Homemade Four-Ingredient Taco Seasoning (Make on the Spot!)

There are two recipes that I make at the drop of a hat from what’s in my pantry. They always please us and also provide leftovers or extras for company. These recipes are tacos and Sloppy Joe’s (see my unprocessed version of the latter here). I know that everyone is pretty familiar with making tacos. But here’s the great news … you don’t have to use a packaged taco seasoning mix or even a homemade mix made of tons of ingredients when you make tacos. Really. Making your own Homemade Taco Seasoning is so easy. It’s also naturally gluten free.

For years now, I’ve been using a recipe that I slightly adapted from my old Betty Crocker cookbook. It has very few ingredients—four to be exact—and when combined with the ground meat of choice provides a simple base that makes the fillings “shine.” And you don’t even have to make it up ahead of time. I don’t know about you, but I love that factor! I’m a “spur-of-the-moment, no planning needed” type gal most of the time. And with only four ingredients for the seasoning, there’s less to remember to have on hand and the recipe is more economical than not only ready-made mixed, but it’s less expensive to make than even most homemade recipes.

I’ll admit the first time I made tacos using this recipe, none of us were too sure we were going to like the seasoning (or the tacos) since we were so accustomed to those bright reddish-orange seasoning mixes that came in packets. Those packets were often full of a lot of other stuff though and while most taco seasoning mix is gluten free (please always read ingredients, of course), those other ingredients are often ones that I don’t care to eat. Ingredients like anti-caking agents, hydrogenated soybean oil, and sulfites. And to be honest, after eating this taco seasoning for years, now other ready-made taco seasonings taste just plain weird. This recipe really does make the best tacos!

And here’s a potentially dinner-saving (dare I say lifesaving?) tip for you. Have you ever gotten ready to start dinner and realized that you didn’t have your ground beef, ground turkey, etc. thawed out? Well, guess what … it’s really easy to thaw out ground meat by just adding water to your skillet until it reaches a depth of about an inch and bringing that water to a boil, paying close attention to it until it reaches that state. Then you reduce the water to a simmer and carefully add your frozen meat. Then you just stir that frozen block of meat ever few minutes, even turning the block over with tongs if needed early in the process. I usually use a wooden spoon for this task as it breaks up the meat nicely. One really doesn’t want hockey pucks for taco meat or Sloppy Joes and this method works great to brown meat for both!

A former roommate taught me this tip before I was married. It’s truly never a big deal to thaw frozen meat with this method.

You can do this task while you’re doing other chores nearby in your kitchen.  

If you’re making tacos, you can either drain all the water at the end of this task or you can guesstimate how much water remains and adjust the amount of water with the other taco seasoning ingredients. Enjoy!

Homemade Four-Ingredient Gluten-Free Taco Seasoning Recipe

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Homemade Four-Ingredient Taco Seasoning (Make on the Spot)

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Who wants to worry about having packages of gluten-free taco seasoning on hand all the time? Instead, make this Homemade Four-Ingredient Taco Seasoning on the spot. No need to make it ahead of time!

Prep Time 2 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

Total Time 2 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground meat (ground beef, ground venison, ground turkey, etc.)
• 2/3 cup water
• 2 tbsp gluten-free chili powder (see notes)
• 1 tsp sea salt (see notes)
• ½ tsp ground cumin
• 2 cloves garlic, minced, or 1/4 tsp garlic powder (or more to taste)
• ½ tsp onion powder (optional, more to taste)

Instructions

1. Brown and drain ground meat.
2. Stir in water, chili powder, salt, cumin, and garlic.
3. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer.
4. Continue simmering the meat mixture uncovered, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes until no water remains.

Notes

You can use ready-made gluten-free taco shells or gluten-free tortillas, or make and use one of the 30 tortilla recipes in this amazing roundup (which even includes grain-free and paleo options). Fill tacos shells or tortillas with a small amount of your seasoned meat and then add your other favorite fillings.

Chili powder should ideally contain only chili powder, not salt or additional spices. (Some even contains wheat. Not a myth. I've bought some myself and had to return it after seeing that I'd incorrectly assumed it was gluten free but it actually contained wheat.) If the chili powder you use does contain other ingredients, be sure to taste your seasoned taco meat BEFORE adding salt. If your chili powder contains salt, additional salt may not be needed or the amount may need to reduced.

Adding onion powder to your taco seasoning can also be a nice option if you don’t want to chop onions (or are out of them), but still want some onion flavor. The only time I add onion powder to my taco meat is when I don’t have an onion on hand to chop and use as one of our fillings.

Our standby fillings are just shredded (or torn) lettuce, diced onions, and shredded cheddar cheese (dairy free is fine), because these are ingredients I always have in my “pantry.” But Mr. GFE really loves sliced mushrooms in his tacos. Admittedly, that's not very traditional, but we just like to fill our tacos with ingredients we personally like and have on hand.

We have also enjoy chopped sweet bell peppers and avocado slices as fillings on occasion … or really anything that’s in the fridge and sounds good. I’ve added leftover tabouli, pico de gallo, hummus, and all types of leftover veggies before.

And here’s a potentially dinner-saving (dare I say lifesaving?) tip for you. Have you ever gotten ready to start dinner and realized that you didn’t have your ground beef, ground turkey, etc. thawed out? Well, guess what … it’s really easy to thaw out ground meat by just adding water to your skillet until it reaches a depth of about an inch and then bringing that water to a boil, paying close attention to it until it reaches that state. Then you reduce the water to a simmer and carefully add your frozen meat. Then you just stir that frozen block of meat every few minutes, even turning the block over with tongs if needed early in the process. I usually use a wooden spoon for this task as it breaks up the meat nicely. One really doesn’t want hockey pucks for taco meat or Sloppy Joes and this method works great to brown meat for both!

Did you make this recipe?

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Originally published June 17, 2014; updated February 28, 2024.

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