Taco Seasoning - homemade

Would you like a great Taco seasoning mix that's pretty easy to put together and makes ground beef (or turkey or chicken for that matter) taste out of this world?  This homemade taco seasoning mix uses all real ingredients, no fillers, just real 100% spices and herbs.  If you want 100% real ingredients, make sure you read the labels on your spices to make sure. 

Some really great things have come about because of my quest to get artificial chemicals and ingredients out of my life.  Now I rarely if ever used store bought spice packets for my hamburger, so having an envelope of taco mix on hand was foreign to me.  When I made taco meat before this, I'd add in some chili powder and salt and that's about it.  I didn't feel the need to add more to it, but honestly, it was seriously bland.

When I married Steve, he regularly used seasonings to amp up the flavor for his taco meat.  It was only natural for him to want more flavor for his taco meat than just chili powder and salt.  He did occasionally use the taco seasoning envelopes, but was always concerned about the high salt content. We enjoy cooking together so finding something we both liked was important.

It wasn't until visiting my sister in Michigan one year that I saw her recipe for a homemade taco mix, that I realized we could make our own mix.  I took a picture of it and shared it with Steve.  He reminded me that he had a homemade mix, too, but hadn't made it in awhile.  Here I had thought that a homemade mix was an "ah ha" moment!  WOW!  We can do this at home! 

Clearly, at this point I wasn't much of a cook!

As it turned out, we liked Alison's taco mix very much and have been using it ever since.  Definitely a hit!

There are a lot of ingredients, but this mix is so good it's worth it to keep all of these spices in stock.  It's not overwhelmingly salty or sweet or peppery or hot.  For me, it's just right.   I do have to admit though, I do not use the full amount of black pepper as in the recipe, but that's because I am not a pepper person.  But I will give the recipe as written and not my wimpy version.

A few years ago Steve and I created a cookbook for our families and in it we included this taco seasoning recipe.   One version is nearly equivalent to a single package of a store bought taco mix envelope and the other is the recipe x4 (times 4), so that you can have some on hand whenever you wanted it. 

The photos are of the x4. I took these photos in my kitchen just a few days ago.  Who knew it would turn out to be so gorgeous.  I put the chili powder in the dish first, so all that you can see is just the little red top right in the middle. 

Taco Seasoning
(equivalent to one envelope of store bought)

1 T chili powder
¼ t garlic powder
¼ t onion powder
¼ t dried oregano
½ t paprika
1½ t ground cumin
1 t sea salt
1 t black pepper



Taco Seasoning  x4

4 T chili powder
1 t garlic powder
1 t onion powder
1 t dried oregano
2 t paprika
2 T ground cumin
4 t sea salt
4 t black pepper

(2 Tablespoons of homemade taco seasoning = one store bought 1.25oz packet.)


*Most of the spices I use come from Penzey's Spices in Wisconsin.  We had a local brick and mortar store up until recently.  I am seriously bummed they closed but the rent just got too high for them to stay. They have an awesome online website and I can just order from there, or when traveling I look for a store.  I have no affiliation with Penzey's, I've just been buying from them for a few decades and believe they are the best. 


Thanks for stopping by.  Have a great day!
Kristin