These Cajun Chicken Pitta breads are one of my favourite weeknight, low effort, flavour-packed dinner recipes. You can prep it in 5 minutes, bake it in 20 and make your creamy Cajun sauce in the meantime. And I’ve even got a shop-bought sauce cheat if you want to spend even less time in the kitchen.
I’ve also included adjustable spicing, so if you have little ones who are not used to spice I recommend how much cayenne pepper to use, vs if you have older kids who are used to some heat. If you have a toddler, weaning baby or fussy eater and are wondering how to adapt these Cajun Chicken Pitta breads for your family, see here >
How to make my Cajun Chicken Pitta Breads
You’ll just slice peppers and onion and add them to an oven dish, along with chicken breast mini fillets (or tenderloins). Then drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle over your spices and dried herbs. Then toss everything well together and bake for just 20 mins. In the meantime, toast your pitta and make the creamy Cajun sauce for spreading in the bread.
What’s the Shop-Bought Cheat?
You could skip the Cajun sauce step and use my shop-bought cheat - Nando’s Perinaise instead. And yes, I know that’s not Cajun, it’s Portuguese but nevertheless, it goes really well! This cheat is perfect for nights when you just want to put the chicken in the oven and get on with something else, or go and put your feet up for 20 minutes.
FAQ’s For My Cajun Chicken Pitta Breads
What makes this meal Cajun?
Cajun cooking has flavour depth and warmth and is usually smoky and spicy. While this particular recipe is not a traditional Cajun recipe, these Cajun Chicken Pitta breads use the same seasonings as is commonly used in Cajun cooking; smoked paprika, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, dried oregano and thyme. Onions and peppers, as I’ve used in this recipe, are also often used in Cajun recipes.
Can I prepare this Cajun Chicken Pitta in advance?
This recipe uses chicken breast mini fillets (or tenderloins), so there’s no prep work needed for that. You can prep your onion and peppers in advance, then refrigerate in a food storage container. The spices and dried herbs can be prepared in advance and stored covered, at room temperature. You can make your creamy Cajun sauce, cover with clingfilm (plastic wrap) and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Can I feed more people with this recipe?
You can certainly double this recipe, but you will need to use two oven trays or large oven dishes. Over crowding the dish or pan will cause everything to be undercooked.If you want to scale the recipe up, just look for the toggle at the top right of the recipe ingredients list.
Is this meal spicy?
I recommend in the recipe notes how much cayenne pepper to add, depending on who you are sharing it with. If you are sharing with a baby, toddler or child who isn’t used to spice, use just a pinch of cayenne pepper. You can use a quarter teaspoon of cayenne pepper if sharing with kids or adults who are used to mild spice. If you’re sharing with adults or kids who are used to hot spicy food, you can go up to half a teaspoon of cayenne pepper for both the chicken filling and the creamy Cajun sauce.
You don’t need to worry about the amount of smoked paprika as that is just a warming spice there is no heat kick to it. You can read more recommendations about sharing this meal with little ones below in my adapting this recipe for your family section.
Do I have to use mixed peppers?
What should I cook it in?
I actually recommend you use your largest roasting tray as oppose to an oven dish, like seen here. This is because the more space the mixture has, the better it will cook. If everything is a bit crowded, you will get some liquid from the vegetables at the bottom of the dish, the less crowded it is, the more that liquid will cook up.
Do I have to serve this Cajun Chicken in pitta?
I haven’t tried it, but I think you could serve these baked Cajun chicken and peppers with rice instead.
How can younger children help make it?
So long as the kids have a really good hand wash before and after they can help toss everything together in the oven dish tray before it goes into the oven. Also, get them involved in filling their own pitta!
Can I Store Cajun Chicken Pitta leftovers?
You can store any Cajun Chicken Pitta filling leftovers in an air-tight container or resealable food bag in the fridge for up to 3 days (cook day + 2). Leftovers can also be frozen, just defrost for 24 hours in the fridge and reheat in the microwave, stirring halfway, until steaming hot all the way through.
More on safe food storage and reheating.
What diets is this recipe suitable for?
My Cajun Chicken Pitta breads are suitable for egg and nut-free diets. It is NOT SUITABLE for those on a gluten or diary-free diet. You can make them dairy-free if you don’t put the creamy Cajun sauce in the pitta bread.
Adapting My Cajun Chicken Pitta For Your Family
Eating together is beneficial for families of all ages and stages, for a multitude of reasons; nutritional, behavioural, psychological and for healthy family functioning. This section will show you how to tweak this Cajun Chicken Pitta recipe for sharing with a weaning baby, toddler or a fussy eater, which will help make it easier to eat together as a family.
Keeping Fussy Eaters Happy
If you have a picky eater who is funny with cooked peppers, and prefers them uncooked, you can hold back some of the pepper before you cook it. They could have that on the side and just have the chicken in the pitta, or you could put the uncooked pepper in the pitta with the chicken.
Making My Cajun Chicken Pitta Suitable for Baby Weaning
If you want to share this with a weaning baby or toddler, you can with a few tweaks. Just hold back on the salt, then when you have dished their serving up, add it to the filling. I recommend adding just a pinch of cayenne pepper. You don’t need to worry about reducing the smoked paprika as it is just a warming spice, there’s no heat there. They can have my creamy Cajun sauce too, again hold back on the salt and add just a pinch of cayenne pepper.
How to Serve to Babies & Toddlers
6-12 months
Slice their chicken into finger-size strips. The pepper will be soft and thinly sliced so they can eat it as is. Slice some toasted pitta bread into finger wide strips. Can serve with the creamy Cajun sauce on the side to dip in.
12 month +
Shred or chop their chicken into small bite-size pieces and chop their peppers into bite-size pieces also. Serve the pitta in finger-size strips with the Cajun sauce as a dip.
I’ve also added these notes to the bottom of the recipe so you have them to hand when you come to cook.
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Cajun Chicken Pittas
Ingredients
- 1 ½ tablespoon olive oil
- 650 g chicken breast mini fillets
- 1 onion, thinly sliced
- 2 large peppers (bell), red, orange or yellow or mix, thinly sliced
- 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
- Pinch - ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper, see notes
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- Salt & pepper to taste
FOR THE SAUCE
- 120 g light cream cheese
- 2 ½ tablespoon mayonnaise
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- ¼ teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- Pinch-½ teaspoon cayenne pepper, see notes
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- Salt and pepper to taste
See notes for sharing with baby or toddler
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 200°C/180°C fan/400ºf/gas 6.
- Add the onions, mixed peppers and chicken mini fillets to a large oven dish or oven tray.
- Drizzle over the olive oil, and sprinkle over your smoked paprika, cayenne pepper, oregano, thyme, salt and pepper. Toss until everything is evenly coated and level out.
- Bake for 20 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.
- In the meantime, mix together all your sauce ingredients in a bowl and toast your pitta bread.
- Slice when done slice of bread open along one edge and spread the creamy sauce on one side. Then add in your chicken and pepper mix and serve.
Notes
SPICE LEVELS
If sharing with a young child not used to spice, just add a pinch of cayenne pepper for both the filling dish and the sauce. If eating with kids used to some spice can use ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper. If kids are used to hot spicy food, or just serving to adults who like heat, you can use up to ½ teaspoon.SAUCE CHEAT
To make this a quicker more low effort meal, use Nando’s Perinaise instead of making the creamy sauce.WHAT PAN TO USE
I recommend you use your largest roasting tray as the more space the mixture has, the better it will cook. If everything is a bit crowded, you will get some liquid from the vegetables at the bottom of the dish, the less crowded it is, the more that liquid will cook up.Baby & Toddler
FUSSY EATERS
STORAGE
Nutrition
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