Make Taco Bell Mild Sauce at home. (2024)

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March 27, 2009 by Stephanie Manley, Last Updated May 20, 2022 64 Comments

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When you make Taco Bell Taco Sauce you don’t need to leave the restaurant with tons of little sauce packets in your pockets. You can make homemade taco sauce, it is made with the perfect combination of spices that makes it full of flavor.

Homemade Taco Bell Taco Sauce

You can make flavorful this homemade taco sauce recipe at home that tastes just like it does in the restaurant. Homemade hot sauces are just as good as ones you get away from home.

This copycat recipe is made with common ingredients you can find at the grocery store or may already be in your pantry. Soon you will enjoy mild taco sauce made in your kitchen.

Where Did the Taco Come From?

The taco today is a fast-food staple, but you might be wondering how it came about. The taco was most likely invented by Mexican silver miners in the 18th Century.

In those mines, a “taco” was the name of the little charges that were used to excavate the ore. These consisted of pieces of paper wrapped around some gunpowder. These “tacos” were inserted into holes the miners carved in the rock.

Actually, if you stop and think about it, a chicken taco with a good hot sauce is a lot like a stick of dynamite!

What to put Taco Sauce on?

Did you know you can put this Taco Bell sauce on so many different things? Sure, it’s great for tacos, but Taco sauce goes well on:

Quesadillas
Tacos
Sauce for burritos, either inside or on top
On eggs, either scrambled or even fried eggs
Nachos

How can your easy homemade taco sauce?

You can use taco sauce in many different ways, it goes great on tacos, taco salad, or quesadillas. You could use it to top nachos, it could also make a great salad dressing. The possibilities are endless.

Homemade Taco Bell Sauce Ingredients

Here’s a list of what you need:

Canned tomato sauce
Water
Chili powder
Groundcumin
Dry minced onions or onion powder
White vinegar
Garlic powder
Garlic salt
Paprika
Sugar
Cayenne pepper

How to Make Taco Bell Mild Sauce

Place all ingredients in a saucepan and stir well.
Simmer at a very low temperature for 15 to 20 minutes.
Remove the pan from the heat and allow the sauce to cool to room temperature.

How to store your leftover taco sauce

You can store your leftover taco sauce in an airtight container, a squeeze bottle, or perhaps you have a leftover bottle of Ortega taco sauce. It will last for up to 10 days when stored in the fridge.

More Taco Bell Copycat Recipes

Taco Bell Tacos
Fresco Crunchy Taco
Spicy Potato Soft Taco
Taco Bell Crunchwrap Recipe
Taco Bell Breakfast Burrito
Taco Bell Enchilada
Taco Bell Mexican Pizza
Crispito
Cinnamon Twists
Baja Blast Freeze

Favorite Mexican Fast Food Copycat Recipes

Chipotle Barbacoa
McDonalds Breakfast Burrito
Wendy’s Taco Salad

Be sure to check out more of my easy Mexican recipes and the best fast food copycat recipes.

Taco Bell Taco Sauce

Make your own mild version of theTaco Bell Taco Sauce. This is one of the easiest homemade sauces you can prepare.

4.78 from 22 votes

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Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Mexican

Keyword: Taco Bell Recipes, Taco Sauce

Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes minutes

Servings: 12

Calories: 83kcal

Author: Stephanie Manley

Ingredients

8 ounces canned tomato sauce
1/3 cup water
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
1 1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 1/2 teaspoon dry minced onions
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Instructions

Place ingredients in a saucepan and stir well. Simmer at a very low temperature for 15 – 20 minutes. Remove and cool. The taco sauce may be kept in the refrigerator for several days.
See Also
Taco Bell Spicy Potato Soft Tacos - The Fresh Fig Taco Bell Double Decker Taco - CopyKat Recipes Taco Bell Spicy Potato Taco Spicy Potato Soft Tacos (Taco Bell Copycat)

Video

Nutrition

About Stephanie Manley

I recreate your favorite restaurant recipes, so you can prepare these dishes at home. I help you cook dinner, and serve up dishes you know your family will love. You can find most of the ingredients for all of the recipes in your local grocery store.

Stephanie is the author of CopyKat.com's Dining Out in the Home, and CopyKat.com's Dining Out in the Home 2.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

Eva de Pallais
September 4, 2021 at 9:54 am
I have a question: the canned tomatoes sauce is something like regular Prego sauce?
Reply
- Stephanie Manley
  September 4, 2021 at 11:17 am
  No, it just plain tomato sauce, it is sold where the canned vegetables are.
  Reply
Karen J Gregory
April 6, 2021 at 4:50 pm

Have not found much from Taco Bell that I haven’t liked with the exception of some of the hot sauces. Have you or would you consider making their green sauce? That was my favorite. Thank you.
Reply
- Stephanie Manley
  April 6, 2021 at 6:43 pm
  At some point I should try their green sauce!
  Reply
John Sanderson
April 1, 2021 at 1:40 pm
How come this only keeps for a couple of days in the frig?
No mention of what and how much to add to make Medium or Hot sauce.
Reply
- Stephanie Manley
  September 4, 2021 at 11:19 am
  I will only advise keeping this for a few days, I don’t know how long it will last. I have not personally tested this. I don’t add preservatives to anything, so I would keep it for the time listed. I don’t know how to make the medium or the hot version, I haven’t given the a try.
  See Also
  Taco Bell Crunchy Beef Tacos {Copycat Recipe}
  Reply
  - Rich A
    September 14, 2021 at 1:48 pm
    I take recipes like this with no preservatives and put the extra sauce in a ice cube tray and freeze it. Then pop a few cubes out when i need it and microwave them. Do the same when i buy a gal can of pizza sauce. Use what i need and freeze the rest.
    Rich
- Alan
  October 18, 2023 at 9:13 am
  
  This is an excellent recipe, and it’s so easy to adjust for heat, piquancy etc. Living in the Canary Islands with sometimes limited ranges in the shops, it’s great to be able to duplicate things at a fraction of the cost. As for preservation, this sauce freezes brilliantly, losing nothing when thawed. I freeze in batches and take out what I need, when I need it.
  Reply
- Mike n
  October 22, 2023 at 8:25 am
  Is this the sauce that comes in the packets or was they put on the food while preparing it?
  Thanks in advance
  Reply
  - Stephanie Manley
    October 22, 2023 at 5:40 pm
    This is close to the sauce that they prepare food.
Christopher Williams
March 13, 2021 at 12:15 am

Is just about spot on. I reduce the garlic salt to a pinch and omit the sugar due to health issues. Great recipe and super easy.
Reply
Kelly
March 3, 2021 at 9:20 pm

Substituting tomato JUICE for the tomato sauce better simulated the consistency of the Taco Bell sauce.
Reply
Chris
January 8, 2021 at 8:15 pm

Love this. So easy to make and I can control the ingredients – no worrying about preservatives or too much sodium. Add a little juice from jalapeño for an extra kick.
Reply
Maureen
August 31, 2020 at 3:52 pm

This would taste more like Taco Bell with the addition of pickle juice from pickled jalapeños or peperoncini. I compared the made recipe to a bottle of the Taco Bell.
Reply
Lynne Hedges
July 23, 2020 at 4:33 pm
Stephanie, I have not yet tried your Taco Bell Taco Sauce, because I have concerns about the nutritional information. The sodium is listed as 2370mg, which is more sodium than I take in daily. Is this a typo?
Reply
- Stephanie Manley
  September 4, 2021 at 11:18 am
  No, it is what the nutritional info picked up. You could reduce this if you use no sodium canned tomato sauce.
  Reply
K
July 15, 2020 at 5:42 am
Have you thought about replicating their spicy ranch sauce? It used to be called Baja Sauce.
Reply
- Stephanie
  July 15, 2020 at 7:48 am
  I have not, but I appreciate your suggestion.
  Reply
- Angie
  February 25, 2021 at 1:34 pm
  Oh I loved that stuff!! I would love to know how to make it too!!
  Reply
ZippyDSMlee
December 14, 2019 at 1:44 pm
Not tried it yet but the thing I have noticed is tacobell sauce is almost a pureed picante sauce, mind you it has less onions and bell pepper but it seems like it has more of a pickled vegetable flavor than Ortega or old elpaso brand sauce. They changed the flavor a few years back(that or my tastebuds died a bit again) almost seems more black pepery, maybe they changed peppers and had to change the dilution of the mix, I tend to go fiery but that had a twang to it I did not like, hot is good enough. I wonder if I could mix pureed picante and Ortega to make a decent tasting sauce, most picante even non chunky seem a bit to onoiny to me, I guess what I want most in a sauce is a mix of pickled peppers and taco seasoning that’s not chunky….I wish they would sale this stuff 5$ for a gallon I get 4-5 bottles a month LOL it goes great with hamburgers and mayo LOL
Reply
- Maureen
  August 31, 2020 at 3:56 pm
  I noticed the same issue and would suggest adding pickled jalapeño juice to your liking.
  Reply
- Steve
  July 21, 2022 at 5:00 pm
  Ortega makes taco Bell’s sauces.
  Reply
  - Stephanie Manley
    July 22, 2022 at 8:33 am
    I love Ortega’s mild sauce!

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4.78 from 22 votes (13 ratings without comment)