Tired of Spending $1.25 or more on a single packet of Taco Seasoning Mix? Here’s our very simple copycat recipe for your favorite Taco restaurant chain. Now you can make fabulous tacos at home for just pennies.
In addition to saving money on packages of seasoning mixes, we frequently make our own to control the ingredients contained in them as well. For example, in the original ingredients list for Taco Bell Seasoning Mix the ingredients are as follows:
Wheat, Flour, Salt, Dried Garlic, Maltodextrin, Chili Peppers, Spice, Dried Onions, Monosodium Glutamate, Paprika, Sugar, Contains less than 2% of Silicon Dioxide As An Anticaking Agent, Soybean Oil, Malic Acid.
By making our own, we can eliminate unwanted chemicals such as MSG from our diet.
For 1 single Package You’ll need:
2 tablespoons Instant flour** (wondra works great!)
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 1/2 teaspoons dried minced onion
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon paprika
3/4 teaspoon crushed beef bouillon cube
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
dash onion powder
Measure all ingredients into a small ziploc baggie, makes 1 pkg of mix; which is enough to create 1 batch of Tacos)
To Use:
Brown 1 lb of ground beef or turkey and then drain
add 1 pkg (about 1/4 c. slightly rounded) of the homemade taco seasoning mix (as listed above) and
1 can diced tomatoes, un-drained OR 3/4 c. Cold water
If you’d like it slightly spicier use 1 can un-drained Rotel tomatoes with chili’s.
Stir well to mix and fully incorporate with the meat.
Reduce heat, simmer 7-10 minutes on low heat, stirring occasionally.
Fill taco shells as you normally would and add your favorite taco toppings such as diced tomatoes, shredded lettuce, shredded cheese, black olives, hot sauce and more.
For a Double Batch You’ll need:
1/4 c. Instant flour*
1 Tbs + 1 tsp chili powder
1 Tbs dried minced onion
2 1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp paprika
1 1/2 tsp crushed beef bouillon cube
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp onion powder
Measure all ingredients into a small Ziploc baggie, makes 2 pkg of mix; which is enough to create 2 batches of Tacos. To use add a very slightly rounded 1/4 c. seasoning mix per pound of meat.
For 4 Packages You’ll need:
1/2 c Instant flour*
2 Tbs + 2 tsp chili powder
2 Tbs dried minced onion
1 Tbs + 2 tsp salt
1 Tbs + 1 tsp paprika
1 Tbs crushed beef bouillon cube
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder
Measure all ingredients into a jar or Ziploc baggie, makes about 1 cup of mix; which is enough to create 4 batches of Tacos. To use add a very slightly rounded 1/4 c. seasoning mix per pound of meat.
Large Batch (8 pkgs) (Pint Jar)
1 c. Instant flour*
1/3 c. chili powder
1/4 c. dried minced onion
3 Tbs + 1 tsp salt
2 Tbs + 2 tsp paprika
2 TBS crushed beef bouillon cube
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
Measure all ingredients into a jar or Ziploc baggie, makes about 2 cup of mix; which is enough to create 8 batches of Tacos. To use add a very slightly rounded 1/4 c. seasoning mix per pound of meat.
** Instant flour is a pregelatinized, low-protein flour that dissolves quickly and smoothly in liquids, regardless of temperature. Pregalatinization is simply a process in which the flour is heated with steam, then dried back out. The most common brand name of instant flour is Wondra.
:stars: this recipe is a winner! we made these last night after seeing this here and they came out great. i didn’t even have to add more chili powder and they really do taste like taco bell.
do you have a gluten-free version of this?
what do you normally use to thicken things? If you can use it, arrowroot is a thickener used often…don’t know if it is gluten free but measure just like flour–or corn starch could be used if you can use that, again, measure just like flour.
you can use guar gum or zantham gum as a thickener instead of flour.
sounds like the real thing.
bought some the other night @ my local wally world. was looking right @ reduced salt and for some unknown reason picked up the full salt version. i fixed my tacos & as i began to eat, all i could taste was to much salt.
wished i had seen this recipe before then. will use next time. :bee:
don’t even bother with the thickener, i use everything except flour and add 1 TB of tomato paste, let it simmer on low heat for 20 minutes and it thickens up great. I do use 85/15 ground beef. But just a suggestion for excellent taco meat use a chili cut ground beef, it taste just like chopped steak.
this recipe sounds great,never thought about how much i spend each year on taco seasonings.can’t wait to try it.:money1:
Have this simmering in the electric skillet as I am typing this. Though I almost messed up when mixing the spices, mistook cayenne for chili powder…. luckily for me, I noticed after only adding in the onion…wouldn’t have been able to eat it.
Though the rest of the family probably would have loved it. And the daughter says she likes it, that it tastes just like taco bell’s and we eat a lot of taco bell.
:approved1:
I made this the other day and it was fantastic. We were out of regular paprika and so we used smoked paprika and it had a really nice chipotle taste. I am getting ready to make a big batch and plan on splitting it down the middle, half with paprika and half with the smoked paprika.
Good recipe. I also added a little mexican oregano to mine (personal choice). thanks for sharing
I make almost all my seasoning mixes as there is way too much salt in the prepared ones. I found a lot of them on this great website.
What’s with the cost of the instant flour (Wondra)? I followed the link to Amazon to check it out and if I had false teeth they would have dropped out.
The price is outrageous.
Really? It’s only 20¢ per ounce, I don’t think that’s much. The Amazon pack is for 6 containers, which makes it $2.68 per container. Walmarts price is $2.74 per container.
There are 52 Tbs in a 13.5 oz container. $2.68 divided by 52 = 0.05¢ per Tablespoon. So it costs 10¢ in this particular recipe.
If you purchase Wondra at Walmart it’s $2.74 divided by 52 = is 0.526 ¢ per Tablespoon.
I plan to try this. My adult son is allergic to tomatoes so finding things that don’t have tomato /tomato paste/ tomato powder is a challenge. I modify a lot of recipes to accommodate him but it’s nice to find something I don’t have to change.