Slow Cooker
Chicken Fajitas
Chicken breasts slow cooked all day in salsa with a full rainbow of bell peppers, onion, green chiles, jalapeño, and fajita seasoning — shredded and served in crisp lettuce wraps with all the classic toppings. Set it up in the morning and come home to fajita night with zero effort. One of the most crowd-pleasing recipes in this collection.
- Slow Cooker
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 1 white onion, sliced
- 1 large green bell pepper, sliced
- 1 large red bell pepper, sliced
- 1 large orange or yellow bell pepper, sliced
- 1 can green chiles
- 1 jalapeño, seeded & diced (leave seeds in for more heat)
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 jar salsa
- 1 packet fajita seasoning
- To Serve
- — romaine or butter lettuce leaves
- — shredded cheese (optional)
- — plain Greek yogurt (in place of sour cream)
- — shredded lettuce (optional)
- — sliced avocado (optional)
- — lime wedges (optional)
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1
Load the slow cooker
Place the chicken breasts in the bottom of the slow cooker. Add the sliced onion, all three bell peppers, green chiles, diced jalapeño, and garlic. Pour the entire jar of salsa over everything and sprinkle the fajita seasoning over the top. Stir briefly to distribute. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours.
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2
Shred the chicken
After 6 hours the chicken should be completely tender and shred with almost no effort. Remove the breasts and shred using two forks or a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Return the shredded chicken to the slow cooker and stir back into the peppers, onions, and sauce.
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3
Serve
Spoon the chicken and pepper mixture into romaine or butter lettuce leaves. Top with shredded cheese, a dollop of plain Greek yogurt, sliced avocado, and a squeeze of lime. Serve immediately — the lettuce wraps stay crisp for only a few minutes once filled so pile on the toppings and eat right away.
- Salsa is the cooking liquid: The jar of salsa does double duty here — it seasons the chicken and peppers throughout the long cook and reduces into a deeply flavorful sauce that coats everything beautifully. Use a salsa with a flavor profile you love since it defines the whole dish.
- Jalapeño heat control: Seeded jalapeño gives you flavor with mild heat. Leaving the seeds in doubles the heat level. Omit entirely for a completely mild version — the green chiles and fajita seasoning still give plenty of flavor without any additional heat.
- Lettuce wraps over tortillas: Romaine or butter lettuce leaves hold up beautifully under the warm saucy chicken and add a fresh crunch — and eliminate the carbs from a flour tortilla entirely. This recipe is genuinely better in a lettuce wrap than in a tortilla.
- Greek yogurt over sour cream: A generous dollop of plain Greek yogurt is a direct sour cream substitute — cool, creamy, and protein-rich. Against the warm spicy fajita chicken it's exceptional.
- This chicken goes everywhere: The fajita filling works beautifully over cauliflower rice, stuffed into bell pepper halves, on a taco salad, or in our Southwest Egg Muffins the next morning — one batch feeds the whole week.