Top taco sauces (and not)
Hot sauce adds heat. Salsa adds freshness. But taco sauce is that bright splash that pulls it all together and elevates all the flavors in that taco shell. Whether it’s stuffed with meat or fish, a taco begs for a great taco sauce.
Making taco sauce from scratch is entirely doable, but messy and time-consuming. It’s so much easier to keep a stash of bottles in the pantry or fridge that will add an instant wallop of flavor.
Great taco sauce — red or green, thick or thin — adds complexity to a taco. It can be made with tomatoes or tomatillos, and include peppers, jalapeño, onion or garlic, but it always has a touch of salt, a bit of spice and a good hit of acid. Some are mouthnumbingly hot; others have barely a hint of heat. And it’s important to know that labels tell next to nothing about the spice level, as “hot” is a relative term.
Bad taco sauces are one-dimensional, sweet or so vinegary that they drown out every other flavor in the mouth. The worst of the lot are basically vinegar syrup.
So here’s the scoop on the best bottled taco sauces — and the ones to avoid. Nutrition details refer to a tablespoon-size serving.
Jardine’s Hatch Green Chile Street Taco Sauce
Roasted Hatch chiles pureed with jalapeño, cilantro and garlic make for a fresh, mediumhot sauce with layers of flavor. It’s pourable, with just enough texture to cling to your taco filling. 5 calories, 70 mg sodium, no sugar. $3.99 for 10.5 ounces at Safeway.
Jardine’s Red Chile Tomatillo Street Taco Sauce
Tomatillo lovers will enjoy the acid kick in this jalapeñoforward sauce. It has lots of fresh vegetable flavor and just the right consistency to dress a taco. Despite what the label says, it’s not particularly hot. 5 calories, 80 mg sodium, no sugar. $3.99 for 10.5 ounces at Safeway.
Pico Pica Real Mexican Style Mild Taco Sauce
Dense, complex and wickedly hot (despite what the label says), this rich sauce with a slightly bitter finish is a great choice for those who love mole and chipotles. (Note that the Green Taco Sauce is vinegar-forward and lacks freshness.) 5 calories, 150 mg sodium, no sugar. $1.99 for 7 ounces at Foodmaxx.
Hatch Fire-Roasted Tomato Medium Taco Sauce
Bold fire-roasted tomato and lots of toasted garlic and onions make this chunky, decidedly mild sauce tasty, but it’s more like a salsa than a taco sauce. It’s a good pick for tomato lovers who don’t like heat. 5 calories, 105 mg sodium, 1 g sugar. $3.49 for 12 ounces at Sprouts Market.
Red Duck Approachably Mild Organic Taco Sauce
This ultra-thick, extra-mild, unique sauce, made with bell pepper, carrot and orange, hits some of the flavor notes of a taco sauce, but it is so tomatoforward that it could easily be mistaken for a flavorful ketchup. 5 calories, 50 mg sodium, no sugar. $4.79 for 8 ounces at Whole Foods.
Herdez Original Verde Taqueria Street Sauce
Fire-roasted tomatillos and poblanos offer big flavor in this garlic-forward sauce, but it’s a bit too salty and lacks freshness, perhaps due to the use of lime concentrate instead of fresh lime juice. 5 calories, 135 mg sodium, no sugar. $3.55 for 9 ounces at Foodmaxx.
Sky Valley Taco Sauce
Chile, onion and garlic powders
deliver a jolt of flavor, but this vinegar-forward sauce lacks any hint of freshness. 5 calories, 65 mg sodium, 1 g sugar. $3.99 for 13 ounces at Sprouts Market.
Taco Bell Mild Sauce
If there’s such a thing as comfort sauce, this is it. It’s the sauce that comes in packets at the fastfood eatery. A little hot, sweet and salty, it’s not bad, but it’s not capable of elevating food. No calories, 75 mg sodium, no sugar. $2.13 for 7.5 ounces at Walmart.
La Victoria Mild Red Taco Sauce
Sweet stewed tomatoes that
taste like the can they came from make for a sorry taco sauce. 5 calories, 105 mg sodium, 1 g sugar. $1.34 for 15 ounces at Walmart.
Ortega Original Medium Taco Sauce
Vinegar syrup is the best way to describe this ghastly mistake of a sauce. 10 calories, 115 mg sodium, 1 g sugar. $2.99 for 8 ounces at Safeway. (No stars)