Making amazing fajitas from leftover chicken is a great way to never let food go to waste. It is a quick meal and an easy way to throw together an amazing dish with what you have on hand. This recipe is quick, easy, and delicious and a great way to use those leftovers.
Making fajitas or fajita bowls with leftover chicken and veggies is definitely my favorite way to repurpose leftovers and one of my favorite budget-friendly recipes! After working in restaurants for many years, one thing I learned is that chicken fajitas are not made with raw meat going into the hot skillet but with already-cooked chicken.
In this recipe, I am going to show you how to make fajitas from leftover chicken like we do in our house (and the way they do it in the restaurants) and ideas on how to bulk it up with any veggies you have in the house.
What You Will Need
It all starts with the star ingredient, leftover chicken! Here is a quick breakdown of the ingredients (full recipe below):
- Leftover chicken: This is the main part of these fajitas. You will want to make sure the chicken is sliced for these fajitas.
- Veggies: I like to add onions and peppers for that traditional fajitas mix. See below for some more tasty ideas to throw into the mix to bulk up the portions.
- Fajita spices: This is my tried and true fajitas seasoning blend made up of chili powder, sweet paprika, cumin, and garlic powder. It is delicious. If you have a fajita seasoning blend of your own you can use that too.
The Steps
Making these delicious fajitas from leftovers is so simple. Here is what it looks like:
- Cook Veggies: In a large pan over high heat, add oil and saute the peppers and onions (and any other veggies you are using.)
- Add leftover chicken: Once the veggies are fully cooked, add the leftover chicken to the pan.
- Add fajita seasoning: Now you add a little more oil and all of that delicious fajita seasoning to the chicken and vegetables. This is what brings all of the ingredients together and really transforms those leftovers.
Top Tip!
If your leftover chicken has seasoning on it already, just rinse the meat under cold water before using it in this recipe to rinse off as much seasoning as possible. Pat dry before cooking.
Serving Ideas
The name of the game with this dish is using up leftovers and using what you have in your house. Some great ways to serve this is over fluffy basmati rice or Spanish rice, with soft or hard flour tortillas, or over salad. I also love using leftovers from this leftover fajita recipe as a filling in my air fryer quesadillas!
Use what you have on hand. All of these options are great!
Variations
- Add different vegetables: I love using asparagus, mushrooms, potatoes, broccoli, beans, and garlic in these fajitas.
- Use steak: You can certainly make these fajitas the same way with leftover steak.
This is a favorite dish in our house for good reason! You will celebrate leftovers when you see how delicious they can become.
More leftover meal ideas
Fajitas, From Leftover Chicken!
Equipment
- cast iron pan or heavy bottom pan or griddle
Ingredients
- 2 pieces leftover chicken breasts thinly sliced into strips
- 1 yellow onion thin sliced
- 1 red bell pepper thin sliced
- 1 green bell pepper thin sliced
- 4 tablespoon vegetable oil Depending on how dry your veggies and meat are, you may need to add more or less oil.
Fajita Seasoning
- 1 tablespoon cumin powder
- 3 tablespoon sweet paprika
- 2 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt or to taste
Instructions
- Heat your pan on medium high heat.
- Mix the fajita spices together in a small bowl.1 tablespoon cumin powder, 3 tablespoon sweet paprika, 2 tablespoon chili powder, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- Add your oil to the pre-heated pan4 tablespoon vegetable oil
- Now add veggie ingredients to the hot pan with oil and toss around making sure to coat your ingredients well in the oil and cook until slightly tender, about 2-3 minutes.1 yellow onion, 1 red bell pepper, 1 green bell pepper
- Add leftover chicken and toss well with the other ingredients.2 pieces leftover chicken breasts
- Now add all of your dried spices to this and mix well to coat your fajitas evenly.
- If the fajitas look dry, add a little more oil and toss well.
- Continue to toss your fajitas around in the hot pan for about 5 minutes to cook and brown all of the spices onto the meat and veggies.
- After 5 minutes, remove pan from the heat and pour your ingredients on to a large platter
- Serve with tortillas or rice and some sour cream, cheese and guacamole
Nutrition
Nutrition Values are estimates only.
See full nutrition disclaimer hereTried the Recipe? We Would Love To Hear From You In The Comments Below!
Paulette says
the best I have made with this recipe
Melissa Oleary says
I am so happy to hear that Paulette!
Bob Smith says
This was delicious and very easy to make. I had about 3/4 of a pound of grilled pork tenderloin, a yellow pepper, a half of a large, sweet onion, a zucchini and a couple of tomatoes. I didn’t need all the seasoning and had to add a little water to keep it from burning without using too much oil. I had mine over a bed of lettuce, fresh made guacamole, sour cream, pico and fresh lime. It was really good and I’ll make it again!
Melissa says
So glad you enjoyed it!
Judy says
Super easy and delicious. I had made guacamole and wanted something different to make with leftover chicken.
Melissa says
So glad you enjoyed it Judy 🙂
Real Reviewer says
This was delicious and easy! I halved the chili powder because we thought it would be too spicy, but next time I’d use the full amount. The dry seasoning was too much for the amount of food we made (about a pound of steak, one medium onion, and almost 2 full peppers. The food was visibly covered in a pasty powder. The taste was good but next time I’ll either adjust the amount of seasonings or add more veggies.