Just a few days ago I had the day off from work and not much to do.  I decided that it would be perfect to make one of my favorite meals in the entire world, which is fajitas.  After much thought, it came to me that fajitas were just not enough for this glorious day lacking any sort of labor.  I decided to take my world famous fajita recipe and turn it into enchiladas.  You may ask yourself how I can claim that my fajita recipe is world famous.  I would direct you to Tios Mexican Cafe, where they have declared their wet burrito to be world famous.  Apparently anyone can now claim that any dish is world famous, so I will now freely use this title to describe any food I cook. 

My fajita recipe was one of the first things I posted on Epic Portions, way back in February of 2009.  My mom found a fajita recipe in the Detroit Free Press and made some changes based on our likings.  We lost the recipe in a move a few years ago so I took it upon myself to re-create it.  It’s not the exact same recipe that we used before, but I think I did an admiral job at putting everything back together to emulate a similar taste.  I did add a few things to add a little spice, which is more to my liking than my family’s, but it is fully adaptable if you’re not into that kind of thing.  I’ve had people say that this is more similar to a taco recipe than fajitas, but it’s my damn recipe and I’ll call it what I want.  Haters.

Remember that when I cook I’m more of a “throw everything together based on memory” kind of guy, but I’ve done my best to give you measurements where I can.  Like I said before, the best thing about this recipe is that it’s fully adaptable to however you like things.  If you don’t like your veggies cut as small as I do, leave them as larger slices.  Want to add additional seasonings?  Go ahead.  I’ve never been someone that ever uses or follows recipes.  I find it more fun to take an idea and make it my own.

Just a little heads up, my family eats A LOT.  This will make you a whole lot of chicken but you can seriously turn this into any dish you want.  The leftovers make great tacos, quesadillas, and nachos.

Ingredients:

• 4 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1 cup tequila
• 1/3 cup lime juice
• Canola Oil
• 1/2 White Onion minced
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 tomatoes finely chopped (a can or two of Rotel will work as well)
• 3/4 cup fresh cilantro — This is what makes the recipe, I think.  Use as much or as little as you like, but I usually keep it around 3/4 cup, finely chopped.
• 2 jalapenos minced — I include the seeds and membranes because I like the heat.  If you don’t like the heat, just add the skins and throw away seeds and membrane.

• Salt
• Pepper
• Cumin – 2 tsp — Don’t overdo it.  This adds a smokey element to the dish.
• Cayenne Pepper – 1 tsp — Depending on how spicy you like it.
• Chili Powder – 1 tbsp
• Paprika – 1 tsp
• Basil – 1 tsp

Directions

1. Cut chicken into small pieces to your liking and place in bowl.
2. Add tomatoes, onions, garlic, jalapenos, and cilantro to bowl.  Mix.
3. Add all seasonings and mix.
4. Add tequila, lime juice, and 1/3 cup of the Canola Oil.  Mix.
5. Let sit, covered, in the refrigerator for a minimum of 2-3 hours.  The longer these sit the better they are.  I would let them marinate over night.
6. When ready, cook on high heat until chicken is done.

With everthing has been marinated, your ingredients should look like this while cooking.  My apologies for the following pictures.  I did not have my camera so I had to rely on my Blackberry camera.

At this point, you could just throw these into some tortillas if you didn’t feel like doing the whole enchilada(HAHA!).  This, however, is an enchilada recipe, so I will keep going.

From there, get whatever fixings you want ready.  I added black beans and fiesta rice.  Roll the chicken, beans, rice, cheese, or whatever you’ve added into tortillas and line them into a pan.  Top with enchilada sauce and cheese then throw the pan in the oven on 350 for about 30 mins.  I like the cheese to be a little brown on top before I serve them.  This is why it looks like I used yellow cheese.  Please trust me, I did NOT use yellow cheese.

What was it that John said about not basing too many posts off of Thisiswhyyourefat?  Well: this totally started as a This Is Why You’re Fat post about Guinness Pudding, which then led me over to Sprinklebakes (who is so brilliant!) and a fantastic explanation on how to make it happen.  But… this is me, this is Epic Portions, and I wanted to make it my own. (Also: I’m from St Louis once-upon-a-time, and I don’t really enjoy that that company that owns Guinness is kind of taking over, and I wanted to support the home team.)  So, I eliminated the Guinness, replaced it with Schlafly’s Oatmeal Stout, added a chocolate graham crust, and voila: Chocolate Stout Pie.  Delicious!

Chocolate Stout Pie (makes two 8in pies)
1.5 cups chocolate graham crumbs
6 tblspn melted butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tablespoon salt

11 egg yolks
1 1/3 cup sugar
20 oz stout
4 cups heavy whipping cream
10 oz high-quality chocolate

First, make your crusts. Melt the butter, crumble your graham crackers, and combine them with the sugar and salt.  Press firmly into your pie pans, and bake for 15 minutes in a 350F over.

Now, for your pudding: in a metal bowl, beat together the egg yolks and the sugar.  Slowly pour the stout into a large glass, pouring down the side so that you don’t get foam.  Foam = bad for baking.  Now, take a heavy-bottomed saucepan and pour half of the stout into it.  Add 3 cups of the heavy cream, and slowly heat until bubbles begin to form at the edges.  Meanwhile, melt your chocolate in a double-boiler.  Once the bubbles are forming over in cream-stout world, pour the hot liquid into the melted chocolate and beat until combined.  Slowly pour that mixture into the egg mixture, beating constantly to prevent it from curdling.  (No, spell check, I did not mean cuddling. Curdling.)  Pour the entire mix back into your saucepan and cook over medium heat for about 20 min, until it thickens to coat the back of a spoon.  Pour the cooked mixture into a blender and blend on high for about two minutes, then pour into your baked crusts.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until cooled.

In the meantime, pour the other half of the stout into a small saucepan and bring to a boil.  Reduce to medium heat and simmer for a good long time until you have a syrup.  Just don’t burn it – it’ll smell really bad and taste even worse.  When you have a nice thick delicious stouty syrup, pour it into a small bowl and refrigerate until cool.  Once your syrup is cool and your pudding is set, beat the remaining cup of heavy cream into soft peaks, then add the syrup and beat until combined.  Divide between your pies, refrigerate for an hour or so to set everything, and serve.

Trust me, you’ll be glad it makes two!