Recipe time: fajita thingies

I am not a pansy when it comes to heat of the caliente sort. (The calor sort is a whole other story - I'm a big dude, and I have typical big dude sweatiness in the heat.)(Ain't that a great thing to think about right before reading about food?) I will cheerfully sit down and glop habanero salsa all over stuff. I have a standing bet with a buddy from college that I can drink a bottle of Tabasco. Next time I see him, I plan on collecting. So when I warn you that this recipe is pretty hot, you should probably listen.

You'll need:
A package of chicken. I used one of those ones that's already cut into little strips. They're more expensive, and you can't get them in dark meat (which, if you've been paying attention, you'll remember is what I tend to use whenever possible for this sort of thing), but they're pre-cut. This is important because Travis owns exactly one cutting board. And it's about five inches long. Basically useless, which is normally okay, since he eats a ton of mac & cheese from the box. The worst part about this thing is that two corners are tilted upwards, presumably to make scraping things off into the pot easier. The designers didn't bother to actually test this product before shipping it, though, because if they had, they would have realized that the upturned corners get in the way so badly as to make the cutting board virtually unusable.

3 jalapenos.

1 larger pepper. I had to use a boring old bell pepper because the store only had really ugly poblanos and rather sketchy Hatches. If your store has nice ones of either of those, use them. They have much better (and appropriate) flavor.

The tail end of a jar of Mrs. Renfro's roasted garlic salsa. This is something that you can really only use for cooking, because she don't mess 'round with her garlic. You probably shouldn't eat any before a date, either. Mrs. Renfro, as I've said before, is the best of the nationally available salsa makers. If you only have Pace Picante Sauce in your house, it's probably best if you just throw it away. Blech.

Several squirts of the green Tabasco. If you only have the red, feel free to use it, but that's more of a Cajun flavor than a Mexican one.

A small can of diced chiles. I don't actually know what type of chiles they put in those cans, but they're really good, and pretty much heatless. You'll find them in with the salsas.

A small can of salsa de jalapenos. I used El Pato, mainly because I like the idea that somebody thought it would be a good plan to name their salsa after a duck.

Some of each of the following spices: black pepper, cumin, chile powder. Those are the only Mexican-type spices I have right now, but feel free to put in whatever else you like. Don't put in any garlic. And the El Pato salsa had a noticeable amount of cilantro, so you can forgo that, too.

A little oil.

Some grated cheese, either of the mild cheddar or ____ jack varieties.

Flour Tortillas

A little sour cream.

Okay, now the work. Cut the large pepper into strips. Cut the jalapenos into disks. You can cut them into strips if you'd like, but disks are much easier. Dump the peppers, the chicken, and the oil into a pan. Cook over medium high heat for about 10 minutes. Once the pepper strips start being medium soft, pour in the other ingredients. Well, not the cheese/tortillas/sour cream, but the rest of it. Cook until the peppers become soft. Dish some into a tortilla, top with grated cheese and a dollop of sour cream, and enjoy.

Now, I'm really unsure where the heat came from in this recipe. Mrs. Renfro's garlic salsa isn't hot. The jalapenos aren't all that hot. The tabasco is very much not hot. The duck salsa didn't smell very hot, although I didn't actually try it. I didn't use any red pepper, and I only used a fairly normal amount of black. So it's just going to remain an X-file, I guess. Maybe they added together in an extremely non-linear sort of fashion. Maybe I'm just becoming a weenie in my old age. Quien sabe.

But it's still a darn good dish, and it only uses one pot!