Pork Fajitas With Apple Salsa Recipe & National Fajita Day
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Updated August 2026 Peach salsa is one of the best-selling salsa flavors. But if you like to make your own salsa, summer peach season is fleeting. Mangoes are a delicious replacement; but how about apple salsa? Crisp apples provide some crunch in the salsa, and apple salsa is delicious with pork dishes and chicken dishes. This recipe, for fajitas with apple salsa, is an unexpected treat, courtesy of the U.S. Apple Association. We also added julienned apple slices into the green salad we served on the side. (Trivia: Apples are America’s most popular fruit.) If you don’t want to use pork, substitute steak or chicken. August 18th is National Fajita Day. And every Friday is Fajita Friday, thanks to as marketing campaign by the Mexican food brand Old El Paso in 2022/2023. > Pork fajitas with apple salsa recipe. Elsewhere on The Nibble: > Uses for carne asada beyond fajitas. > The year’s 25+ Mexican and Tex-Mex food holidays. > The year’s 25+ beef holidays. > The different types of pork: a photo glossary. > The different types of salsa: a photo glossary. > The history of apples (America’s favorite fruit originated in Central Asia). For 4 servings, 2 fajitas each, prep and cook time is 2 hours 15 minutes (includes chilling and marinating time). Apple Salsa Ingredients (2-1/2 Cups) Combine in a small bowl and mix well: |
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Preparation 1. Combine. Place all salsa ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Cover and refrigerate for several hours to meld flavors. 2. Marinate. Place pork in a large sealable plastic bag and pour in the marinade. Cover and refrigerate for 1-1/2 hours or more, turning occasionally. 3. Preheat grill. Drain marinated pork, saving excess marinade. Place pork on the grill and brush with leftover marinade. Grill over hot coals, turning frequently, for 8-10 minutes, until an internal thermometer reads 155-160°F. Remove from heat and place on a clean plate. 4. Warm. Wrap tortillas tightly in foil and heat on upper grill rack for 10 minutes. 5. Assemble. Cut pork diagonally across grain into thin slices. Arrange one-eighth of pork slices and 2 or 3 tablespoons salsa in the center of the tortilla. Fold the bottom half of the tortilla over filling and overlap sides on top. Arrange on serving plate. Garnish as desired. Serve with a side of brown rice and beans. Substitute meaty grilled portobello mushrooms, cut into meat-like strips. Add thinly-sliced bell peppers and onions in oil with spices of choice: chili powder, cumin, and/or oregano, plus salt and black pepper. Sauté them quickly in a hot cast-iron skillet until tender and slightly charred on the edges. A popular Tex-Mex dish, fajitas were created at the end of the 1930s and beginning of the 1940s, by Mexican ranch workers in south and west Texas. During cattle roundups, animals were butchered regularly to feed the hands. Throwaway items such as the hide, the head, the entrails, and meat trimmings such as the skirt were given to the Mexican cowboys (called vaqueros) as part of their pay. Hearty border dishes were created by the chuck wagon cooks: barbacoa de cabeza (head barbecue), menudo (tripe stew), and fajitas or arracheras (grilled skirt steak). Given the limited number of skirts per carcass, the cut was not available commercially. Thus, fajitas on the grill remained regional and relatively obscure for many years, likely familiar only to the vaqueros, local butchers, and their families [source]. These are just two narrow skirts per cow, about 20 to 24 inches long and three to four inches wide once they’ve been trimmed [source]. The word fajita has its origin in the Spanish “faja,” girdle. It referred to the little strips of meat cut from the beef skirt steak. The dish has evolved to include not just skirt steak but sirloin, chicken, seafood, and later, grilled vegetable Fajitas. It became a backyard and campfire staple, and ended up on Tex/Mex restaurant menus in the 1960s. At restaurants it is typically served on a sizzling hot metal plate with grilled bell peppers and onions. CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM. |
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