For a milder Mexican experience (Asda Mexican Fajita Seasoning Mix)

Member Name: pink_glitter

Product:	Asda Mexican Fajita Seasoning Mix
Date:	03/02/09 (170 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good if you like your spicy food mild

Disadvantages: I couldn't really taste much of the spiciness, directions were a bit unclear

I love fajita's and in the past have tended to buy those fajita 'dinner kits', which usually include a pack of tortillas, seasoning mix and salsa. Considering I don't like salsa, unless I'm eating with a friend who does like it, I end up throwing it away. Obviously this is a total waste of money, so I decided to start buying the fajita mix and tortillas separately to save a few pennies and stop being so wasteful. I usually buy the Old El Paso stuff, but again with saving money in mind, I decided to give ASDA's own brand a try.

The seasoning comes in a yellow packet, which has a picture of some fajitas on the front of it, along with a 'V' symbol telling me this is suitable for vegetarians. Fair enough, but once you've added the chicken, surely it won't be!? Anyway, the pack also tells me that this contains paprika, cayenne and cumin, and the back of the packet has full instructions on how to make fajitas, so great if you've never done it before, or aren't confident cooking unless you have a recipe in front of you.

The directions for use state that the seasoning mix should be 'sprinkled over the sliced meat and mixed with 2 tbsp of oil.' It then goes on to say that you should heat a pan and add the chicken. Normally with these mixes you either sprinkle over once the meat is in the pan, or mix with water then pour over.

I didn't think the directions were completely clear, but what I did was place the chicken on a plate, and coat it in the seasoning mix. I'd already got ahead of myself and put oil in the pan by this point, and so didn't mix the oil in whilst the chicken was on the plate as I think I was supposed to do.

The powder itself is a rich orangey brown colour, and smells lovely and spicy. Unusually these mixes smell quite strong, and although there is certainly a quite noticeable scent, it wasn't as strong as with some others I have used.

Once the fajitas were made, it was time to taste them. I do like spicy food, but sometimes I think the spiciness of the seasoning can overpower the rest of the flavours meaning it's so hot you can't really taste it. I needn't have worried about that here. I don't know if it's the fact that only the chicken was coated in the powder, and the vegetables weren't, but the spicy flavour was very mild. It was pleasant enough, and you could certainly taste the spices, but I don't think you could go as far as calling it hot. You couldn't really taste one particular spice in there either, it was a very generic sort of spicy taste if that makes sense, and I thought it was overall a little disappointing really, as I could probably have put plain chicken in there and wouldn't have noticed too much difference!

A 30g pack of this mix costs 55p from ASDA.

If you only like a mild spiciness then I would recommend giving this a try. For me though, I thought perhaps it was a little too mild, and would have preferred it to have been a bit hotter.

Summary: Not hot enough for me!