Recently, we’ve been asked to share our homemade taco seasoning recipe. It’s made with really simple ingredients that you’ll most likely have in your pantry. Best thing about it is that it takes less than 2 minutes to prepare, and will save you money and a trip to the store. Also, it won’t have any ‘fillers’ that come with some store bought brands! You can make it right before cooking, or you can make it in advance and store in the pantry for some other time.
Do you love our homemade turkey taco recipes? If you’re looking for an alternative homemade taco seasoning packet replacement, look no further. No preservatives here, just fresh ingredients. 🙂
How Do You Make Taco Seasoning?
Making taco seasoning is easy! Grab these ingredients & tools:
Chili Powder
2 tsp
Chili Powder is a ground form of many different varieties of peppers, but is typically regarded as mild in heat. It also helps provide color to the powder, and eventually, whatever it coats.
(Crushed) Red Pepper Flakes
0.5 tsp
This is where the heat of the powder will come from. Red Pepper Flakes, when crushed, allow their capsacin (what makes chili peppers spicy) to better mix in the powder. This can also be substituted with Cayenne Pepper, which is more spicy. We’d recommend a less amount of cayenne.
Smoked Paprika
1 tsp
Smoked paprika provides a sweetness as well as smoky aspect to the powder. It provides little to no heat in the resulting powder.
Garlic Powder
0.5 tsp
A little bit of garlic powder helps go a long way in this seasoning. The preference would be use fresh, but that would affect the life of the powdered seasoning.
Onion Powder
0.5 tsp
Like the garlic powder above, onion powder also goes a long way in a small amount. Again, we’d prefer to use fresh wherever possible, however, the powder version works great in this seasoning as well.
Cumin
1.5 tsp
Cumin typically can be purchased whole in their seed form, like the image above, or in powdered form. For this recipe, we’d like to go with the powdered version instead of grinding ourselves.
Oregano
0.5 tsp
As an herb, Oregano has an earthy and ‘fresh’ aroma. The flowers, when ground up impart amazing flavors and are quintessential for this taco seasoning.
Black Pepper,
0.25 tsp
You can’t go wrong with ground black pepper. As an ingredient, it is versatile in a majority of dishes, and you should definitely have some always in your pantry.
Salt
0.25 tsp
Like Black Pepper, Salt is an essential ingredient to have in your cupboard at all times. Salt can accentuate flavors, and brings out the character in dishes. Just don’t go overboard here!
Pestle & Mortar
A Mortar & Pestle is great to grind and combine your spices, and in this recipe, it’s great to break up the red pepper flakes in your taco seasoning.
How to Make Taco Seasoning
You’ll want to make sure you grind the red pepper flakes in a pestle and mortar setup. If you’d like to not go through that hassle, you can easily substitute cayenne pepper instead. Mix to combine all the ingredients. After your meat is brown in a pan and almost fully cooked (we like to use lean ground turkey or lean ground beef), go ahead and add the seasoning to the mix with about a quarter cup of water. Bring the water and seasoning to a boil, and you stir to incorporate. After it reaches a boil, continue to stir but lower temperature to a simmer. Once all the ground protein is fully coated and the remaining liquid water has evaporated, you can remove from heat to eat. This shouldn’t take longer than 3-5 minutes.
Let us know what you think about this recipe in the comments below! Is there anything you do differently?
We’ve also made a quick YouTube video for you to see how we made the Taco Seasoning and made a healthy Turkey Taco meal prep! Check it out below:
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