I have good luck brining the chicken first. If you don't have time, try using a meat tenderizer to poke holes in the chicken and then marinade for 30 minutes. I also grill the strips rather than grill the breast and then cut later.

My husband had good luck searing marinated chicken in the cast iron skillet and then finishing it off in the oven, cooking it just to the right temp, not over. (165, I think?) that was moist but had charred / grilled flavor. Then I'd let it sit for 15 minutes before slicing it, maybe while you're cooking the peppers and onions.

1/4 cup olive oil
1 yellow onion, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 jalapeno pepper
1 Tbs. oregano
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. ground cumin
2 Tbs cilantro fresh
2 Tbs tequila

3 Chicken Breast (or 1 skirt steaks, about 4 lb. total, trimmed)

1)Put everything but meat into food processor and roughly chop.

2)Place meat and processed ingredients into zip-lock bag.

3) Marinate for at least 2 hours or overnight in the refrigerator. If refrigerated, take in out 30 minutes before grilling.

4) Grill with high heat. Allow meat to rest 5 minutes before cutting.

If you want the sizzle, spray a little water on the skillet before you bring it out. That's what the restaurants do.

Restaurants definitely use butter on fajita meat!! At Uncle Julio's you can request they not add the butter at the end, but I suspect they still use it in the cooking.

grill the whole piece of chicken and let it sit for awhile before slicing

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i don't think the butter poster is right. i can't recall ever tasting buttery fajita meat.

my best guess is they brine the meat before grilling it. otherwise you just end up with dry strips, right?

That's very sweet and naive. A standard portion of fajita's will have at least a half stick of butter in it in most restaurants.

Wow. Fajitas restaurant aren't low fat and somewhat healthy? That's like learning there's no Santa Claus.

Anonymous wrote:i don't think the butter poster is right. i can't recall ever tasting buttery fajita meat.

my best guess is they brine the meat before grilling it. otherwise you just end up with dry strips, right?

That's very sweet and naive. A standard portion of fajita's will have at least a half stick of butter in it in most restaurants.

i don't think the butter poster is right. i can't recall ever tasting buttery fajita meat.

my best guess is they brine the meat before grilling it. otherwise you just end up with dry strips, right?

get a cast iron grill pan preheat it for a min of 5 min pfef 7-10
Assuming you face a good exhust fan or can cover your smoke detector if you don't want to use pp suggestion of better, use butter flav. PAM Spray cook on oblique turn and flip second time on opposite oblique to get X grill marks

Anonymous wrote:Grilled in butter? Really? Drats, I was hoping maybe it was a cast iron skillet or something else not fat-laden.

This is what I am thinking also. Like how they bring it out sizzling on the platter in some places. I did not know they used butter.

Are you cutting it correctly? Afte it cooks you need to be sure to cut the strips against the grain.

Grilled in butter? Really? Drats, I was hoping maybe it was a cast iron skillet or something else not fat-laden.

Butter, girl, butter. When you go to the restaurant, that chicken (or beef) is slathered in butter to keep it moist and delicious. Marinating it before cooking can also help. Because you're cooking strips, don't cook it so long. When you take it off the grill, it will keep cooking.

I can never get the chicken both grilled and tender. Well, grilled chicken in general, but specifically for fajitas? What am I doing wrong?