Southwest Chicken Fajita Marinade

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You’ll need a fantastic marinade for the best Southwest Chicken fajitas you’ve ever tasted. The key to a great wet rub is the balance of salt, sweet, and savory combined with acid to round out the flavors. I start by making my tried-and-true chicken taco seasoning, then add vinegar, olive oil, and lime to create a wet rub to marinate the chicken before grilling.

This recipe uses basic pantry ingredients that I bet you already have on hand. If you don’t want to make my homemade seasoning, you can always use a store-bought version. Then, add the wet ingredients to the dry to prepare the chicken marinade.

This Marinade isn’t just for chicken, It goes great with shrimp, fish, pork and even steak.

How to Make Southwest Chicken Fajita Marinade

To prepare the recipe you just need to combine the wet ingredients with the dry taco seasoing and then massage the chicken so the wet rub completely covers the chicken. you can use chicken thighs or chicken breasts when making fajitas. I prefer to marinate the chicken in the wet rub for at least 4 hours but you can make it the night before and marinate overnight if you like.

Ingredients for the Southwest Chicken Fajita Marinade

Chicken Wet Rub

• 1/4 Cup Dry Taco Seasoning
• 2 tbsp Olive Oil
• 2 tbsp White Vinegar
• Juice of 1 lime
• 2 tsp Hot sauce (optional)
• 2 tbsp Light Soy Sauce
• 2 tsp Honey
  

Begin by preparing the spicy wet rub. Mix all of the dry ingredients together. Then add the soy sauce, lime juice, hot sauce, and olive oil to create a paste.

Add the chicken to the mix, making sure all of the chicken is thoroughly covered by the wet rub. Then, place it in the fridge for 4 hours.

Tips and Variations

Tips:

• Reserve the leftover wet rub while you are grilling your chicken. You can brush on the remaining wet rub to give the chicken even more flavor.
• Keep an eye on the chicken while grilling. Because the wet rub contains sugars and olive oil, you may have some flare-ups while grilling. You can rotate the chicken over direct and indirect heat to prevent burning. After searing the chicken on both sides, you can move it to the indirect heat side of the grill and finish cooking there.
• The Chicken Fajita marinade can be made a few days ahead and stored in the fridge until you are ready to marinate the chicken. I don’t recommend marinating the chicken for more than 24 hours so that the chicken doesn’t get mushy.
• This recipe is great for marinating chicken wings, shrimp skewers, or pork. Basically, anything you want to give a blast of flavor to this marinade works great!

Variations:

• Add fresh herbs like cilantro, parsley and thyme to the marinade for a fresh addition.
• Add other citrus like lemon oranges or grapefruit.
• Use this marinade on fish, shrimp, pork, and steak.
• If you don’t have a grill, you can make fajitas in the oven, air fryer, or sauteed in a cast iron skillet.

More Recipes You Will Love

• Spicy Grilled Chicken Sandwich
• Garlic Rotisserie Chicken Recipe
• Chicken Fajita Egg Rolls in the Air Fryer
• Juicy Grilled Chicken on a Charcoal Grill
• Grilled Meatballs on a Charcoal Grill

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