Taco Seasoning Recipe (Great for Pork)

John D Lee is a chef and restauranteur living and working in Chiang Mai, Thailand. He's always loved to cook.

Sure, you can head to the supermarket to pick up one of those yellow packages of pre-made ‘taco mix’—but since making your own is better, cheaper, and hardly more difficult—why pay more for second best?! (And second best is a stretch, actually, cause’ homemade seasoning is miles tastier than anything you can buy pre-made).

Here’s a recipe for a very tasty seasoning that goes perfectly with ground pork. It can be whipped up in a couple of minutes, mixed with some ground pork, and sautéed straight into a waiting taco shell—and since the recipe calls for stuff you’ve more than likely already got in your spice rack at home, it even saves you the trip to the store to buy that inferior ready-made mix.

This recipe is based loosely on a chorizo sausage recipe from BBQ guru, Steven Raichlen. I find that with a few minor adjustments, this makes a perfect taco filling.

Taco Seasoning Recipe

Makes enough to fill tacos for about 4 people. The recipe can easily be multiplied as needed.

• 1 lb of ground pork
• 3 cloves of garlic, finely minced
• 1 tsp of sugar
• 1 and ½ tsps of salt
• 1 tsp of oregano
• 1 and ¼ tsps of ground cumin
• 2 Tbls of red wine vinegar
• 1 tsp of freshly cracked black pepper (If you’ve only got ground pepper, and aren’t going to freshly crack your own, I’d reduce this by about half)
• 1 Tbls of sweet paprika
• 1-2 Tbls of chili flakes (the heat of different chili flakes can vary pretty dramatically, as can individual preferences for heat – so you might want to start on the low end, and then taste when you do a test fry, adding more if wanted at that time.)

1. Mix together the pork and all other ingredients.
2. You can either just go ahead and fry this up for your tacos, or you can do a tset fry, and adjust seasonings if needed. To do a test fry, just grab a couple of Tbls of the meat mixture and sauté it in a little oil until done, and then taste. Adjust seasonings if necessary.
3. Sautee it up in a heavy fry pan with a scant splash of oil and then spoon it into hard shell corn taco shells that you have at the ready.

*(note, while this is very good if used right away, mixing it up and then letting it come together in the fridge for an hour or so does improve the flavors.)

Comments

ticked off guy on May 06, 2013:

recipe sucked!!! way too salty and way too much seasoning!! YUK!!!!!