Taco Seasoning
Homemade taco seasoning. An easy blend of classic spices for your favorite Mexican dishes.
Homemade taco seasoning. An easy blend of classic spices for your favorite Mexican dishes.
- Carbohydrate 0.606675781656724 g
- Cholesterol 0 mg
- Fat 0.184606343878513 g
- Fiber 0.282968443244863 g
- Protein 0.160016375092607 g
- Saturated Fat 0.0255781656473016 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (2g)
- Sodium 179.008956257986 mg
- Sugar 0.323707338411861 g
- Trans Fat 0.0287919312712812 g
- Calories 4 calories
Step-by-step
- In a small bowl, mix together chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, red pepper flakes, oregano, paprika, cumin, salt and pepper.
- Store in an airtight container.
Deep brick-red and heavily fragrant with earthy cumin and sharp black pepper, this dry spice blend coats the tongue with a lingering warmth anchored by crushed red pepper flakes. Relying on pantry spices yields a reliable baseline, but grinding whole cumin seeds moments before mixing introduces volatile oils that completely alter the aromatic profile of the finished blend. Ground spices degrade rapidly when exposed to light and air, losing their punch within six months, whereas whole seeds retain their potency for up to a year if stored in a cool, dark cupboard. Because dried oregano and chili powders vary widely in heat and pungency depending on their milling date, smelling each component individually prior to combination ensures stale aromatics do not overpower the fresher elements in the bowl.
Optimizing Your Spices
Commercial packets often rely on fillers like cornstarch or excessive sodium to bulk up the volume, whereas custom mixing allows exact control over the salt-to-spice ratio. Fine sea salt dissolves more evenly into ground blends than coarse kosher salt, preventing pockets of extreme salinity when the seasoning hits ground meat or roasted vegetables. Whisking the ingredients thoroughly in a small bowl ensures the dense particles like garlic powder do not settle at the bottom of the storage container, which leads to uneven seasoning across multiple batches. Storing the final blend in an airtight glass jar protects the delicate paprika and chili powder from humidity, keeping the mixture dry and free-flowing for up to three months.
Adjusting Yields
Scaling this recipe requires simple proportional multiplication, though doubling or tripling the batch benefits from a quick shake in a sealed mason jar rather than bowl-mixing to achieve uniform distribution. When reducing the recipe for a single portion of meat, measure out exactly one and a half teaspoons of the mixed blend, leaving the remaining spices sealed tightly for future use.
