Fajita Seasoning Substitutes: Homemade, Taco Seasoning and Other Swaps

Out of fajita seasoning? Mix your own from chili powder, cumin, garlic and onion powder, salt and pepper, then finish with lime juice. Taco seasoning plus lime is the next best thing, packet for packet. The lime matters: McCormick’s fajita packet lists citric acid and lime juice concentrate,¹ and that sour note is what sets it apart from most taco seasoning. Watch the salt too: some blends that look like close cousins carry far more of it, spoon for spoon.

Fajita seasoning is a dry blend for strips of beef or chicken cooked with peppers and onions. Whatever you use has to cover three jobs: chile, cumin and garlic flavor; salt; and a 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.
• Attributed: a named source publishes this ratio. We quote it as theirs.
• Disputed: named sources give different answers to the same swap. You get each one, side by side.
• Method: our starting point, based on how the two compare. Taste and adjust.

The computed figures here cover salt only. They’re arithmetic from the sodium printed on Nutrition Facts labels, so they apply to the products named.

What you are replacing

By our math, a 1.12-ounce packet (about 32 g) holds about eight 4-gram servings, or roughly 2,000 mg of sodium.² 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.¹

If you want the closest match

1. Make your own

A basic homemade fajita seasoning for 1 pound of chicken or beef: 2 teaspoons chili powder, 1 teaspoon ground cumin, 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, 1/2 teaspoon onion powder, 3/4 teaspoon table salt and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper. Finish with about a tablespoon of lime juice at the end. The salt brings roughly 1,770 mg of sodium, a little under a packet’s 2,000 mg, using Morton’s 590 mg per quarter teaspoon (approximate, by volume).⁴ America’s Test Kitchen’s weeknight chicken fajitas stick to the same short list of chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper, with lime juice at the end.⁵

That’s a lighter hand than a packet. McCormick’s directions put a whole packet, about 12 teaspoons by our math, on a pound of meat.¹² Taste before adding more.

The lime juice stands in for the packet’s citric acid and lime juice concentrate.

A jar-sized batch: PepperScale’s homemade fajita seasoning mixes 3 tablespoons chili powder, 1 tablespoon each of salt, ground cumin and smoked paprika, 2 teaspoons each of garlic powder and onion powder, 1 teaspoon cayenne, and an optional teaspoon of tomato powder, which it says adds color and a lime-like tang. The cayenne and smoked paprika make it hotter and smokier than the packet, and PepperScale says it keeps for up to 3 months airtight.⁶ Under the USDA specification, chili powder already carries cumin, oregano and garlic,³ so a short list does the job.

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.⁷ Next to the fajita packet, it names oregano instead of cumin, and it has no citric acid or lime. A missing name doesn’t prove an ingredient is absent, though, since both labels lump 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.⁷ The fajita packet carries 250 mg per 1 1/2 teaspoons, about 2,000 mg in all.² Both packets are meant for a pound of meat.¹⁷ So:

• Packet for packet, the taco mix gives you about 15 percent more sodium. Use it as is, with 1/4 cup water as in the fajita directions.
• 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, about a tablespoon per pound, then taste.

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,³ and the chile is usually ancho. That puts most of fajita seasoning’s flavor in one jar, minus the onion and the sour note.

Ratio (Method spice, Computed salt): Start with chili powder 1:1 for the spice, plus an extra pinch of cumin if you want it up front. 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),⁸ against about 167 mg per teaspoon in the McCormick fajita mix.² To make up the difference, add about 1/8 teaspoon of table salt per tablespoon of chili powder, using Morton’s 590 mg per quarter teaspoon.⁴ Then add onion powder and lime to taste. The salt is the math; the 1:1 amount and the extras are 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,⁹ and TASTE describes most adobo blends as garlic, pepper, salt and oregano.¹⁰ It shares the salt, garlic, black pepper and oregano of the USDA fajita list but has no chile and no cumin.

Ratio (Computed salt): Goya’s adobo carries 520 mg of sodium per quarter teaspoon, about 12 times the sodium of the McCormick fajita mix spoon for spoon. Swap it 1:1 and you’ll badly oversalt the dish. Treat it as your salt and garlic: about 1 teaspoon of adobo (about 2,080 mg sodium) gives you roughly the salt of a whole fajita packet.²⁹ 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 starting points.

Cajun seasoning, plus cumin and lime

Cajun blends share chile, garlic and salt, but the labels we checked name no cumin and no acid. Slap Ya Mama Original lists salt, black pepper, red pepper and granulated garlic.¹¹ McCormick Signature Seasonings Cajun lists salt, spices (including paprika, red pepper, thyme, black pepper and celery seed), garlic and onion.¹² The thyme, celery seed and extra red pepper will push the dish toward Louisiana.

Ratio (Computed salt): The cumin and lime are starting points. Match the salt of a fajita packet, about 2,000 mg, not its volume:

Then add about 1/2 teaspoon cumin and lime to taste. At that amount, Slap Ya Mama is mostly salt and pepper, so expect noticeably more heat and less chile flavor.

What isn’t known

• 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 don’t publish their spice proportions beyond the order of ingredients, and “spices” on a label may cover ingredients that aren’t named.¹⁷
• No label we checked lists tomato powder in fajita seasoning. PepperScale’s homemade recipe includes it as optional,⁶ but we found no source showing it’s common in commercial blends.

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