Best Fajita Marinade for Beef

The best fajita marinade recipe is here for you to enjoy! If you’re obsessed with fajitas like we are we’re sharing the best beef marinade secret with you!

Beef Fajita Marinade

We love steak fajitas!!

• Yes chicken fajitas are yummy too and for the most part I would choose chicken over steak…except when it comes to fajitas.

With that said you could use the best fajita marinade on chicken that has been cut into strips similar to our beef here, totally your choice. Here is us preparing our easy steak fajita recipe, showing you all the different spices we use as a dry rub essentially.

Then using a bit of olive oil and water to thin it out and transition it to a dry steak rub into the best fajita marinade recipe we’re going to share with you.

The Best Steak Fajitas

What makes the best fajita marinade

• BOLD flavors!!
  • So bold they permeate the meat so the flavor isn’t just on the outside when you cook it
• A bit of heat – feel free to amp it up even more if you really like heat/this recipe is med. I would say
• Easy to throw together – I am all about easy, but flavorful. Whether it is already made like soy sauce, or this easy recipe it needs to have little prep.
• Ability to make a batch ahead of time
  • You could easily make several batches minus the olive oil and water
  • Store each batch in a gallon freezer bag so they’re ready when you are

Massaging the meat is an important step too before you throw everything into your storage baggie and into the fridge to soak up all that marinade goodness!

Steps to take in order to achieve the best Mexican fajita marinade and really coat your pieces of meat:

1. Cut your steak or chicken into strips
   1. Thinner = more flavor soaked in, more tender, AND cooks for a shorter amount of time
2. Mix your fajita marinade recipe below in a bowl
3. Add your fajita meat
4. Massage the fajita marinade and meat – using your hands is best to really make sure it is all over each piece
5. Dump contents of bowl into a gallon storage bag
6. Store in fridge overnight
7. Make carne asada Crock Pot style or your other method of choice and enjoy!

Fajita Marinade for Beef

If you end up making this often I make a few batches and store it in sandwich bags. Zip closed and mark on the outside that is is fajita marinade so I know for next time.

1. Beef or chicken – 2 lbs. is what we tend to cook at a time
2. A gallon storage bag
3. Olive oil
4. Water
5. Dry Sriracha – if you’ve never used it dry it is the bomb!!
6. Cumin
7. Salt
8. Pepper
9. Paprika
10. Garlic powder

We made our steak fajitas in the Instant Pot but you can use the grill or stovetop. Because there are so many different ways to cook them there isn’t a standard this is how long to grill or timing for so many minutes per side to go off of. It doesn’t take long though because typically the meat is sliced relatively thin.

As you can see the meat has soaked up most of the liquid that was added into the bag and looks like more of a dry rub on our beef, that is what you want!!

Beef Fajita Marinade

Of course fajitas aren’t done until you add lots of veggies like onions and bell peppers for us (in all colors). If you want to change it up a bit another time, try our Asian steak marinade some night too. Let us know what you think!!

• Crockpot chicken fajitas have peppers and onions in it
• Our under 30 minute air fryer fajitas is a great recipe. Add some spice with red pepper flakes or chili powder. Then make Instant Pot tacos out of them with sour cream.
• Barbecue steak fajitas
  • If you’re using the bbq pair them with our brussel sprouts on the grill recipe
• Smoked fajitas are pretty amazing topped with cilantro leaves inside tortillas.

Alternatively this is how to make fajita seasoning as a dry rub. Either way is amazing.

Flank Steak Marinade

Mix all spices together well, add olive oil and mix. Then add water or broth and combine well. Add to a bowl or gallon freezer bag with meat and mix well (using your hands to massage it into the meat works best).

1. Put mixture into a gallon bag, zip, and store in fridge overnight.
2. Then cook your flank steak, cut of beef, or sliced meat over medium high heat, on a grill pan, or cast iron skillet.