Hot hot hot (Tesco Mexican Seasoning)

Member Name: pink_glitter

Product:	Tesco Mexican Seasoning
Date:	12/04/09 (110 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Tastes good, just the right level of spiciness, cheaper than leading brand

Disadvantages: None

I tend to make fajitas quite often, and rather than buy the 'dinner kits' that you can get, I now just buy everything separately as it often works out cheaper. I had already tried ASDA's Mexican seasoning mix and wasn't impressed, as I found it was too mild for my tastes (I like my spicy food to taste spicy!), so I decided to give Tesco's version a try instead.

The seasoning comes in an orange packet, depicting a picture of a Mexican pyramid and then a picture of the finished dish. There is a recipe suggestion on the back, which gives a step by step guide for making fajitas, but I think you could use the seasoning for any spicy Mexican dish you wanted really.

The spice mix is a blend of garlic, onion, oregano, chilli, paprika, cumin, yeast extract, dried red pepper, coriander seed, black pepper and thyme. I have the majority of those spices in my spice rack, so I'm sure I could have a go at making my own, however I would be concerned I'd get the quantities wrong, so these ready made mixes are ideal.

Using the mix is easy. You simply coat your chicken (or whatever else you're using I suppose) in the dark orange mix, and then heat in a pan with the rest of your ingredients. The mix smells absolutely amazing when it's cooking - a very pungent, spicy and warm sort of aroma.

Taste wise this was really nice. The finished chicken came out tasting very hot and spicy, and I think the strength of the spices was perfect - hot enough to give the finished dish a kick, but not so hot that it has you sweating, and you can't taste the rest of the dish for the spices! The blend of spices used was perfect as well - there did not appear to be one dominant flavour in there (well, not that I noticed anyway), but the combination of spices went together really well, to give a fantastic flavour.

Each 35g packet mix costs 55p from Tesco, which is just slightly cheaper than the leading brand Old El Paso, which costs 68p a packet also from Tesco. Having tried both of these brands I'd say that they are pretty similar and I would be happy to save a few pennies and buy the Tesco brand from now on.

Overall, I was very pleased with this mix, and will buy it again. The spices are just the right strength, and make a tasty dish, and I'd certainly recommend it.

Summary: Great