Easy Taco Sauce

This taco sauce recipe comes together quickly and has amazing flavor! It’s like your favorite jarred version…but better.

Looking for a killer sauce that takes no time at all? Try this easy Taco Sauce recipe! Why make it homemade when you can easily buy it from the store? Two things: it tastes amazing (yep!) and you know exactly what’s in it. No preservatives or weird ingredients, here! Here we’ll show you how to make a killer taco sauce that takes just 5 minutes to simmer on the stove. It’s our favorite for throwing together quick dinners, like our black bean tacos or refried bean tacos.

What you need for homemade taco sauce

Taco sauce, aka “salsa taquera” in Spanish, is a blended red sauce made of tomatoes and peppers used on tacos. Versions of it are served at Mexican taquerias, and the Americanized version stars at Taco Bell and in Tex Mex food: so it’s a Mexican-inspired food that spans cuisines. It’s tangy, a little spicy, and utterly delicious.

Homemade taco sauce is simple to whip up with mostly pantry ingredients. The only thing you might not have on hand is canned tomato sauce, depending on what you keep on hand. Here’s what you’ll need:

• Canned tomato sauce: this is a puree of unseasoned tomatoes: not marinara sauce, spaghetti sauce, or tomato paste! Look for the words “tomato sauce” labeled on the can.
• White vinegar
• Hot sauce, like Cholula
• Sugar
• Spices: garlic powder, onion powder and cumin
• Salt
• Cornstarch, for thickening

Tips for making taco sauce…in 5 minutes!

There’s really nothing to making taco sauce: simply add the ingredients and heat for just 5 minutes. Here are a few notes on the process:

• Make sure to use low heat. It’s important not to overheat the sauce: otherwise it will become gummy and too thick.
• Remove from heat and stir in more vinegar. After you’ve simmered your sauce, you’ll stir in a little more vinegar at the end. Why? This maximizes the tangy, bright flavor.
• Refrigerate: it thickens as it cools. The sauce will thicken up after you refrigerate it to the texture of what you’d expect from the store-bought version.

Customize the heat to taste

This taco sauce recipe uses Mexican hot sauce to bring in some heat and chili pepper flavor. Our favorite hot sauce is Cholula, the popular brand of Mexican hot sauce. You can customize the recipe to your needs: the recipe below provides a range from mild to medium. Of course, you can leave it out if you like!

Does this taco sauce hold up to store bought?

We taste tested this homemade taco sauce against a bottle of Ortega brand, and it had a very similar flavor! In fact, we liked it a little better. The ingredients we used here helped it to come together into an intensely tangy, lightly spicy red sauce.

In some of our tests with tomato paste, it came out too gummy or intensely tomato-y. Tomato sauce is the way to to! Remember that cans of tomato sauce are labeled with those words: it’s not the same as marinara or spaghetti sauce.

Smoky variation: add adobo sauce

Want to vary this taco sauce? You can make a deliciously smoky version using adobo sauce! Canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce are easy to find at most grocery stores near the Mexican products. The can includes chipotle chiles: smoked and dried jalapeños that are rehydrated and canned, and adobo sauce, a purée of tomato, vinegar, garlic, and other spices.

All you do is use a spoon to remove adobo sauce from the can: you don’t even have to use the chili peppers! You can substitute this for the hot sauce, and it adds a smoky, savory flair that’s undeniably delicious. Freeze the can and use it for more adobo sauce recipes, like tortilla soup, chipotle ranch dressing or chipotle sauce.

Taco sauce storage info

How long does homemade taco sauce last? You can store for up to 2 weeks in the refrigerator. It can likely last longer: just try it at your own risk! The flavor stays beautifully tangy and spicy over the storage time.

Best tacos for serving

Of course, this sauce pairs with any tacos. But here are a few taco recipes where it’s the absolute perfect match:

• Try it on ultra fast black bean tacos or refried bean tacos
• Start the day with epic breakfast tacos
• Add flavor to avocado tacos or vegan street tacos
• Shake it into fish tacos or grilled fish tacos
• Add to easy egg tacos

This taco sauce recipe is…

Vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, dairy-free and gluten-free.

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