My latest Pinterest find that I’ve actually tried is a homemade taco seasoning shared by $5 Dinners. Like most of the Pinterest recipes I’ve actually tried (as opposed to the seemingly millions I’ve re-pinned and never looked at again,) I only did it because I happened to be out of that particular item in my kitchen and figured I may as well buy the supplies as buy the pre-made version. To simplify, I purchased one full bottle of each ingredient and emptied them out into a big bowl. Who has time for measuring, right?


Homemade Taco Seasoning
Ingredients
1 container chili powder
1 container ground cumin
1 container garlic powder
1 container onion powder
1/4 – 1/2 container crushed red pepper
(Use same size container of each spice)
Directions
Mix all the spices together and store in an airtight container. To use, add 2 Tbsp of homemade taco seasoning to 1 lb of ground beef (more or less to taste.)
I saved all of my original spice containers so I could dump the taco seasoning mixture back into the same containers. This way, I didn’t have to give up any of my plastic containers to store taco seasoning in. Plus, they are already the perfect size.
The biggest challenge I had was getting the old labels off the spice containers. The spice labels on the big bottles I got from Aldi‘s came right off, but the other two labels wouldn’t budge. I ended up just scratching over the original content label with a sharpie and wrote “taco seasoning” over the pre-existing label. For the others, I made a cute little label to stick on each bottle.
I also just noticed while proofing my blog post that I added the entire container of crushed red pepper instead of just 1/4 to 1/2 (oops!) So, we’ll just see how peppery my version tastes. Remember, I’m a writer, not a cook. I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t screw something up every time I try to make something!

I plan to give one bottle of my homemade taco seasoning to my boyfriend and throw the rest into a freezer bag in the freezer to keep it nice and fresh. I haven’t had a chance to make tacos with this seasoning yet, but I can tell you that it smells amazing. It’s so much fresher than those little pre-mixed packets you get at the grocery store and seems like it will be a lot cheaper in the long run too. Can’t wait to try it!
~Mandy Webster
Related articles
- Mom 100 Cookbook: Taco Night Recipe (fox4kc.com)
- Taco, Taco, Burrito! (foodservicewarehouse.com)
- Taco seasoning (photosbyleslie.wordpress.com)
- Homemade Taco Seasoning (thrivefarm.wordpress.com)
- Taco Seasoning (foodcomas.com)
- What I’ve Been Up To: Ramadhan Spice Packs (solaceandjoy.wordpress.com)
- Healthy Seasoning Blend Recipes (enlightenedlotuswellness.com)
- Yum Yum in My Tum Tum: Vegetarian Tacos (sookton.com)
- Homemade Beef Tacos (no seasoning packets!) (oneshetwoshe.com)
- Taco Tuesday (kyliecooks.wordpress.com)
- What’s For Dinner?? Grilled Beef Taquitos with Avocado Ranch Sauce (urbanmoocher.com)
- Tacos for dinner? (thetalkingscale.typepad.com)
- Recipe: Walking Tacos (fox8.com)
2 thoughts on “How to make homemade taco seasoning”