Fajita
Grilled skirt steak strips with peppers and onions on a tortilla.
A fajita is a Tex-Mex dish consisting of grilled skirt steak strips cooked with sautéed onions and bell peppers, served on a flour or corn tortilla. Common alternatives include chicken, shrimp, other beef cuts, or vegetables, and it is often accompanied by condiments such as shredded lettuce, sour cream, guacamole, salsa, pico de gallo, shredded cheese, refried beans, and diced tomatoes. The northern Mexican variant is known as tacos de arrachera.
Quick Facts
- Country
- United States and Mexico
- Region
- Texas, Northeastern Mexico
- Main ingredients
- Tortillas
- meat
- chicken
- cheddar cheese; onions
- peppers
Facts from the source article.
Etymology
The term "fajita" comes from Tex-Mex and Tejano cooking, where it serves as a diminutive for thin strips of beef skirt, the traditional cut for the dish. The Oxford English Dictionary notes that the word first showed up in print in 1971. Its root is the Spanish word "faja," meaning strip or belt, which traces back to the Latin "fascia" for band. While originally tied to beef skirt strips, today's fajitas feature many fillings, including vegetarian ones like green, red, or yellow peppers, onions, chilies, and jalapeño peppers.
History
Skirt steak, called arrachera in Mexico, is a popular cut for grilling there. The earliest culinary evidence of fajitas—using this cut, cooked directly on a campfire or grill, and bearing the Spanish nickname—dates to the 1930s in the ranch lands of South and West Texas. Skirt steak was among the scrap meats given to vaqueros during cattle roundups. In September 1969, Sonny Falcón, an Austin meat market manager, operated the first commercial fajita taco concession stand at a rural 16 de septiembre celebration in Kyle, Texas. That same year, Otilia Garza introduced fajitas at the Round-Up Restaurant in Pharr, Texas; she is credited with adding the signature sizzling plate presentation after being served queso flameado on a cast-iron plate in Acapulco. The style was popularized by businesses such as Ninfa's in Houston, the Hyatt Regency in Austin, and numerous San Antonio restaurants. In southern Arizona, the term was unknown except as a cut of meat until the 1990s, when Mexican fast food restaurants began using it in marketing. Later, fajitas became common at American casual dining restaurants and in home cooking. Restaurants often serve the meat and vegetables sizzling on a metal platter or skillet, accompanied by warmed tortillas and condiments like guacamole, pico de gallo, queso, salsa, shredded cheese, or sour cream.
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