Sheet Pan Fajitas

Here at Our Best bites we specialize in practical, delicious ideas to help you get dinner on the table for your families.  We share a LOT of different types of recipes and content around here, but we know you especially love family friendly dinners so I have a REALLY good one for you today.  These Sheet Pan Fajitas are ridiculously easy to make.  With just a few minutes prep time, you can pop them in the oven and have just enough time to set the table and gather all the fixings, and then they’re ready!  Dinner in under 30 minutes.  Thousands of you have made these and loved these and ranked them as our top recipe of the year!

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chicken peppers and onion on a sheet pan

Types of Fajita Recipes

We’ve got a couple other fajita recipes here on Our Best Bites, and they all have their place.  For the grill, you cannot beat our Classic Fajita recipe.  It requires a long marinade and its tangy, smoky flavor profile is beloved by readers around the world as one of our all-time most popular recipes!  For those times where you need to just dump everything in a slow cooker, we have my easy Slow Cooker Steak Fajitas.  Super tender steak and so easy and delicious. Set it and forget it.

These days the recipe I tend to make the most are these Sheet Pan Fajitas.  You cannot beat the convenience of a one-pan meal and a simple yet flavorful dry rub gives these fajitas out0-of-this-world flavor without drowning everything on a pan like a marinade would.

Making the Dry Rub

I’m using seasonings that most of you probably have in your pantries already:  Kosher salt, black pepper, chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika, oregano, garlic powder, and if you have any- True Lime.  I buy this crystallized fresh lime in a large shaker bottle on Amazon and use it on evvvverything.  If you don’t have it, no worries.  We’ll give these a squeeze of fresh lime.

As I mentioned before, we’re using all dry seasonings because there’s plenty of moisture in the chicken and vegetables and we want these to caramelize and roast (not simmer!)

spice mix in a bowl

Chicken Choice

You can certainly try  this recipe with boneless skinless chicken breast, but I prefer thighs for some very specific reasons.  Aside from the fact that chicken thighs are so much more flavorful in a recipe like this, they are also much easier to cook.  Chicken breasts need to be cooked to a certain temperature and as soon as they pass that, they’re suddenly dry and chewy.  It’s hard to mess up chicken thighs.  You can overcook them and they’re still juicy and tender.  On a sheet pan meal, you’re cooking several different things on the same pan and it’s really nice to have some flexibility in case everything isn’t done at the exact same time.  Did I mention they taste so much better in this recipe?  Buy boneless skinless ones and then use a sharp pair of clean scissors or kitchen shears to trim excess fat if you like.

Add the Seasoning Mix

I slice up my chicken and vegetables and then use plastic gloves so I can just toss everything together with my hands!  Drizzle with a few tablespoons oil (our Lime Olive Oil is my personal favorite, here) and that seasoning mix.  I use an extra large sheet pan (I get them here, they’re fantastic and so useful.  I pretty much use this size for everything!) and this just gets tossed in the oven.

chicken fajita mix on baking sheet

Cook the Sheet Pan Fajitas

If your oven has a convection setting, use it. Convection will circulate hot air and help get everything kind of toasty brown like a grill would.  If not, you can always broil quickly at the end if you like.

pan with chicken fajitas

I toss on a handful of chopped cilantro at the end and a big squeeze of fresh lime juice.  These are DIVINE.

fajitas on sheet pan

Now you can obviously serve these traditionally in tortillas with all the fixings.

Fajitas on sheet pan

But some other ways we love eating these, depending on nutrition preferences, are:

-Over shredded iceberg or mixed greens
-Over a bed of cauliflower rice
-In a bowl of rice and beans (use the quick steam rice bags and canned beans for a fast meal!)
-Simply in a bowl with avocado and sour cream

Any way you do it, I think you’ll love this one!  Let me know what you think!

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Sheet Pan Fajitas


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5 from 27 reviews

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Description

Quick and easy sheet pan dinner featuring juicy flavorful chicken with roasted bell peppers and onions.  Perfect week night meal!  Served my family of 6 just perfectly.


Ingredients

  • 1.52 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed and sliced (see note)
  • 1 large onion, sliced
  • 2 large bell peppers (or 3 small/med ones), sliced
  • 34 tablespoons olive oil (or other oil of your choice) I prefer our Lime Olive Oil
  • 2 teaspoons kosher or sea salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons cumin
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 23 teaspoons True Lime, optional
  • handful of cilantro
  • 1 lime
  • optional for serving: sour cream, guacamole/avocado, tortillas, rice and beans, etc.

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Have a large sheet pan ready (cover with foil or parchment for easy clean-up).
  2. Place sliced chicken, onions, and peppers in an extra large mixing bowl.  Drizzle on oil and all seasonings. Toss to coat.  (Tip:  I keep Nitrile gloves in my kitchen and use them for things like this- tossing with your hands is much easier!)
  3. Spread chicken and pepper mixture out evenly on baking sheet and place in oven.  Bake for 20-30 minutes (closer to 20 with convection) until chicken is cooked through and vegetables are tender.  If desired, place under broiler for a quick minute to brown.
  4. Remove from oven and if desired, sprinkle cilantro over everything and give it a big squeeze of fresh lime juice (you might not need fresh lime if you used True Lime, but I say never enough lime.)
  5. Serve with tortillas and traditional fixings, or over a bed of salad or veggies or rice and beans, etc.

Notes

I like using extra large sheet pans for most of my cooking, and they’re the perfect size for this recipe.  If you are using a standard sheet pan, you will have to let me know if it all fits- if you’re worried there’s too much, just split between 2 pans and pop both in the oven!

*I use a full 2lbs and it’s generously seasoned.

Sara Wells
Meet The Author

Sara Wells

Sara Wells co-founded Our Best Bites in 2008. She is the author of three Bestselling Cook Books, Best Bites: 150 Family Favorite RecipesSavoring the Seasons with Our Best Bites, and 400 Calories or Less from Our Best Bites. Sara’s work has been featured in many local and national news outlets and publications such as Parenting MagazineBetter Homes & GardensFine CookingThe Rachel Ray Show and the New York Times.

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Questions & Reviews

  1. This recipe is delicious. I dislike buying a spice for one recipe, but the smoked paprika was worth it. It reheats well also. Thanks!






  2. I just have to add my voice to the chorus of praise for this recipe! Delicious!!!! Whenever I make something new my
    kids usually ask, “Did this come from OBB?” 🙂

  3. Has anyone ever tried this with tofu? My hubby and I recently went meatless, but we loved this recipe so much, does anyone have suggestions for us vegetarians?






  4. I’ve made this 3 weeks in a row now. What an easy, flavorful way to make chicken. I love the veggies, but after my family picked out all the chicken the first week, I’ve nixed the veggies (and some of the seasoning mix). We use in burritos, on salads, and even on mac and cheese! You’re right…thighs are SO forgiving, and I wonder why I ever suffered through so many dry chicken breast recipes!






  5. Love this recipe!!! I have made it several times. I usually use chicken tenderloins and cut them in half lengthwise. I also use Siete almond flour tortillas. The best GF chicken fajitas I’ve had in a very long time. Thanks for sharing.

  6. I have been making fajitas for almost 15 years and felt like mine were good but now that I’ve tried this sheet pan method I’m hooked. I love the way It makes the peppers and onions kind carmelized.
    Wanna know a really naughty way of eating them? Ditch the tortilla and just serve it straight over queso and chips. Mmmm






    1. It would just depend on what you do like. You can roast just about any vegetable in there, though it will be less fajita-like!

  7. I’d give these fajitas 10 stars if I could. So easy and so flavorful and pretty much fajita perfection! Thank you!






  8. If I don’t have any true lime do I still use the lime juice with the seasoning of after it’s done cooking?

  9. This was so delicious and quick to make! I preheated my oven then assembled everything and cleaned up before my oven was done preheating! This will definitely be a regular dish at our house.






  10. I love this recipe! My notes say it serves 1 because I could easily eat the whole thing! So delicious. Today I made them and forgot the oil…and didn’t notice a difference in taste. Is the oil necessary?