Cooking a steak on pan then in oven

I watched a video by Gordan Ramsey on how to cook a steak by searing in a pan then doing the rest of the cooking in an oven.

This will be a great thing to do in the winter when I don't want to be outside grilling.

I mostly only care about the cooking process as opposed to the particular spice selection. But for my first try, I'm going to try to use the spice selection Ramsey showed in the video. I want to make sure that works out well so that I can have a baseline before trying my own spice selection.

I'm also going to stick to the same meat selection as done in the video before trying others. I'm not sure it matters though. Ramsay said in the video that he chose a tough piece of meat and to deal with that you just cook longer.

Basic cooking tips

I skimmed this video on basic cooking tips and learned a few things:

• Rice
• Rinse rice with cold water before cooking to avoid clumping. (I knew about rinsing but didn't know why it was necessary. And I think that because I didn't know the purpose, I never remembered to do it.)
• Use whole star anise and cardamom (cut in half). (I remembered that Indian rice recipes do this.)
• Pasta
• Add oil (forgot which one, probably olive oil) during boiling the water before adding pasta in order to avoid clumping. (I knew about adding olive oil but I thought it was to be added after having cooked the pasta.)

Smoked corned beef

So I've been making corned beef in my instant pot for a few years and it's been awesome! The corned beef is great on it's own and it's also great in sandwiches. 2 slices of bread, a bit of cheese, heat up the sandwich in a sandwich maker and viola!

I recently learned (from in person discussion with an employee at Nena hardware) that it's better to do corned beef in a smoker. That way you get bark. 

I don't know much about how to get bark. I learned from the Nena employee that a pressure cooker can't produce bark because it's not dry, which is why a smoker can do it (it's dry).

I did some more research and I see that I'm not exactly sure how to get bark as opposed to char (unwanted), so that's something I should learn. Here's the article about that. From the article:

REQUIRED FOR BARK

- Good spice rub containing salt and sugar - other spices help to create spice crust that is thicker.

- Temperature – too low = no bark / too high = caramelization and char (bleh, bitter) a temperature of 200°F to 250°F is just right

- Smoke

THE SCIENCE-Y STUFF

Bark is formed through two chemical processes; Polymerization and the Maillard Reaction. Everything starts when moisture from the meat and water vapor from the smoke dissolve the water-soluble ingredients in the rub. Salt is molecularly small enough, when dissolved, to penetrate past the surface of the meat; which is part of the process of getting the smoke ring. The other rub ingredients are too big and will rest on top where they slowly melt and dissolve in the fat that bubbles to the surface. Because this process should be taking place at under 300°F caramelization will not occur.

Cooking low and slow, under 300°F slows the Maillard Reaction and prevents caramelization of the sugars in the rub. The rub that remained on the surface has been sitting in the warmed and liquefied fats from the meat*. This causes an intense boost in the flavor profiles of those spices which is why bark has such incredible flavor. The smoke sticks to the dissolved rub on the meat and changes the color of the bark through the process of smoking, until it has reached that rich dark color. Once the surface moisture of the meat has evaporated, it will allow the rub to begin to dry. The once moist slurry that was the dissolved spices and sugars begins to bake, hardening into a cocoon of tastiness.

Pellicle is a thin membrane that forms between the meat’s surface and the rub. Pellicle is permanent and cannot be dissolved. It will not form on fat, although bark will. Think of it like that skin you get on jello only very edible and tasty. (What is it with these articles and jello? For more on making meat jello – check out tender meat from tough cuts,) Pellicle is the perfect surface on which bark will form, it occurs when meat proteins clump together and into tightly bonded matrixes.

That was helpful but there's some I don't understand yet.

I looked for a recipe to try. I initially searched with the word "Traeger" (the brand of my smoker/grill). I found a Traeger recipe but it involves not using a dry rub, and I think I should find a dry rub recipe (based on what I learned above), at least for now.

I found another recipe that seems promising so far. Here's the recipe and my notes:

• I don't know what flat and point mean
• I think I'll use my own spice mix for the dry rub, the same spice mix I've used in the past.
• The rest of the recipe seems fine.

Here's my spice mix from my old recipe:

1 large onion cut in quarters

1 garlic head cut in half

1 tbsp yellow mustard seed

1 tbsp coriander seed

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp dill seed

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

10 peppercorns

1 tsp celery seeds

1 bay leaf

1 star anise

3 cardamom pods

1 cinnamon stick

3 whole cloves

I'll need to swap the onion for onion powder and garlic with garlic powder. Also I'll need to grind the peppercorns, the anise, the cardamom pods, the cinnamon stick, and the cloves.

Based on the latest recipe I found, the amounts of these things should be:

• 3 Tbsp freshly-ground black pepper 
• 2 Tbsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder

There's one more problem I have. The latest recipe says to use aluminum foil while the Nena employee said that using butcher paper is better because it allows some water to escape while aluminum foil does not. But the latest recipe says that I'll be putting liquid in the foil, which I don't think I can do with butcher paper. 

I just watched part of a video on smoking brisket (corned beef is a type of brisket) using butcher paper. No liquid is used. I think I should find a recipe that uses butcher paper.

Next steps: find a smoked corned beef recipe that uses butcher paper

Caramelizing onions

In my latest session of making chicken tikka masala I forgot to mention a problem I had/have re caramelizing onions.

The recipe says to caramelize the sliced onions by cooking them in oil for 20 minutes.

I cooked them for about 7 minutes before I decided to stop. The onions were getting burnt and I didn't think that was supposed to happen. My baseline is based on memory from my mom's cooking where she uses caramelized onions.

So just now I watched a video on how to caramelize onions. The onions in the video never got as black as mine. 

My best guess is that I was cooking with higher heat than was done in the video. And right now I don't recall what level of saute heat I used on my instant pot. I guess I used "high". Next time I'll use "low" and see how that works out.

Reviewing my recipe, I see that the recipe said I should have used saute medium. So I missed that during the cooking. So I changed the formatting of my recipe so that the "medium" word is easier to see. 

So here's the recipe now:

Chicken tikka masala - instant pot recipe

# INGREDIENTS

• 2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts, chopped into bite-sized pieces
• 2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 large onion cut into thin half wheels
• 2 cloves of garlic finely minced
• 2 jalapeño chilies roasted, seeded, and diced

Marinade

• 1 cup plain greek yogurt 
• 2 Tbsp garam masala
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice about half a lemon
• 2 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger

Spices

• 5 Tbsp garam masala
• 1 Tbsp ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
• 2 tsp paprika
• 1 teaspoon turmeric

Salt and pepper 

• 1 tsp freshly ground kosher salt 
• 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper 

Sauce - blended 

• 4 tomato
• 4 onion 
• 10 cloves garlic
• Same amount ginger 

# INSTRUCTIONS

1. Marinade the chicken for at least 1 hour.
2. Grill: the chicken and chilies. 
1. Let chicken rest for 10 min before putting in pot. [1]
3. Saute **MEDIUM** mode: Set to sauté (medium). When HOT, 
1. Add oil. Heat until hot. 
2. add onion and sauce until caramelized. About 20 minutes. Needs CONSTANT stirring.
3. add garlic and chilies, and sauté for 1-2 minutes.
4. add Spices. Fry these spices with the onions for a minute to release their flavor. 
5. Add chicken. 
6. Add salt and pepper directly prior to adding sauce. This helps draw the flavor of the onions, spices, and tomatoes together.
7. Add Sauce and stir. Boil off enough water. About 10 minutes.
4. Pressure cook Mode: Manual for 7 minutes. Then QR. 
5. Saute mode: Set to sauté (low). When HOT, add cream and stir. Simmer until the sauce is thickened to your liking, a few minutes.

# NOTES

• [1] This seals in the flavor and ensures the tenderness of the meat. 

This recipe was adapted from these two recipes, plus feedback from a local Indian grocery store:

https://www.savorytooth.com/instant-pot-chicken-tikka-masala/

https://food52.com/recipes/13819-ultimate-chicken-tikka-masala

Cooking Chicken Tikka Masala - session #2

Last session...

Notes on this session...

• The grilling of the chicken came out great. Lots of seared edges.
• I used dark chicken meat instead of white meat. I noticed that cubing this kind of meat is better for producing pieces that have lots of small edges, great for getting seared.
• I cut up the chicken pieces a lot smaller than I usually do. 
• I like the smaller size. It makes it easier to pick up with a piece of Naan bread.
• The grilling of the jalapeños was great too. Lots of searing.
• I used 1/2 cup olive oil to cook the onions, garlic, jalapeños, and soak up the spices. I think I should use butter or glee next time instead. I used olive oil without really thinking about it. I'm just so used to using it that I didn't even consider using something else.
• I recalled a technique that I learned from a friend (Indian cooking tradition) who taught me that when adding spices you should add them to the oil because oil carries the spice to the rest of the food. So the oil is like the blood stream of the food. (Cool, so spices are fat soluble.)
• It worked out great. The spices + oil made a paste that reminded me of the look of real Indian cooking.
• This time I made sure to boil off the water from the tomatoes/onions before adding the cream.
• So I had to change the recipe. I couldn't go straight to pressure cooking after adding the tomato/onion sauce because pressure cooking doesn't boil off water and I need to boil off water. So I sautéed for a while until I thought enough water had boiled off before switching to pressure cooking. I thought it was good but it may have deserved more boiling. [1]
• I think this is the best tikka masala I've done. I think the jalapeños were responsible for a big part of the heat. I liked it a lot.

[1] I'm reminded of other instances of converting recipes to the instant pot where there is a step that water needs to boil off. Pressure cooking can't do that so something else has to be done to make sure that there isn't too much water. 

Stew - session #3

Continuing my series on cooking stew (last session)...

These are my notes:

• Pre-cooking:
• I forgot to buy eggplant as I planned to. 
• These are the amounts of stuff that I decided to change from the recipe:
• Carrots - none
• Mushrooms - 12 oz instead of 5 oz
• Potatoes - 1 lb instead of 2 lbs
• Celery - 3 stalks instead of 0
• Garlic (sliced) - 6 cloves instead of 0
• flour - none
• Allspice (~2 tsp) - added as part of the rub for the meat.
• Wine (1 cup) - to add before adding beef broth
• Method changes:
• remove bacon, leaving some grease for cooking garlic
• re-add bacon + grease with veggies
• cook garlic with some of the bacon grease
• add wine to deglaze before adding beef broth
• Post-cooking:
• all the method changes were fine. everything cooked as expected.
• i can't tell a difference in the bacon or the overall product due to the difference in recipe re bacon
• the flavor of the soup wasn't as good as last time
• i realize that i need to "calibrate" my measuring tool and document that stuff when taste testing
• like if i'm hungry vs not hungry. that would have an affect on the taste. 

Smoked brisket - session #1.0

Continuing my series on smoking brisket (last session)...

I smoked brisket yesterday. Here are my notes:

• Cooked for ~11 hours
• @ 225F for about 6 hours, reaching internal temp of 160F
• wrapped with foil, added beef broth inside
• @ 225F for 4 hours, reaching internal temp of 195F
• @ 250F for 30 min, reaching internal temp of 200F
• set to 450F (and reached 450F after a bit), reaching internal temp of 206F
• removed
• The recipe wasn't working (getting internal temp to reach 204F) so I increased to 250F and then to 450F. 
• I liked the amount of searing.
• A friend who ate with me, who's smoked brisket previously and showed me how to do it, said that the brisket wasn't soft enough. He said it needed more time. He sometimes smokes for 15 hours.
• I did not try the idea I mentioned in last session about stabbing the meat to add garlic cloves. I avoided it this time because I wasn't sure if the stabs would change the cooking in a way I didn't like. I'll try it next time.

Cooking knives: must I sharpen? what to buy?

I don't know much about cooking knives. Here's what I do know:

• My parents and siblings do lots of sharpening knives.
• A few years ago I purchased a $30 knife from amazon with good reviews. I've been using it without problems since then, without sharpening it. I don't think it's lost much sharpness.
• I guess the knives that my parents/siblings use are junk in the sense that they easily become dull with use. I guess they buy knife sets from department stores (with no research) probably around the price of my one knife.
• I have a theory that I don't need to sharpen my knives if I buy the right ones. I'm not sure about this.

Suggestions/criticisms? Do you have advice on how to pick and buy knives? Do you know about particular purpose knives like for trimming fat from a brisket?

Smoked brisket - session #0.1

I want to make smoked brisket using my wood-pellet grill. I found a recipe by Traeger.

I reviewed the recipe making sure that I understand it. It looks fine.

I thought of an improvement too. The recipe calls for garlic powder. I recall my mom adding garlic cloves to a piece of meat by stabbing the meat with a knife and inserting garlic cloves in the holes, just deep enough to be flush with the surface of the meat. I think that will work fine and I think it will produce a better result than using garlic powder.

Freshly-ground black pepper?

A few of my recipes call for freshly-ground black pepper. I can differentiate the smell of freshly-ground pepper from pepper that is pre-ground. I wasn't sure that flavor followed the same logic. So I thought to do some research. I found this article which I found very helpful.

Here's one part that I found helpful:

> THE CASE AGAINST PRE-GROUND PEPPER

> If you think you don’t like black pepper, then what you truly dislike might be the dusty vibe of months-old, pre-ground pepper. Tinned pre-ground pepper is like a dub of a dub of a dub of a cassette tape—a vague echo of its original glory.

> Grind fresh peppercorns, and the flavor will be like listening to your favorite band from 1992 digitally remastered and on a very nice stereo. In other words, wow.

This reminds me of something else I learned a while ago. Ground spices lose potency over time, but worse than that, they can also gain bad flavor. I heard this from others and I also noticed it myself (at least with respect to smell). I had a many years old container of spices and the smell was awful -- nothing like what I expected it to be.

Sunny-side up eggs with basterma and veggies - session #1

About a year ago I learned a way to make eggs that I thought was way better than anything I've tried from restaurants or from my mom. It's a recipe that my friend learned from his mom.

I've done the recipe many times, with many variations. The latest variation was done by my friend and it was so awesome that I decided to write it down so I don't forget it. The main changes were adding a particular spiced meat called Basterma and mushrooms instead of potatoes. We noticed that the mushrooms did much better at soaking up the flavor than compared to potatoes. 

So I wrote down the ingredients (see below). I haven't written the directions yet, partly because I mostly know it. Another reason is that I tried to write down the directions by asking my friend what they are but we had trouble understanding each other so we decided to write down the directions while he does the recipe live.

I tried the recipe (with the directions as I know them) without my friend being there to help correct me. I thought that I might be able to replicate the directions enough to get the same result. But I was wrong. It was tasty enough but not as tasty as when my friend did it. When my friend did it, the mushrooms soaked up the flavor from the Basterma. That didn't happen when I did it. I thought that the basic thing to do was to cook the mushrooms along side the basterma for long enough. I guess I didn't do it long enough.

Ingredients:

• 5 eggs

• 2 oz Basterma (from local middle eastern store)

• 12 oz mushrooms cut into 1 inch cubes

• 2 medium tomatoes cut into 1 inch cubes

• 3 medium sprigs green onion

• handful celery leaves or parsley

• 3 cloves garlic sliced

• 1 teaspoon salt [1]

• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric [1]

• 1/2 cup olive oil [1]

[1] estimate, will get accurate figures later

Stew - session #2

Continuing my pursuit to improve my stew recipe (see last session), I searched for what veggies are good to be added to stew.

I found this article which was very helpful.

• Various types of squash could be added. A bit later during my research I learned that squash is sweet like carrots are. But I don't like the sweetness of carrots in the stew (at least when I eat the carrots, not sure how the carrot flavor affects the whole stew). So I don't think I'll be adding squash to my stew.
• I learned that root veggies work well. I didn't recognize any of them by name (parsnips, turnips, rutabaga, celeriac, and sweet potatoes), so I searched each one of them. I did recognize all of them by picture. I might add some of these. I sometimes have extra turnips in stock, so those would be good to add.
• Eggplant! My mom makes many recipes with eggplant. I think I'll try it out for my stew.
• The other things on the list were things that either I already include or things that I don't think I would like at all, like cauliflower.

Stew - session #1

I have some new leads on improving my stew recipe.

I've been using a recipe called Irish Lamb Stew which I found here. I've tried it with lamb or beef. Both turn out tasty. I cooked it a couple days ago and it was the best I had done so far. Yesterday I decided to make some changes like reducing the amount of carrots. So I googled for other stew recipes looking for other vegetables I could add. While doing that I found an article talking about common mistakes people make when making beef stew. I learned about 3 mistakes that my recipe makes.

Mistake #1

> Including Thickeners

> There's a misconception that stew ought to be "thick." True, stew is heartier than soup, but this is mostly due to the fact that the pieces of meat, potato, and carrots are bigger than they might be in ordinary soup. That, and there is also a higher solids-to-liquid ratio. But the liquid itself should not be thick in the same way that gravy is thick. 

> So skip the roux, and don't bother dusting the meat with flour or cornstarch before browning, either, as some recipes will suggest. That will just interfere with getting a good sear on the meat, and gum up the stew with unneeded starch. Simmering the potatoes will contribute all the starch the stew needs, and it'll be plenty thick.

So I shouldn't be using flour to coat the meat before cooking. (This is interesting. I have a Black Pepper Chicken recipe that calls for this too. The recipe says it's to prevent burning. hmm) 

Mistake #2

> Not Using Any Bacon

> The notion that bacon enhances beef stew should be self-evident. The best way to introduce bacon to your beef stew is to cube it up and then render it slowly in your pot, then add your carrots, onions, and celery, and sauté them for a bit before adding them. Next, add the now-browned bacon bits to the stew. You might be tempted to try to brown the beef in bacon fat, but it will end up smoking and you'll wish you hadn't. 

So my recipe says to brown the beef right after cooking the bacon, with the bacon and the bacon fat. Before finding this article I already had an idea that the bacon is not turning out right in the recipe I'm using. I had seen other recipes that involved cooking the bacon so that it's crispy, then removing it but leaving the grease in order to cook the next thing (say vegetables), then readding the bacon at the end. So I want to implement that in my stew recipe. But I'm not sure what to do.

If I were to cook the bacon until browned, then remove the bacon and cook the veggies in the bacon grease (as the article says), then when would I cook the lamb/beef? Would I remove the veggies so that I could cook the lamb/beef? 

Or should I remove the bacon and grease, then cook lamb/beef, then add the bacon and its grease after cooking the lamb/beef, like when the veggies are added.

Mistake #3

> Forgetting the Acid

> The paradox of beef stew is that all that braised goodness can be a little bit heavy on the palate. It's easy to forget to add some sort of wine, vinegar, or yes, even lemon juice, to brighten things up.

My recipe doesn't use any of these. I'm going to add 1 cup of white wine. I've seen these used in lots of recipes.

I wanted to learn why wine (or any acidic thing) helps. I found this article saying:

> These qualities are what distinguish wine and alcohol in cooking, as opposed to non-alcoholic liquids. It’s often recommended to deglaze with wine rather than water, juice or stock because wine can dissolve both oil- and water-soluble compounds.

And this:

> As wine cooks, its sugars and acids concentrate. In savory dishes, avoid “jammy” reds and off-dry whites, which can become syrupy and imbalanced.

> Dry red or white wines (more on that below) are best for cooking with in most applications, although there are desserts that call for sweet wine. In particular, look for those that are medium- to full-bodied with good acid and little to no oak. Very oaky wines can become bitter when cooked.

I don't know much about wine. I don't understand these 2 paragraphs.

Making fajitas - using my Griddler - session #3

Continuing with my series of posts on making fajitas (last session)...

I thought of an idea of how to make a fajita wrap and tried it out. It was awesome!

I use a tortilla to wrap the fajita meat/veggies like you would with a burrito, then put it in my Griddler by Cuisinart set to griddle at 400F.

The wrapping was tough to do because the tortilla was kinda small. I used the tortilla size that works well for tacos. 

Next time I'm going to try bigger tortillas so that wrapping works better.

Making fajitas - session #2

Continuing from last session...

I made fajitas again and it was awesome!

I used a different recipe than last time (recipe below). I think the marinade of this new recipe is much better than that of the last recipe. It's got a lot more spices. I think the product was a lot more flavorful because of this (though it's hard to judge because there were was another variable -- the way I cooked it caused searing and on previous attempts I didn't get searing). 

I accidentally deviated from the recipe. The recipe said to marinate and cook the chicken after it was cut up into short thin slices. But I had already started marinating before realizing my error. So I decided to continue as is. When it was time to cut up the chicken, I noticed that the interior was still raw. So I cut it up and cooked it again in the wok (having removed the veggies first). Fortunately nothing was overcooked.

Next time I'm going to cut up the chicken before marinating. 

Additional notes:

• I did not discard the marinade as the recipe says. Instead I removed it and kept it to the side thinking that I might use it later with the veggies. When it was time for the veggies, I thought I need more liquid and I also wanted to keep all the flavor from the marinade. So I put the marinade in. The final product was great and did not have too much liquid. 
• This method is an adaption of a method from my Black Pepper Chicken recipe (a Chinese recipe). In that recipe, you cook the chicken such that the only liquid is a little vegetable oil and then you cook the veggies (chicken removed) in about a cup of sauce.
• I used far more veggies than the recipe called for. 
• Instead of 1/2 a pepper, I used 3 peppers.
• Instead of 1/2 of an onion chopped, I used a full onion julienned.
• I didn't use green onions.  

Here's the recipe:

Flavorful Chicken Fajitas

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons canola oil, divided
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1-1/2 teaspoons seasoned salt
• 1-1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 1-1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, optional
• 1-1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into thin strips
• 1/2 medium sweet red pepper, julienned
• 1/2 medium green pepper, julienned
• 4 green onions, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 6 flour tortillas (8 inches), warmed
• Optional: 
• Shredded cheddar cheese
• taco sauce, 
• salsa, 
• guacamole, 
• sliced red onions and 
• sour cream

Directions

• In a large bowl, combine 2 tablespoons oil, lemon juice and seasonings; add the sliced chicken. Turn to coat; cover. Refrigerate for 1-4 hours. 
• In a large cast-iron or other heavy skillet, saute peppers and onions in remaining oil until crisp-tender. Remove and keep warm. 
• Drain chicken, discarding marinade. In the same skillet, cook chicken over medium-high heat until no longer pink, 5-6 minutes. Return pepper mixture to pan; heat through. 

Slightly edited from: https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/flavorful-chicken-fajitas/

Making Jamaican Jerk Chicken

I've been making lots of Jamaican jerk chicken. 

The marinade is store bought. Walkerswood Traditional Jerk Seasoning. (My local stores ran out for over a month, probably cuz of covid. So I found it on amazon, in larger quantity, and less than half the price per unit weight.)

I use a wood pellet grill (Traeger Pro 575, which has wifi and a phone app for monitoring and controlling the grill).

Here are the steps I follow:

1. Marinate overnight. (Lately I've been reducing the potency of the marinade by mixing 1 part olive oil with 2 parts marinade.)
2. Cook 2 to 3 hours at low temp (around 185F), which smokes the meat. 
3. Flip the meat. Insert probe. Set to 450F. Cook until the internal probe reads 205F. 
4. Check if there are any pieces ready to be removed, possibly flip, then continue cooking for another 10 minutes.
1. Repeat cycle until all pieces are removed.

When are the pieces ready? I like crispy skin and some black char. My kids like it less cooked than I do, so I remove some pieces earlier in the process for my kids.

Some notes:

• I've done this basic recipe many times, with many variations. In some cases I've had extra marinade which I added on the chicken after the low temp cooking phase. I don't know if this is a good idea. My thinking is that I'm getting more jerk seasoning onto the meat. 
• I learned this recipe from a friend who said that he sometimes scores the meat before grilling. He said it's for cooking the inside meat better. I thought it was for getting more jerk seasoning into the meat. 
• The friend also sometimes cuts up the meat towards the end of the grilling (with a butcher knife going through even the bone), and adds it back on the grill. This is similar to scoring the meat before grilling.
• I've done this recipe with chicken wings and leg quarters. I prefer the wings.

Making fajitas - session #1

I've made fajitas twice. I used the same recipe both times. I was not satisfied in both cases. Something seemed wrong and I didn't know what. After reflecting on it, I think I figured it out. I misunderstood the recipe. The recipe was unclear about getting rid of the marinade after the marinating step. So I was cooking the chicken in a huge amount of liquid and I think I wasn't supposed to do that.

The thing that seemed wrong was that the chicken and veggies were not seared. 

Another thing that seemed wrong was that there was so much liquid while cooking the chicken. I think I noticed this the first time I cooked the recipe but forgot it and didn't document it. So when it was time for the second recipe, I didn't have any of that info available to me.

I checked another fajitas recipe and noticed the explicit step of getting rid of the marinade. 

Maybe I should have known to get rid of marinade before cooking meat. But I've seen recipes that explicitly say not to remove the marinade. You cook it with the meat. It was chicken tikka masala.

In the future I'll be thinking about whether or not to get rid of marinade. If the recipe doesn't clarify, then I'll look up other similar recipes to see what they say about it.

-----

There's another problem with my fajitas recipe. I made a mistake of cutting up the chicken before marinating/cooking it. I've made this mistake before where I assume that cutting up the meat is something I do before marinating and cooking it. But this recipe says to marinate/cook and then cut it up, which I've seen before but didn't remember. I wonder how much this affected the result. Next time I'm going to follow this part of the recipe. I've edited the recipe directions so that it's more clear about not cutting up the meat before marinating/cooking.

-----

Another thing. The recipe says to use a skillet. Instead I used a wok. I think a wok is better for cooking this kind of stuff. It's easier to move the food around while cooking. Like there's more space to manipulate the food, and the surface allows for continuous movements from edge to edge of the wok. I learned about the benefits of using a wok when I was doing some Chinese recipes.