A Homemade Sazon Seasoning is a blend of spices used in many Latin American recipes. Is an all-purpose seasoning that will give your dishes a unique flavor and a nice yellowish color.
One of the best spice blends to have at home is a Homemade Sazon Seasoning. If you ever tasted Puerto Rican food, you’ve probably already tasted it.
Sazon is part of the base of Puerto Rican cooking alongside sofrito Puerto Rican style, adobo seasoning mix, and oil with achiote.
What is Sazon?
Sazon Is a perfect blend of spices made with garlic powder, coriander, cumin, ground annatto, salt, and MSG. It is a staple seasoning used in many dishes around the world.
I always use sazon to make any of my rice recipes like yellow Puerto Rican rice with beans, Puerto Rican arroz con maiz, or rice and pork ribs. I also use it as a marinade for my chicken fried in a Puerto Rican style and Puerto Rican fried pork.
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Why This Recipe Works
- A must-have seasoning- if you want to give your food a very unique umami taste then the sazon will help you.
- Multipurpose- you can use it in almost any savory dish you make. It is perfect for marinating vegetables or meats. It will add color and flavor.
- Easily made- with only 6 ingredients that you only need to measure, mix and store.
Ingredients
All the sazon ingredients can easily be found in any supermarket besides ground achiote/annatto. You will be able to find it in some big supermarkets that have a big Latin population around. You can also find it in Latin supermarkets or online.
- Ground Annatto- the annatto serves two purposes. First is the responsible spice for giving the sazon its color. It also adds a nice smoky flavor.
- Garlic powder- is great to add that garlicky flavor.
- Salt- We use a small amount of salt for flavor.
- Ground Coriander- is great in sazon because of its lemony aroma.
- Ground Cumin- is great but it may be a little strong for some people so is best to keep it at a minimum.
- Msg- is essential to sazon because it really brings out the umami flavor in sazon.
Note on Msg:
Some people ask if msg is a necessary ingredient and the answer is yes. One of the strongest flavors you get when you taste sazon comes from the msg. It is responsible for that delicious unique flavor. That being said if you don’t want to use it or can’t you can leave it out.
Variations
You can make many sazon variations to fit your needs by only changing a few ingredients.
- With Saffron- this can be a good addition to add color if you already have some at home.
- Low in sodium- change the salt with a low sodium one or use half of the salt indicated.
- Without achiote or MSG- Just skip out on the achiote powder on the ingredient.
How to Make Sazon Seasoning
- This recipe is as simple as measuring everything, mixing, and storing.
Storing Homemade Sazon
A great way to store your sazon is in a mason jar or an airtight container. You can also use plastic storage bags. Keep it at room temperature always with a lid on and when stored right it will last up to a year. To know if your sazon is still good just give it a sniff to make sure your spice still has an aroma.
Expert Tips
- When trying to use the same portion as a store-bought sazon packet, use 1 ½ teaspoon of the homemade mix.
- For easy use, I like to store it in an empty seasoning bottle.
What Do You Use Sazon Seasoning for?
Sazon is an all-in-one seasoning that can be used for many things and in many ways. You can use sazon as your marinate for vegetables and meats like my Puerto Rican pork butt roast. You can use it in stews like I do in my sancocho stew or my stewed Puerto Rican beans.
Recipe Questions
A Lot of people tend to think that Sazon was invented by Puerto Ricans. In reality, Sazon is a product created by a company named Goya that was established in 1936 by Spanish immigrants in New York.
It depends on many factors like any conditions you may have and what kind of sazon you are using. If you are using store-bought sazon these contain a very high amount of sodium and if this is something you are trying to avoid then yes it can be bad for you in high quantities. Also, store-bought sazon has color additives that make the sazon look very orangey.
While they are both used as seasoning they’re not the same. They contain different ingredients like achiote which is used in sazon but not in adobo. But most of the time the two are used in conjunction in marinades, soups, stews, and many other recipes.
Sazon does contain msg. It is an essential ingredient in your seasoning blend. The msg is key in sazon because it helps unify the flavors of the spices with its umami taste. If you can’t have msg you may leave it out but I must warn you that it won’t taste the same.
Recipes To Use Sazon
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Homemade Sazon seasoning
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons msg
- 1 tablespoon ground annatto (achiote)
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
Instructions
- Measure all your ingredients. Add all your ingredients into a medium bowl or plastic bag and mix well. Store in an airtight container.
Recipe Notes
- One of the most important ingredients in this recipe is the MSG because it gives the sazon a unique taste. But if you can’t consume it you can leave it out.
- Store in a dry cool place in an airtight container, glass jar, or plastic bag.
- When trying to use the same quantity of a sazon packet use 1 ½ teaspoon.
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