Friday, September 24, 2010

Taco Seasoning

My husband made guac several days ago, and to eat guac, one uses tortilla chips. Well, now we are left with half a bag of tortilla chips. What is a person to do? The first thing I thought of was taco salad. I haven't had it in a while, but the parts list is pretty simple and flexible. We used tortilla chips, kidney beans, romaine lettuce, a mexican salad dressing, sauteed onions and bell peppers, sour cream and of course, ground beef.
The ground beef needed to be seasoned, that much was certain. So while scouring the internet yesterday for taco salad recipes to see if there were any parts I missed, I noticed several used taco seasoning packets. After making my own ranch dressing mix, I knew there had to be a homemade version that would be both delicious and wallet friendly.
I finally found one with superb ratings here. Let me just say right here that I really like Food.com (formerly recipezaar.com) partially because of ratings that other people like me post. Lots of people will post about any changes they made, or if the recipe was just all around horrible. I know not everybody has the same tastes, but when 20 people all comment saying they added one thing, you have to go with it. :)
I took my taco seasoning recipe to the kitchen and scaled it down to 1/4 of the original. I left all of the ratios the same except using 2 teaspoons of cumin because I was far too lazy to figure out what a quarter of 3 tablespoons was, and try to measure it with standard measuring spoons. It was still delicious, I assure you.
So, if you are one of those people that uses a lot of taco seasoning, feel free to make the whole recipe. I didn't want to use the last of the paprika in the house, so I scaled it down. Either way, it's tasty.
I feel that how much you add to ground meat is up to you too, I did about a teaspoon to almost a pound of ground beef and it was just perfect for us. You may like it kicked up a bit more. Whatever makes you happy.

3 teaspoons = 1 tablespoon     4 tablespoons = 1/4 cup

Taco Seasoning
recipe from food.com

1/2 tbl. paprika
1/2 tbl. dried onion flakes (ground down in a mortar and pestel
1 tsp. cornstarch
1 tsp. chili powder
2 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 tbl. (about 3/4 tsp) garlic powder
1/8 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
heaping 1/4 tsp. dried oregano
1/8 tsp. coriander

Combine all of the ingredients and add as much or as little as prefered to the ground meat of your choice.


I linked this recipe up at:

11 comments:

  1. Sounds great,..I need to try this.
    Happy Cooking,
    Lilly

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  2. what a great idea...i actually might need to pack some of this up as part of my homemade christmas baskets. I love it..thank you for linking up to TNSC!

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  3. homemade taco seasoning is definitely the best...this one sounds great. Wish I had some nachos right now! Thanks for sharing this with the hearth and soul hop this week =)

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  4. Great post, and this will be handy for those taco times in the future. Thanks.

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  5. Your Taco Seasoning looks great.
    Thank You...

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  6. Stacia, I will also admit to liking food.com because when I really need a recipe quick, it's always there! I too make home made taco seasoning. it always seems to taste better than the packet and it only has what you want in it! :) Thanks for sharing on the hearth and soul hop! Alex@amoderatelife

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  7. Homemade taco seasoning is the only way to go! I don't add cornstarch, but other than that my recipe is very similar. And I love taco salad - we haven't had that in a long time. Thanks for linking this to the hearth and soul hop!!

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  8. This is great! I'll definitely be using this soon.

    IMO, home-mixed spice blends like this always taste better since you can adjust to your tastes.

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  9. Sounds good! I just posted a taco recipe today too. I usually like to make my own but end up just throwing stuff together. It's nice to have an actual recipe and I usually never remember to put oregano in mine.

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  10. Oooh, thanks for reminding me of taco salad, that one is always a big hit in my house, and I like it too. I wonder why that's such a magical dish? Thanks for sharing this seasoning blend with with Hearth and Soul hop.

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  11. What a great recipe! I don't think I've ever had tacos made with homemade seasoning.

    Thanks for linking up for Friday Favorites last week!

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