If you’re someone who frequents Taco Bell, chances are you have a drawer somewhere in your kitchen that’s full of extra sauce packets you just couldn’t squeeze onto your tacos. Every time you go again, you accumulate more and more of the delicious little leftovers, but isn’t it a shame that so many of them will go to waste?

Well, if that thought has ever crossed your mind, you’re in luck, because someone has figured out how to turn it from mild, hot, or fire sauce into a deliciously spicy salt that will do wonders for a bowl of chips or popcorn.

Photo Credit: Claire Lower

The process is the same for dehydrating any wet flavoring agent and is really pretty simple. Here’s how to give it a go!

  1. Preheat your oven 200 degrees.
  2. Mix 6-10 sauce packets and 1/4 cup plain table salt. If you start with 6 packets, you’ll get the Taco Bell aroma from your salt, but with 10, your desired heat level will better come through.
  3. Put the combination into the food processor and blend it until the mixture is sandy and uniform in color.
  4. Spread it out evenly on a parchment-lined baking sheet, then put it in the oven for at least 2 hours (make sure the salt is bone dry before you remove it.
  5. Put it back into the food processor until it’s fine like plain salt.
  6. Sprinkle it on your favorite Taco Bell-esque food or a crunchy bowl of snacks.

Photo Credit: NBC

Serve it to your Taco Bell-loving friends and they’ll all be saying yo quiero your house for their late-night gatherings for the foreseeable future.

I bet you never knew that was Monica’s REAL chef’s secret!*

*This is not true. Probably.

Enjoy, and please let me know how it turns out and the best ways to use it!