Happy Monday!
Today, I have something for you that is going to BLOW. YOUR. MIND. Seriously. But first, I have a few questions…
Do you like tacos?
Do you like to add a little seasoning and spice to your taco meat?
Do you use the expensive, pre-packaged, salt- & chemical-laden, store-bought taco seasoning packets?
Do you know what is in that stuff???!?!
Yes… Yes… Yes… No… Okay, that’s what I thought :) Well today, you’re in luck my friends, because I am sharing a culinary secret that I stumbled upon a few years ago. It is magical and it will change your life. (Umm… okay, it’s not really magical and it might not change your life – unless you have high blood pressure - but it will make you a healthier person!)
This miracle happened one Tuesday night while Kyle and I were in the midst of cooking tacos or fajitas for our typical Taco Tuesday evening. We LOVE tacos around these parts ;) I realized that I had forgotten to pick up a taco seasoning packet at the store while on my weekly weekend grocery trip – EEK! What were we going to do?
Luckily, I always have an abundance of spices on hand. You should see my spice drawer! I threw a little of this and a dash of that together and out came the BEST and HEALTHIEST taco seasoning I had ever tasted!
I like to call it my Homemade {Salt-Free} Taco Seasoning! Creative, right? ;) I have refined the recipe below based on our preferences for the variety of spices in the seasoning. The best part of the recipe is that it is completely customizable! You can increase or decrease (or even make an addition!) of any of the spices based on what you and your family likes in their tacos.
Homemade {Salt-Free} Taco Seasoning
Makes enough seasoning for approximately 3 pounds of meat
Ingredients
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp onion powder
- 2 tsp cayenne (feel free to reduce this based on your spice preferences)
- 1 tsp cumin
- 4 tsp paprika
- 8 tsp chili powder
- 2 tsp sugar
Directions
Mix all ingredients together and store in an air-tight container. Use 2-3 TBSP per pound of ground or diced meat when preparing tacos or fajitas. Enjoy!
I found this cute little spice shaker at IKEA and we’ve been using it to store my Homemade {Salt-Free} Taco Seasoning. It works perfectly and is much more attractive than the zip-lock baggie we were previously using :)
How do you like your tacos prepared? Spicy? Mild? Do you like to add any interesting ingredients into your taco shells?
facebook 
twitter 
pinterest 
I don’t like mine too spicy but sometimes ill make a taco salad and add salsa and avocado on the side!
Mmmm… avocados are a MUST for tacos!
This. Is. Awesome.
Yes, we DO love tacos! I like mine spicy, Herb likes his mildly spicy. And we do usually buy the store-bought taco seasoning packets, but this is way better!
Tacos are such a crowd pleaser :) Everyone loves them!
Ugh! I needed this last night. I bought taco seasoning without realizing that it had sugar, so I ended up using a random assortment of ingredients from my pantry. This list (minus the sugar) would have been perfect!
You could totally leave the sugar out and it would be just as good :) Let me know if you try it, Carly!
This is great. I steer towards salt-free seasonings. Bookmarking to try…
Let me know when you try it :)
I love this! I stopped buying the packets last year and made my own because I realized I wasnt utilizing my chili spices enough. I tend to use a lot more cumin but that’s a personal preference. Something I also started doing last year was cutting the ground beef in HALF! Instead of using a full pound, I use half or 2/3rds of a pound and then a can of either chickpeas or black beans, partially mashed and stirred into the meat. It makes your dollar go a longer way, and cuts down on red meat consumption.
That is an awesome idea! I don’t eat a lot of meat so I usually just have black bean tacos – I like your idea of reducing the meat by mixing beans in!
Um I totally have a taco post prepared for tomorrow! So in sync :) Love you taco seasoning and your Ikea spice shaker!!
Taco twins! ;)
I’m so glad you posted this recipe! We usually get our Taco seasoning from Penzey’s, but I usually forget to get more when we run out. This is perfect! And I love that it’s salt-free. At my house, we definitely like our tacos spicy. We usually had a whole jalapeno, and then we mellow them out with some avocado.
I love Penzey’s! I always get sucked in and buy a ridiculous number of spices that I have no idea how to use :)
i love tacos! and i love taco seasoning on so many foods besides tacos. but yes… the sodium is outrageous. thank you for posting this mix of spices and suck for us Becky!
Taco seasoning is so good on so many things :)
Delish! I stopped buying the packets of taco seasoning years ago- I pretty much make mine with about everything you have listed! And your pictures are beautiful! Nice work!
Thanks! I’m slowly improving my photo skills :)
Tacos are my go-to easy dinner. I need a big jar of this in my pantry!
Yes, everyone loves tacos! This is also great in fajitas :)
This is so much better than anything you could find in the store! My family loves tacos and we always try to punch things up with a little chipotle chile powder.
Ooh chipotle chili powder woul be amazing in this mix!