This study investigated the machinability of short carbon fiber reinforced magnesium matrix composites, which are considered to be novel materials. AZ91 alloy and its composites containing 2.5 and 5 wt.% recycled carbon fiber (rCF) reinforcements were used for machinability investigation. The samples were face milled using an uncoated carbide cutting tool under dry cutting conditions at different cutting speeds (480-560-640 m/min) and feed rates (0.65-0.8-0.95 mm/min). The experimental design was determined based on Taguchi L9 (33 ) orthogonal array. The obtained results were analyzed via the Taguchi, ANOVA and regression methods. The study examined the surface roughness, cutting forces, possible wear formations on cutting inserts and chip morphology, which indicate machinability performance. The most promising machinability results in terms of the surface roughness and cutting force were obtained for AZ91 alloy, while the poorest performance was obtained for 5 wt.% rCF reinforced composite. It was concluded that the increase in reinforcement content led to increased surface roughness and cutting force. In addition, a significant BUL (built-up layer) formation on the cutting inserts was detected via SEM and EDX analyses. Based on the examination of chip morphology, spiral shaped continuous chips were predominantly generated in all experiments. The results showed that the composites were machinable, and the cutting parameters were suitable for future studies.