Homemade Taco Seasoning

Have you ever read the ingredients on the back of a taco seasoning packet? The ingredients in our old favorite brand (Old El Paso) include the following: maltodextrin, salt, chili pepper, corn starch, sugar, spice, natural flavor (aka MSG), partially hydrogenated soybean oil, silicon dioxide, yeast extract, ethoxyquin. In some ways, it amazes me that food companies can get so many bad things into a 1-ounce packet of taco seasoning. It also makes me shudder.

I've been making my own taco seasoning for quite awhile now. I can't even tell you the last time I bought a packet at the store. I first started with the recipe on Heavenly Homemakers, which was really good. But it wasn't quite there yet, for our liking. So I tweaked it a bit each time and have found the following recipe to be our favorite. I've basically just increased the amounts of cumin, garlic powder, and salt. Added some oregano and a bit of sweetener. And I use smoked paprika, rather than regular. It is so good! Yum!

Making your own taco seasoning is much more economical, not to mention you actually know what is in your food. It takes less than 5 minutes to get all the ingredients out, measure them out, mix it up, and put everything away. How can you not try this? If you need a little more convincing, go read that list of ingredients at the top of this post again. ;-)

Homemade Taco Seasoning Mix

1/2 cup chili powder
1/4 cup onion powder
1/3 cup ground cumin
2 Tablespoons garlic powder
1 Tablespoon smoked paprika
3 Tablespoons sea salt
1 1/2 Tablespoons oregano
1 Tablespoon sucanat

Put all ingredients into a jar and shake it up.

I usually add around 3-4 Tablespoons of homemade taco seasoning mix, plus a little water, to 1-pound of cooked ground beef for tacos.

This post is linked to:
Monday Mania at the Healthy Home Economist
Simple Lives Thursday at GNOWFGLINS