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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! Cheap and amazing dinner topped with cilantro leaves inside air fryer tortillas.

fajita marinade recipe

Do you order chicken or beef fajitas at your favorite Mexican restaurant and wish you could bring that great bold taste home??!! Well with the best fajita marinade recipe you can do just that and make them as spicy or tame as you want them. Get ready to make these at home for dinner this week, packed with all the veggies you like wrapped in tortillas…..oh I can taste them already! (affiliate links present)

How to Make 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.

How to Make The Best Steak Fajitas

Using a bit of olive oil and water to thin out our steak dry rub turns this into the best fajita marinade recipe we’re going to share with you. You want the slices to be thin, soaked in a bold seasoning mix like this one, and cooked just enough leaving a bit of pink inside.

best fajita marinade 2

What cut of meat do Mexican restaurants use for fajitas?

Skirt steak is the most common cut. Since it does have a lot of connective tissues that is why you really want to soak it for quite some time. A rather cheap cut it can feed a crowd and is quite delicious if prepped properly.

  • 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!

How do you tenderize beef for fajitas?

This is one of them, soaking in a sauce that has a bit of citrus in it will break down the connective tissues. Scoring the top is another tip and/or pounding it out thinner to make it more tender works. 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!
steak fajita seasoning

Ingredients in Beef Fajita Marinade

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.

best fajita marinade

What makes the best fajita marinade

Bold bold flavors!! You do want heat and some citrus like lime juice to make your beef tender and bring out the flavors. 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!! Alternatively this is how to make fajita seasoning as a dry rub. Either way is amazing.

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!!

If you want the best chicken marinade we have that too! It’s great on breasts, chicken tenders, wings, all sorts of protein I tell you.

easy chicken marinade recipe

How to Make 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.

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steak fajita marinade
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4.55 from 11 votes

Best Fajita Marinade

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! 
Course Entree, Main Course
Cuisine American
Keyword beef, fajita, homemade, marinade, steak
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 0 minutes
Total Time 10 minutes
Servings 6
Calories 71kcal
Author The Typical Mom

Equipment

Ingredients

Instructions

  • 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).
  • Put mixture into a gallon bag, zip, and store in fridge overnight.

Video

Nutrition Facts
Best Fajita Marinade
Amount Per Serving (3 oz)
Calories 71 Calories from Fat 63
% Daily Value*
Fat 7g11%
Saturated Fat 1g6%
Sodium 432mg19%
Potassium 49mg1%
Carbohydrates 1g0%
Vitamin A 585IU12%
Vitamin C 0.6mg1%
Calcium 9mg1%
Iron 0.7mg4%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
how to make fajita seasoning
fajita marinade
Best Fajita Marinade

4.55 from 11 votes (3 ratings without comment)
Recipe Rating




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Ned

Sunday 7th of April 2024

It really is the best! I loved the added flavor of the dry sriracha! Thank you!

Chenee

Sunday 7th of April 2024

This looks really delicious. We are having fajitas this weekend. I'm definitely going to try it!

Charla

Sunday 7th of April 2024

Wonderful! We eat fajitas on a weekly basis that are premade so I'm looking forward to adapting to something more from scratch and incoporating your marinade.

DK

Saturday 6th of April 2024

This fajita marinade was awesome - and you're right, the dry sriracha was a game changer!

Ashley

Saturday 7th of October 2023

Still using! Added kiwi, someone told me it's a natural tenderizer.....Thanks for the recipe!

The Typical Mom

Saturday 7th of October 2023

interesting idea!

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