Copycat Taco Bell Seasoning Recipe

Taco Bell seasoning is chili powder, cumin, onion and garlic powder with salt and a little sugar, plus two things from the chain's own ingredient list: cocoa powder for colour and oats, which thicken the sauce. This mix makes about half a cup, enough for two pounds of ground beef. Use a quarter cup and two-thirds of a cup of water per pound.

What Taco Bell lists in its seasoned beef

Taco Bell's seasoned beef is, in the words of Greg Creed when he was the chain's president, "88% USDA-inspected beef and only 12% seasonings and other ingredients".

The seasoning list on Taco Bell's website, as Food Republic reports it, names chili pepper, salt, oats, spices, tomato powder, sugar, onion powder and cocoa powder. The rest of it is texture and shelf life: cellulose, maltodextrin, soy lecithin, torula yeast and modified corn starch among them.

The flavour part is what a home mix can copy: chili pepper, salt, spices, sugar, onion powder and cocoa. This is a reconstruction from that list, not Taco Bell's formula, and MakeFoodLovely is not connected with Taco Bell.

Recipe

Taco Bell Seasoning

A reconstruction of the seasoning in Taco Bell's seasoned beef, from the chain's ingredient list — chili powder, cumin, onion and garlic powder, cocoa and oat flour. Half a cup, for two pounds of beef.

5.0 (3)Print

Prep

5 min

Total

5 min

Serves

8

Cuisine

Mexican-American

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon oat flour
• 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
• 2 teaspoons onion powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Instructions

1. Put everything in a small jar, close the lid and shake until the mix is one even colour. It makes about 1/2 cup.
2. To season beef, brown 1 pound of ground beef in a skillet, breaking it up finely, and drain off the fat.
3. Stir in 1/4 cup of the seasoning and 2/3 cup of water. Simmer for 4 to 5 minutes, stirring, until the liquid has thickened into a sauce that coats the meat.

Nutrition

Calories:

20

Calculated from the ingredient quantities above using the USDA FoodData Central database, then divided by the number of servings. It is an estimate and will vary with the exact products you use.

Cocoa and oats in a taco seasoning

Cocoa. Taco Bell's own explanation, reported by Food Safety News in 2014, is that cocoa powder adds no flavour and is there to keep the colour of the beef rich. A teaspoon in half a cup of seasoning does the same here: it darkens the sauce.

Oats. Oats are on Taco Bell's list, and in a home mix a tablespoon of oat flour has a practical job: it thickens the water into a sauce that clings to the crumbled beef. Oat flour is rolled oats ground in a blender. Two teaspoons of cornstarch do the same; modified corn starch is on Taco Bell's list as well.

How to use the Taco Bell seasoning

A quarter cup of seasoning and two-thirds of a cup of water per pound of browned, drained ground beef, simmered until the liquid has reduced to a sauce. That puts the salt at about 1 percent of the weight of the meat. Break the beef up finely as it browns; the sauce coats small crumbs better than chunks.

The same seasoned beef goes into the Taco Bell Stacker, the Beefy Crunch Burrito and the Crunchwrap Supreme.

For nachos, it goes under the Taco Bell cheese sauce.

Adjusting the mix

• Milder: leave out the cayenne. American chili powder is a mild blend, and the cayenne is the only real heat in the mix.
• Less salt: halve the salt and season the pan to taste.
• Without oats: 2 teaspoons of cornstarch, or leave the thickener out and simmer a few minutes longer.
• Chicken or turkey: the same quarter cup per pound.

Keeping it

In a closed jar away from heat and light, for up to six months. Ground spices fade rather than spoil, and a mix that no longer smells of much will not taste of much.