Photo : Claire Lower

I have a bit of a shameful fast food habit which, not only keeps me grounded and humble, but keeps my packet drawer stocked with only the finest single-serve condiments. McDonald’s is stingy with their sweet and sour sauce, but Taco Bell is positively generous with their hot sauce, and I have a lot of it.


This is part of Eating Trash With Claire, a Lifehacker series where Claire Lower convinces you to transform your kitchen scraps into something edible and delicious.


Having an excess of FIRE! sauce is not exactly a “problem,” but the condiment does have a particular flavor that is best suited for—if not Taco Bell—food that falls near “Taco Bell” on the trash food spectrum, like chips and popcorn. Since pouring sauce on chips and popcorn makes them soggy, the natural solution was to dehydrate it and make Taco Bell salt.

Like any flavored salt made with a wet flavoring agent, the process is quite simple. Simply mix the sauce with salt, dehydrate the mixture in the oven, and pulverize it. To make Taco Bell salt, you will need:

6-10 sauce packets, depending on how strongly flavored you like your salt. Six will gives you a seasoning with the aroma of Taco Bell, but you’ll need a few more than that for the heat to come through.

1/4 cup plain table salt

Combine sauce and salt in the food processor and blend it together until you have a sandy mixture that is uniform in color. Spread it out on a parchment-lined baking sheet, and pop it in a 200-degree oven for at least two hours, until the salt is bone dry. Return it to the food processor, pulverize it, and live más my sprinkling the essence of your favorite trash food all over crunchy snacks.