Try this bake and scoop chicken fajita recipes for all of the deliciousness of restaurant fajitas at home! Perfect for Cinco de Mayo.

I love getting fajitas in a restaurant. As a matter of fact, I like when ANYONE gets fajitas in a restaurant.

The smoky, sizzling drama of it all – “Be careful!!” Very Hot Plate!!” – in combination with the spicy deliciousness of it all is just plain delicious in every way.

However, the thought of recreating the smoky sizzling part at home seems like a direct invitation to my over-zealous smoke alarm to do its thing, and so I came up with a little less dramatic, still just as delicious version of fajitas…a version that bakes up in the oven and lets you scoop it right out of the baking dish into your tortilla. Bake and scoop fajitas!

This is a great way to use up leftover chicken, and if you are craving tortillas and don’t have any leftover chicken, grab a rotisserie chicken at the supermarket and it will work just fine.

Here’s how you make bake and scoop chicken fajitas!

Tear the cooked chicken into strips and either let it come to room temperature or warm it up a little on the stovetop in a little chicken broth.

Next, grab a sweet onion and cut it up into slices. Saute it in a little olive oil just until it is tender, about 10 minutes or so. Now pop the chicken and onions into a shallow baking dish, and pour on your favorite salsa.

I used a mango lime salsa from Stonewall Kitchen (click here to take a look at THAT deliciousness) but whatever your favorite salsa is will be just fine.

Cover the whole thing with some finely shredded cheddar and jack cheese and into the oven it goes until it is warm and the cheese is a melted wonderland.

While the fajitas are baking, warm up some tortillas. You can use either flour or corn – I used corn tortillas because we still had about 10,000 leftover from our fish taco adventures.

You can wrap them in foil and put them in the oven with your fajitas, or if you like a little char on your tacos and and you have a gas range, put them right on the burners with the gas on low, and flip them with tongs after about 30 seconds or so,

Now! Gather your diners around the table, put the fajita dish in the center, along with the warmed tortillas.

Say “Be careful!!” Very Hot Plate!!” and let folks scoop the cheesy deliciousness onto their tortillas.

I like to have bowls of guacamole and sour cream and extra salsa for adornment, along with some fresh lime wedges. And a bottle of siracha sauce, because siracha makes everything better.

And there you have it – all of the deliciousness, some of the drama, and none of the smoke alarm!