop out and discard all the seeds and pulp before dicing fairly finely.

Dice the remaining onion quarter and add to a bowl with the cucumber, tomato and remaining half tablespoon of cilantro. Pour in the remaining lemon juice and the extra virgin olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and stir well.

Cover the salsa with plastic wrap and refrigerate with the guacamole.

Preheat your oven to 375F/190C/Gas Mark 5.

Pour a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil in to the base of a small casserole dish and lay in the marinated chicken breast. Put the lid on the dish and bake in your hot oven for twenty-five minutes.

Take the chicken breast from the oven and pierce it to ensure the juices run clear. Re-cover it and set it aside to rest for ten minutes.

Drain the potato slices and pat them dry with kitchen paper.

Bring a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil up to a fairly high heat in a large non-stick frying pan and fry the potatoes for three to four minutes each side until golden.

Take the avocado skins from the water and dry carefully with kitchen paper. Spoon the guacamole in to one boat and the salsa in to the other. Sit in opposite corners of a square serving plate.

Lift the cooked potato slices to a plate covered with kitchen paper to drain for a minute or two.

Arrange the potato slices in an overlapping circle in the center of the plate.

Slice the rested chicken breast to a thickness of slightly less than half an inch with a sharp knife.

Arrange the chicken on top of the potato slices and garnish with the last of the cilantro.