Copycat Taco Bell Hot Sauce

This Copycat Hot Sauce from Taco Bell is not for the faint of heart. If you love a super hot sauce this one is for you! Good Luck!

We love to use Hot Sauce when we have Mexican food. And this Copycat recipe from Taco Bell is exactly what we needed for our Chicken Tacos I was making one night. If you love Taco Bell Hot Sauces then you need to give this recipe a try.

Like most sauce recipes, this one is super easy to make and doesn't call for any special ingredients. If you eat a lot of Mexican Food or make spicy dishes on a regular basis, you most likely already have the Jalapeños in your pantry.

But unlike other recipes, we won't be using fresh Jalapeños but the ones that come in a jar or can. I suppose you could use fresh jalapeño peppers but I just find it a little easier to dice up the sliced jalapeño peppers I have in a jar in the fridge.

If you eat at Taco Bell on a regular basis, you know they offer many different kinds of sauces. As of this writing, they offer the following sauces at their restaurants: Mild Sauce, Hot Sauce, Fire Sauce and Diablo Sauce.

This copycat sauce recipe from Taco Bell is Hot. At least by our standards and we eat a lot of spicy food. I'm finding it a little hard to pin down if this is the Fire Sauce or the Diablo Sauce. My wife thinks it's most likely the Diablo Sauce. She found it extremely spicy but she recognized the distinctive flavor from Taco Bell. I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on this in the comment section below. Either way, this sauce is awesome!

⭐ Copycat Rating

Since the goal of a Copycat Recipe is for it to taste exactly like the original, it's only natural to rate this recipe against the original. This Copycat recipe rates a solid 8 out of 10 in my opinion.

🌶 How to Handle Hot Peppers

The capsaicin in hot peppers is what makes peppers hot. If you handle hot peppers gloveless, it’s a guarantee that you’re in for a nasty case of chili burn, both on your fingers and anywhere you rub. Like your face. Ouch!

Even if you wear disposable gloves, be careful about what you touch. The gloves are going to protect your fingers, but touching any part of your body with the gloves after you’ve handled hot peppers can lead to severe chili burn. Resist the temptation to rub your eyes. Wait until you’ve removed your gloves and washed your hands thoroughly with soap.

The Scoville Scale is the measurement that tells you the spiciness of a given type of pepper.

Pepper Type	Spiciness Rating
Bell Pepper	0 on the Scoville Scale
Banana Pepper	0-500 on the Scoville Scale
Poblano Pepper	1000-1500 on the Scoville Scale
Jalapeño Pepper	2500-8000 on the Scoville Scale
Tabasco & Cayenne	30,000-50,000 on the Scoville Scale
Habanero Pepper	100,000-300,000 on the Scoville Scale

For more great recipes like this one, I suggest you check these recipes out:

• Spicy Chicken and Black Bean Tacos
• Slow Cooker Chicken Lime Tacos
• Copycat Taco Bell Quesadilla Sauce
• Taco Pasta Salad
• Spicy Fish Taco Sauce

📋 What Ingredients do I need

You will need the following ingredients to make this Copycat Hot Sauce from Taco Bell (see recipe card for quantities): Tomato Paste, Water, Cayenne Pepper, Chili Powder, Salt, Cornstarch, White Vinegar, Minced Dried Onion and Jalapeño Slices.

🥣 How to make Taco Bell Hot Sauce

In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the tomato paste with the water and stir until smooth.
Add the cayenne pepper, chili powder, salt, cornstarch, vinegar, and dried onion. Stir till all the ingredients are well combined. Add the finely chopped jalapeños.
Continue to heat the sauce mixture to boiling. Continue to stir for about 3 minutes then remove from the heat.
Let the sauce cool, and then put it in a tightly sealed container and refrigerate.
Let the sauce sit for at least 1 hour in the refrigerator. This will allow all the flavors to meld. You can use it immediately, but the longer you let it sit in the refrigerator, the more flavorful it will be.

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