Fajita Seasoning Substitutes: Homemade, Taco Seasoning and Other Swaps

Fajita seasoning is a dry blend for strips of beef or chicken cooked with peppers and onions. The USDA’s purchasing specification lists salt, black pepper, cumin, oregano, garlic, onion, red pepper and natural lime flavor as its minimum ingredients,¹ and McCormick’s packet lists spices (including chili pepper, cumin and paprika), garlic, salt, sugar, onion, corn starch, citric acid and lime juice concentrate.² The sour note from lime or citric acid is what sets it apart from most taco seasoning. A substitute has to cover three jobs: chile, cumin and garlic flavor; salt; and that sour edge.

Quick answer

How the ratios on this page are labeled

Every ratio carries one of four labels.

• Computed: based on a measurable physical relationship, with the source named.
• Attributed: a named source publishes this ratio. We quote it as theirs.
• Disputed: named sources give different answers to the same swap. We show each one and do not average them.
• Method: we found no published ratio. We give a direction and a cautious starting point, and say so.

The Computed figures here cover salt only. They are arithmetic from the sodium printed on Nutrition Facts labels, so they apply to the products named. We found no credible published ratio for replacing fajita seasoning with another blend.

What you are replacing

By our arithmetic, a 1.12-ounce packet (about 32 g) holds about eight 4-gram servings, or roughly 2,000 mg of sodium.³ McCormick’s directions use the whole packet for 1 pound of chicken or beef with an onion, a bell pepper and 1/4 cup of water.²

The flavors come from familiar sources. Chile heat comes from capsaicinoids.⁴ Cumin’s oil is led by cuminaldehyde, at 20 to 72 percent,⁵ and oregano’s by carvacrol and thymol, at about 78 to 85 percent in one review.⁶ The dish itself began on Texas ranches: The Austin Chronicle’s history traces fajitas to the ranch lands of South and West Texas and glosses them as grilled skirt steak.⁷

If you want the closest match

1. Make your own

Formula (Attributed): America’s Test Kitchen’s weeknight chicken fajitas season 12 to 16 ounces of sliced chicken breast (two 6- to 8-ounce breasts) with 1 teaspoon chili powder and 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin, combined with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.⁸ The recipe adds 4 teaspoons of lime juice to the vegetables at the end.⁸

That is a lighter hand than a packet. McCormick’s directions put a whole packet, about 12 teaspoons by our arithmetic, on a pound of meat.²³ Scale ATK’s amounts up for a pound and taste before adding more.

The lime juice does the job of the packet’s citric acid and lime juice concentrate.² Chili powder already carries cumin, oregano and garlic under the USDA specification,¹ which is why a short list works.

2. Taco seasoning, with lime

Taco seasoning shares the chile, garlic, onion and salt. McCormick’s original taco packet lists spices (including chili pepper, paprika and oregano), corn starch, salt, onion and garlic.⁹ Compared with the fajita packet, it names oregano rather than cumin, and it has no citric acid or lime.²⁹ Missing names are not proof of absence, since both labels group some spices under “spices.”

Ratio (Computed salt, Method lime): The McCormick taco packet carries 380 mg of sodium per 1 1/2 teaspoons, six servings to a packet, or about 2,280 mg in all.⁹ The fajita packet carries 250 mg per 1 1/2 teaspoons, about 2,000 mg in all.³ Both packets are written for a pound of meat.²⁹ So:

• Packet for packet, the taco mix gives about 15 percent more sodium. Use it as is, with 1/4 cup water as in the fajita directions.²
• Spoon for spoon, the taco mix is about 1.5 times as salty. Use about 2/3 as much (250 ÷ 380).

Add the sour note at the end: a squeeze of lime over the cooked meat, or ATK’s 4 teaspoons of lime juice for 12 to 16 ounces of chicken.⁸ Using ATK’s lime amount with taco seasoning is our suggestion, not ATK’s.

If you have chile powder but no blend

Chili powder, with salt and lime

The USDA’s purchasing specification says chili powder should include ground chili pepper, cumin, oregano, salt and garlic powder,¹ and Saveur says the chile is usually ancho.¹⁰ That puts most of fajita seasoning’s flavor in one jar, minus the onion and the sour note. Chili powder is itself a Texas blend: UTSA’s archive records that Gebhardt registered the Eagle Brand Chili Powder trademark in 1896.¹¹

Ratio (Method spice, Computed salt): Start with chili powder 1:1 for the spice, with an extra pinch of cumin if you want it to lead. USDA FoodData Central’s reference sample works out to about 77 mg of sodium per teaspoon (2,870 mg per 100 g, at 2.7 g per teaspoon),¹² against about 167 mg per teaspoon in the McCormick fajita mix.³ Making up the difference takes about 1/8 teaspoon of table salt per tablespoon of chili powder, using Morton’s 590 mg per quarter teaspoon.¹³ Then add onion powder and lime to taste. The 1:1 amount and the additions are our starting points.

If you have only an all-purpose or regional blend

Adobo seasoning, plus chili powder and cumin

Goya’s adobo lists salt, garlic, black pepper, oregano and turmeric,¹⁴ and TASTE describes most adobo blends as garlic, pepper, salt and oregano.¹⁵ It shares the salt, garlic, black pepper and oregano of the USDA fajita list¹ but has no chile and no cumin.¹⁴

Ratio (Computed salt, Method spices): Goya’s adobo carries 520 mg of sodium per quarter teaspoon,¹⁴ about 12 times the sodium of the McCormick fajita mix spoon for spoon.³ Used 1:1 it would oversalt the dish badly. Treat it as the salt and garlic: about 1 teaspoon of adobo (about 2,080 mg sodium) supplies roughly the salt of a whole fajita packet.³¹⁴ Add chili powder and cumin for the rest, starting with 1 to 2 teaspoons chili powder and 1/2 teaspoon cumin per pound, and finish with lime. The spice amounts are our starting points.

Cajun seasoning, plus cumin and lime

Cajun blends share chile, garlic and salt, but the labels checked name no cumin and no acid. Slap Ya Mama Original lists salt, black pepper, red pepper and granulated garlic.¹⁶ McCormick Signature Seasonings Cajun lists salt, spices (including paprika, red pepper, thyme, black pepper and celery seed), garlic and onion.¹⁷ The thyme, celery seed and heavier red pepper will push the dish toward Louisiana.

Ratio (Computed salt, Method cumin and lime): Match the salt of a fajita packet, about 2,000 mg, rather than its volume:

Then add about 1/2 teaspoon cumin and lime to taste. Slap Ya Mama at that amount is mostly salt and pepper, so expect noticeably more heat and less chile flavor. The cumin and lime amounts are our starting points.

What isn’t known

• No credible source we found publishes a ratio for replacing fajita seasoning with any other blend. The salt figures are arithmetic from the labels of the products named, and the fajita packet’s total is our calculation from its net weight and serving size.
• No published heat measurement exists for fajita, taco or Cajun blends.
• Brands do not publish the proportions of their spices beyond the order of ingredients, and “spices” on a label may cover ingredients not named.²⁹
• No label checked lists tomato powder in fajita seasoning, and no source was found showing that it is a common ingredient.

Related

• Fajita seasoning and fajita vs. taco seasoning
• Taco seasoning and taco seasoning substitutes
• Chili powder, chili powder substitutes, cumin, paprika
• Adobo seasoning, Cajun seasoning, Mexican oregano
• Good spices for fajitas and spices for taco meat