Fajita

{{Short description|Tex-Mex dish}} {{Infobox food | name = Fajita | image = Chicken fajita platter, Lone Star Texas Grill, Windsor, Ontario, 2025-06-14 03.jpg | image_size = 275px | caption = Chicken fajita ingredients, with meat served on a hot iron skillet | alternate_name = | country = United States and Mexico | region = Texas, Northeastern Mexico<ref name="cookeryonline">{{citation|last=Patterson |first=Frank |title=Fajita |url=http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid:261130 |date=2003-10-14 |access-date=2013-11-06 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080924163542/http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A261130 |archive-date=September 24, 2008}} {{clarification needed|date=November 2021|reason=The given url is not correct for the 2003-10-14 Frank Patterson "Fajita" article. Sometime in the ancient past between 2013 and 2021, some editor accidentally substituted the wrong URL for this article. The original article, if we can find it, could be very important.}}</ref> | creator = | course = | type = | served = | main_ingredient = Tortillas, meat, chicken, cheddar cheese, onions, peppers | variations = | calories = | other = }}

A '''fajita''' ({{IPAc-en|f|ə|ˈ|h|iː|t|ə}}; {{IPA|es|faˈxita|lang|FajitasPronunciation.ogg}}), in Tex-Mex cuisine, is strips of grilled skirt steak, cooked with sauteed onions and bell peppers and served on a flour or corn tortilla.<ref name="chronicle2005hist">{{cite news |last=Wood |first=Virginia B. |title=Fajita History |newspaper=The Austin Chronicle |url=http://www.austinchronicle.com/food/2005-03-04/261130/ |date=2005-03-04 |access-date=2010-01-11}}</ref><ref name="chronicle2005def2">{{cite news |last=Wood |first=Virginia B. |date=2005-03-04 |title=Just Exactly What Is a Fajita? |url=http://www.austinchronicle.com/food/2005-03-04/261129/ |newspaper=The Austin Chronicle}}</ref> Popular alternatives to skirt steak include chicken and other cuts of beef, as well as vegetables instead of meat.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Jamison|first1=Cheryl|last2=Jamison|first2=Bill|title=Rancho de Chimayo Cookbook: The Traditional Cooking of New Mexico|date=2014|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=9781493009206}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Butel |first1=Jane |title=Jane Butel's Southwestern Kitchen |date=1994 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=9781557880901 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/janebutelssouthw00bute |via=Archive.org}}</ref> Popular condiments include shredded lettuce, sour cream, guacamole, salsa, pico de gallo, shredded cheese, refried beans, and diced tomatoes. "Tacos de arrachera" is applied to the northern Mexican variant of the dish.

==Etymology== ''Fajita'' is a Tex-Mex or Tejano diminutive term for little strips of meat cut from the beef skirt, the most common cut used to make fajitas.<ref name="chronicle2005def">{{cite news |last=Wood |first=Virginia B. |date=2005-03-04 |title=Just Exactly What Is a Fajita? |url=http://www.austinchronicle.com/food/2005-03-04/261129/ |newspaper=The Austin Chronicle}}</ref> The word ''fajita'' is not known to have appeared in print until 1971, according to the ''Oxford English Dictionary''. (The word {{Lang|es|faja}} is Spanish for "strip", or "belt", from the Latin {{Lang|la|fascia}}, "band".)<ref name="Ayto">{{cite book |last1=Ayto |first1=John |title=The Diner's Dictionary: Word Origins of Food and Drink |date=2012 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |page=[https://archive.org/details/dinersdictionary0000ayto/page/130 130] |access-date=2015-06-05 |url=https://archive.org/details/dinersdictionary0000ayto |url-access=registration |quote=fajitas. |isbn=9780199640249 |oclc=840919592 |via=Archive.org}}</ref> Although ''fajita'' originally referred to these strips of beef skirt, fajitas now are made with a variety of fillings, including vegetarian options, such as green, red or yellow peppers, onions, chilies, and jalapeño peppers.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fain |first1=Lisa |title=The Homesick Texan's Family Table: Lone Star Cooking from My Kitchen to Yours |date=2014 |publisher=Ten Speed Press |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NbU9AQAAQBAJ&pg=PT328 |chapter=Chicken Fajitas |isbn=9781607745051 |quote=And then there's the language purist inside of me, who knows that calling something "chicken fajitas" is simply wrong; the word ''fajitas'' originally referred to a cut of beef. Naming the dish chicken fajitas is like saying it's "steak-sliced chicken." Of course, this battle was lost long ago. |page=328 |via=Google Books}}</ref>

==History== Skirt steak is one of the most popular cuts of beef for grilling in Mexico.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Castaño González |first1=Yezid |title=El corte de la entraña de res |url=http://www.elnuevodia.com.co/nuevodia/sociales/la-columna-del-chef/294921-el-corte-de-la-entrana-de-res |website=El Nuevo Día |access-date=14 May 2024 |archive-date=2 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161002124005/http://www.elnuevodia.com.co/nuevodia/sociales/la-columna-del-chef/294921-el-corte-de-la-entrana-de-res |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref> It is called ''entraña'' in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay,<ref>{{cite web |title=ARGENTINA'S LEGENDARY ENTRAÑA AKA THE SKIRT STEAK |url=https://www.puertolaboca.com/blog/legendary-skirt-steak |website=Puerto La Boca |access-date=14 May 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Entraña: ¿Qué es, en qué parte de la vaca se encuentra y cómo cocinarla? |url=https://www.frigorificosada.com.ar/blog/entrana-que-es-en-que-parte-de-la-vaca-se-encuentra-y-como-cocinarla/#:~:text=Para%20los%20argentinos%2C%20la%20entraña,la%20carne%20a%20la%20parrilla. |website=Frigorífico Sada |access-date=14 May 2024}}</ref> ''fraldinha'' in Brazil,<ref>{{cite web |title=Cortes de carne equivalentes entre Argentina y Brasil |url=https://www.brasilplayas.com/informacion/cortes-de-carne-equivalentes-entre-argentina-y-brasil |website=Brasil Playas |access-date=14 May 2024}}</ref> and ''arrachera'' in Mexico.

The first culinary evidence of fajitas with the cut of meat, the cooking style (directly on a campfire or on a grill), and the Spanish nickname comes from the 1930s in the ranch lands of South and West Texas. Skirt steak was one of several scrap types of meat offered to ''vaqueros'' (cowboys) when cattle were slaughtered to feed ranch hands during 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.<ref name="Wood">{{Cite web |url=https://www.austinchronicle.com/food/2005-03-04/261130/ |title=Fajita History |last1=Wood |first1=Virginia B. |newspaper=Austin Chronicle |access-date=2019-08-27 |date=March 4, 2005}}</ref> During that same year, Otilia Garza introduced fajitas at the Round-Up Restaurant in Pharr, Texas. Garza is credited with adding the signature sizzling plate presentation of fajitas after being served ''queso flameado'' (melted Mexican cheese) on a cast-iron plate in Acapulco.<ref>{{Cite magazine |url=https://www.texasmonthly.com/food/low-steaks/ |title=Low Steaks |date=March 1993 |magazine=Texas Monthly |access-date=2019-08-27 |first=John |last=Morthland}}</ref>

The style was popularized by various businesses, such as Ninfa's in Houston, the Hyatt Regency in Austin, and numerous restaurants in San Antonio.<ref name="chronicle2005hist"/> In southern Arizona, the term was unknown except as a cut of meat until the 1990s, when Mexican fast food restaurants started using the word in their marketing. In later years, fajitas became popular at American casual dining restaurants as well as in-home cooking.

In many restaurants, the fajita meat and vegetables are brought to the table sizzling loudly on a metal platter or skillet, along with warmed tortillas and condiments, such as guacamole, pico de gallo, queso, salsa, shredded cheese or sour cream.<ref>{{Cite web |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |date=2014-10-21 |title=The Fajita Effect (Excerpt from ''The Sonic Boom: How Sound Transforms the Way We Think, Feel, and Buy'') |url=https://medium.com/galleys/the-fajita-effect-504838a5f2f0 |access-date=2021-10-27 |website=Galleys |first=Joel |last=Beckerman |via=Medium.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite episode |url=https://www.npr.org/2014/10/20/357576510/from-sizzling-fajitas-to-the-super-bowl-how-sounds-help-sell |title=From Sizzling Fajitas To The Super Bowl, How Sounds Help Sell |date=October 20, 2014 |network=NPR |series=All Things Considered}}</ref>

==See also== * Antojitos * Burrito * Taco

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== {{Commons category|Fajitas}} * [http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodmexican.html#fajitas Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink version of fajita origins] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20200917050424/http://www.cookeryonline.com/Tortilla/Fajita.html Cookeryonline - Fajita Page]

Category:Tex-Mex cuisine Category:Mexican cuisine Category:Tortilla-based dishes