Homemade Tajin: Make This Easy Copycat Seasoning at Home
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Make the best Homemade Tajin Seasoning using bold, flavorful spices and crystallized lime!
This easy, flavor-packed chili lime seasoning recipe brings a perfect balance of tartness, heat, and saltiness.
Whether you’re sprinkling it on watermelon, mangos, or using it for your next Bloody Mary, this homemade tajín recipe is a total game-changer.
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Homemade Tajin Recipe:
Number of Servings: 5½ Tablespoons
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 5 minutes
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Why You’ll Love Homemade Tajin
- Quick and Easy: Only 5 minutes of prep time and no spice grinder needed!
- Flavor Explosion: A delicious balance of tanginess, smokiness, and mild heat from spices like paprika and guajillo.
- Perfect for Any Occasion: Great for snacks, margarita nights, Mexican cuisine, or as a seasoning for veggies and fruit salad.
What is Tajin?
Our homemade Tajin (pronounced ta-heen) seasoning is inspired by Tajín Clásico, a popular Mexican seasoning blend made with chiles, lime, and salt.
Widely loved in Mexico and beyond, it’s used to enhance fruits (it’s especially good on mango, pineapple and watermelon!), vegetables, chips, popcorn, elote (Mexican street corn), and even cocktails like Margaritas and Bloody Marys. Making your own allows you to control the quality of ingredients and adjust the flavor to your liking!
Ingredients for Homemade Tajin Seasoning
The ingredients and tools for this recipe are conveniently linked to online retailers, including Amazon, Amazon Fresh, Instacart, and Walmart. The quantities are in the recipe card.
- True Lime Crystals
- Fine Table Salt
- Smoked Paprika
- Guajillo Powder—If you can’t find Guajilo, you can also use Chipotle Powder. It will change the flavor profile slightly, but is a close option and a good substitute.a
- White Granulated Sugar
The complete list of ingredients, along with their measurements, is provided on the recipe card. The Purple Pumpkin Blog uses both cups and weighted measurements in its recipes, making American cups and kitchen food scales valuable tools for trying all the recipes. We provide measurements in US customary, imperial, and metric units. Still, it’s essential to note that while you can combine cup measurements with weighted measures, never mix US customary/imperial units (pounds, ounces, pints, etc.) with metric units (kilograms, grams, liters, etc.).
Recipe Tips
- To make this seasoning you will need a small mixing bowl, whisk, measuring spoons, and a spice jar to store it in.
- An optional extra is a food-grade moisture packet to throw into the jar. If any moisture is introduced to the spice mix, it wil cause it to harden and clump together. Do not use fresh lime zest!
- Store your homemade seasoning in a cool dry place. Do not leave the spice uncovered for even a few hours or it will harden up.
- You can swap out the lime crystals for dried lime zest in the same amount. The lime taste will be a bit stronger and the size of the ingredient a bit bulkier, but this is all preference based. The True Lime crystals are 100% lime and are a finer consistency, allowing them to mix into the spice blend better.
- Use fine table salt and not coarse sea salt as it doesn’t mix well into the seasoning and tries to separate itself.
- Slightly increase the sugar if you prefer a sweeter chili lime seasoning.
- Label your jar with the prep time date so you know when it’s freshest!
Homemade Tajin Seasoning Recipe: Step-by-Step
Here’s our quick visual guide. Continue scrolling for the printable recipe card.
- Measure the ingredients and place into a small mixing bowl.
2. Whisk thoroughly to combine the ingredients.
3. Transfer
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Printable Homemade Tajin Recipe Card
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Homemade Tajin Seasoning
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoons True Lime Crystals
- 1 Tablespoon Salt
- 1 Tablespoon Smoked Paprika
- 1 Tablespoon Guajillo Powder
- ½ Tablespoon White Granulated Sugar
Instructions
- Measure out all the ingredients using tablespoons and half-tablespoons into a small mixing bowl.
- Whisk the ingredients thoroughly until no lumps remain and the seasoning blend is fully mixed.
- Transfer your homemade tajin seasoning into an airtight jar or spice container.
- Store in a cool, dry area and enjoy within 5 weeks for maximum flavor.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is always approximate and will depend on the quality of ingredients used and serving sizes. If you need exact calories and macros, please do your own calculations.