Sazon seasoning is the secret behind the beautiful golden orange hue color you find in most Puerto Rican food.
This sazon Goya copycat is a must use ingredient for Spanish rice and baked chicken so it can get that vibrant color we all love!
Sazon de Puerto Rico, also known as Goya sazon seasoning has always been a pantry staple ingredient in my life, my mom's life, and possibly my abuela's life.
We love the vibrant color el sazon adds to our foods, especially rice, beans, and stewed dishes.
Unfortunately, store bought sazon Goya contains MSG - and many readers want an alternative to sazon with MSG. It's time to share how to make MSG free sazon seasoning.
What is MSG? MSG is a taste enhancing food additive, known as monosodium glutamate. Learn more by reading this article by Healthline.
📋 Ingredients
The sazon ingredients can be altered to your liking! We decided to make this a salt-free sazon recipe so you can adjust the salt to your liking when cooking.
- garlic powder
- ground cumin
- turmeric powder (this gives that distinct orange hue)
- ground coriander
- ground annato seed (or sweet Spanish paprika -this adds that deep red)
- ground oregano
Some optional add-in ingredients for sazon:
- onion powder
- saffron (finely chopped and very little)
- salt
- ground white pepper (very little)
📝 Instructions
It's easy to make sazon seasoning! Add all of your dried ingredients to a bowl and mix it very well, then just store in an air tight container up to a year!
✏Substitute
What is a good substitute for sazon seasoning?
A good substitute for sazon seasoning mix would be annato oil, if you're only looking to add the color aspect to your dish.
Achiote oil only uses two ingredients, oil and achiote (annato) seeds. You can find the recipe here on how to make achiote oil.
📖 Recipe
Homemade Sazon Seasoning
Equipment
- bowl
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoons garlic powder
- 2 Tablespoons ground cumin
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
- 2 Tablespoons ground coriander powder
- 3 Tablespoons ground annatto
- 1 Tablespoon ground oregano
Instructions
- Store in a glass container with a tight fitting lid, and store in a dry cool shelf where this sazon seasoning mix will last for 1-2 months.
- * It can last longer, but be aware that ground herbs/spices lose their strong aroma quicker than if using fresh whole herbs/spices.
Notes
Nutrition
❓ FAQ
Sazon tastes earthy, cool, and holds a subtle hint of citrus.
Use Sazon seasoning for any dishes you want to enhance with coloring and flavors
This homemade sazon recipe does not have MSG, unlike Goya Sazon.
Use Sazon seasoning for any dishes you want to enhance with coloring and flavors, such as rice, beans, and poultry dishes.
Dishes that use sazon are:
- The masa (dough) used for-
- pasteles
- alcapurrias
- empanada discs
- Yellow rice dishes such as-
- Spanish rice
- paella (rice with seafood)
- arroz con pollo (rice with chicken)
- arroz con gandules (rice with pigeon peas)
- Meat and seafood based stews and soups such as-
- pollo guisado (chicken stew)
- sopa de salchichon (salami soup)
- asopoa de camarones (rice stew with shrimp)
- Fried fritters that you want to add a little color to such as-
- bacalaitos (fried fish fritters with herbs)
- potato balls
More Recipes To Try!
KAREN BROWN-HALEY says
I truly appreciate your recipe without MSG! My favorite Sazon Seasoning is the Con Cilantro Y Tomate. Do you have a recipe for that one? I would love it!