Chicken Fajitas

This is our take on the old classic chicken fajitas. The best thing about it is the spices used to marinate the chicken, you can make is with as much or little chilli as you like. The great thing about fajitas is that you add almost anything you like to them, and as long as you use fresh ingredients it's going to taste great.

We wouldn't normally suggest substituting 'real' ingredients for diet versions, but this is one recipe where these substitutions can work quite well.  Using reduced fat sour cream is a good way to save calories, and it tastes just the same.  You can also find 'light' tortilla wraps, which are a little thinner but taste just as nice as the regular versions.

With these substitutions, one portion of this recipe is worth 7.5 weight watchers points - definitely worth it!

Ingredients (serves 2)
For the chicken:

• 4 cloves of garlic
• 2 tablespoons of coriander seeds
• 2 tablespoons of cumin seeds
• 1 teaspoon of paprika
• 1 red chilli
• 350g chicken breast (5.5 points)

For the salsa:

• 100g cherry tomatoes
• Half a red onion
• 2 red chillies
• Juice of half a lime
• A small bunch of coriander leaves

For the char-grilled vegetables

• 2 pointed peppers
• 1 white onion
• Half a red onion
• A bunch of spring onions
• 1 tablespoon of oil (2.5 points)

To complete

• 4 large wheat tortillas (1.5 points per wrap)
• Salad leaves
• Sour cream (use a low fat substitute) (1 point per serving)

First make the marinade for the chicken. Put the garlic, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, paprika and chilli in a pestle and mortar with a little salt and grind until it becomes a paste. If you don't have a pestle and mortar you can just put the ingredients in a food processor and blitz until it becomes a paste.



Evenly spread the paste over the chicken breast and leave to marinate for an hour or so.

While that's marinating, make the salsa. Chop the tomatoes, onion and chillies and place in a bowl with the chopped coriander and add the juice of half the lime give a good stir and taste and adjust the ratio of ingredients according to your taste. Then cover the bowl and place in the fridge to keep it cool and fresh. Having cold salsa with hot chicken and char-grilled vegetables gives a really nice contrast when rolled up in a tortilla.

Now start on the char-grilled vegetables. Cut the peppers into strips about 1cm wide and 4 or 5cm long.



Cut the onions into half cm slices and cut the spring onions into pieces about 4 or 5 cm long.



To get a really good char-grilled flavour we use a cast iron grill pan, but if you don't have one of these any heavy frying pan can substitute.

Heat the pan over a high heat and add the oil and wipe round with a paper towel. You should be able to get away with this oil for all the vegetables and the chicken without having to add any more. When the pan is really hot, add enough vegetables as you can in one layer and leave to cook without moving until the start to have bits of black on them, then flip them over by shaking the pan and cook the other side. When they're done, put them in a bowl and cover with some paper towel to keep the heat in before adding the next load of vegetables.

When the vegetables are done continue with the chicken. Cook the chicken in the same way over a high heat and turn to cook on both side. When they're done, slice the cooked chicken into thin slices.

We like to put all the completed ingredients on the table and make the fajitas as we eat them

Chicken Yakisoba

Because the majority of this dish is composed of mushrooms and vegetables this dish is incredibly low in points for the amount of food you end up with on your plate; and since the whole thing is cooked quickly over a high heat all the vegetables keep their flavour and their crunch.If you go to your local Chinese supermarket you can get hold of fresh noodles to cook this dish, but if you can't do that the straight to wok noodles such as those made by Sharwoods or Amoy will substitute just fine.

The whole meal is worth 8.5 Weight Watchers points.



Ingredients (serves 2)

• 150g Chicken breast (2.5 points)
• 1 teaspoon oil (1 point)
• 1 Carrot
• 1 Green pepper
• 1 Onion
• 150g bean sprouts
• 90g mushrooms (especially good with shitake)
• 2 eggs (2.5 points)
• 2 tablespoons of soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons mirin (1 point)
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil (1 point)
• 1 tablespoon oil (2.5 points)
• 300g raman noodles (7.5 points)

First we need to cook the chicken, the way I find tastes best is to fry the chicken over a very high heat, this way it gets a lovely caramelised crust just like you do with barbecued food. If your chicken breast is quite thick, you may want to cut it in half to create two slightly thinner pieces.

First heat a heavy frying pan over a very high heat. Once it is very hot, add the teaspoon of oil and wipe around the pan with a piece of paper towel and then add the chicken breast. Don't move the chicken once it has been placed in the pan, or else it will stick. Leave it in place for a few minutes until the chicken is cooked halfway through, then turn it over and cook on the other side. When it's cooked all the way through, put it on the side and let it cool a little.

Meanwhile, peel the carrot and cut it into matchsticks. If you are feeling lazy, you can grate the carrots with a cheese grater, but I think it's nice cut slightly large as the carrots keep their crunch better. Then add these to a large bowl.

Slice the pepper thinly and add to the bowl with the carrots.

Slice the onion thinly and add to the bowl.

Cut the mushrooms quite large, each one into quarters is probably about right.

Add the bean sprouts.

Roughly chop the chicken into relatively small pieces and add with the rest of the ingredients.

Add the noodles.

Now add the eggs, soy sauce, mirin, and sesame oil to the bowl.




Now comes the fun part, mix the whole thing up with your hands so that the sauce and other ingredients are all evenly spread. 

The trick to cooking this is to fry the dish over a very high heat and leave the ingredients to cook for about a minute without moving them. Then give them a stir and repeat leaving for a minute and then stirring until cooked. This creates bits of caramelised vegetables and eggs which is what gives this a great flavour. My wok is pretty big, but even so this has to be cooked in two batches.

Heat a wok over a very high heat until it begins to smoke and add the tablespoon of oil and wipe round with some paper towel. Add half the noodle mixture and leave to sizzle for a minute or two. Then stir round and leave. Continue until this batch is cooked and put aside. Then re-heat the wok and add the rest of the mixture. When this mixture is done add the first batch to the pan to reheat and mix. 

Serve garnished with chopped spring onions. 

Yangshuo Beer Fish

We picked this recipe up while holidaying in China. In Yangshuo they make it with Li River fish, which is hard to find in England, but we find it tastes just as good with pretty much any kind of fish.Since the fish is braised in the beer until it has nearly completely simmered away, it picks up all the flavour from the ingredients and tastes absolutely awesome.

This meal is only worth 5.5 Weight Watchers points. Serving with 100g of cooked white rice per person takes the whole meal including a glass of beer to 7.5 Points . The real bonus of the meal is that you drink the leftover lager as a sneaky extra!

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 1 tbsp Oil (you can use pretty much any oil apart from olive or sesame as these burn at a low temperature) (2.5 points)
• 450g Fillet of Fish (any white fish will do, we often use cod or haddock, definitely best with the skin on) (5.5 points)
• 25g of ginger
• 3 cloves of garlic
• A couple of chillies (more if you like your food spicy, less if you don't)
• 4 tablespoons of soy sauce
• A large bottle of lager (we use Tsing Tao for the authentic Chinese experience), 640 ml (2.5 points)
• 3 tablespoons of oyster sauce
• 1 green pepper and 1 red pepper
• 2 tomatoes
• The green parts of a bunch of spring onions
• A couple more spring onions for garnish

Start by getting all the ingredients ready, slice the ginger into thin matchsticks, finely chop the garlic and slice the chillies.

Slice both peppers into thin strips.

Chop the green parts of the spring onions and slice each tomato into 8 pieces.

Slice the fish into manageable pieces so they'll fit neatly in your pan. If you cut it too small it may start disintegrating in the wok, so we find about 4 pieces for a fillet this size is about perfect.

Now it's time to start stir frying. We use a steel wok which is great as it heats up incredibly quickly and is easy to adjust the temperature while cooking. We picked ours up from the Chinese supermarket for about £7 but any kind of pan would do.

Start by heating the wok over a high flame until it begins to smoke. At this point turn the temperature down a little and add the oil. In Chinese cooking they would normally use 3 or 4 tablespoons of oil and swirl the pan to coat, but since we are using less wipe the oil round to cover the wok using a piece of paper towel.

Add the pieces of fish and sprinkle with the ginger, garlic and chilli. The fish will stick, but don't worry about that, it'll loosen itself as soon as the beer is added. But since it does stick it's best to try not to move the fish because if you do, you'll lose the skin. Then cover the wok for a couple of minutes to let the fish steam the aroma of the ginger, garlic and chlli.

When the fish is just beginning to lose its translucent colour pour over the soy sauce, then add half the beer (saving the other half to drink with your meal) and add the oyster sauce. Gently stir being careful not to move the fish too much or else it may start to fall apart.

Now add all the vegetables and stir to mix. If there isn't enough liquid in there, add a little more beer to just cover most the vegetables. Put the lid back on until it heats to a simmer.

Let it simmer for a few minutes with the lid on to steam the vegetables not covered by the liquid then take the lid off and continue simmering for about 20 minutes until there is only a little sauce left.

Serve garnished with the spring onions.