I love Taco Bell. You love Taco Bell. We all love Taco Bell. And one of the things I love most about Taco Bell is their sauce selection. Both their hot sauce packets and their sides of sauce are awesome. They’re so awesome that I want to have them available in my home without having to hoard them from trips to the drive-thru.
Their bottled brand-name hot sauces are great and easily accessible, so grab those the next time you’re at the store. But the sauces like their nacho cheese, spicy ranch, and avocado ranch are not so easily acquired.. While you can get some Taco Bell sauces in bottles, they can be hard to find and some of them taste way worse than their in-store counterparts!
I am on a mission to find the best Taco Bell sauce dupes that you can buy at the grocery store. These are my current findings.
Great Dupes
Nacho Cheese Sauce: Fritos Jalapeno Cheddar Flavored Cheese Dip
Not only is Fritos Jalapeno Cheddar Flavored Cheese Dip one of our picks for the best store bought queso, it’s also a perfect dupe for Taco Bell’s nacho cheese sauce. Taco Bell makes a jarred queso, but it’s not good and tastes nothing like what they serve at the actual restaurant.
Lava Sauce: Fritos Jalapeno Cheddar Flavored Cheese Dip & Marie Sharp’s Habanero Pepper Sauce
The newest sauce to hit Taco Bell drive-thrus is the Lava Sauce. Taco Bell describes it as “a cheesy spicy sauce with a blend of cheeses and fiery red jalapeño peppers.” And while I could not find an exact, one-product dupe for lava sauce, I could find two products that come together to taste pretty damn close. The Fritos Jalapeno Cheddar Flavored Cheese Dip mentioned above is the ideal creamy base. Then, mix in a few dashes of Marie Sharp’s Habanero Pepper Sauce to get the heat. You’ll need this dupe because you know Lava Sauce won’t be around forever!
Spicy Ranch Dupe: Litehouse Southwest Ranch Dip
The moment Litehouse Southwest Ranch Dip hit my lips, my eyes lit up. It tastes exactly like my favorite Taco Bell sauce, the Taco Bell spicy ranch. I order so many additional sides of this stuff when I get Taco Bell. Now, I don’t have to spend 50¢ for each tiny plastic cup! Plus, I can cut down on waste. I love this Litehouse Southwest Ranch Dip.
Good Dupes
Avocado Ranch: Litehouse Avocado Ranch Dressing
This one was tough. Somehow Taco Bell manages to get their avocado ranch to taste perfectly avocado-y without any weird chemical or citric acid aftertaste. I genuinely don’t know how they’ve mastered it. This Litehouse Avocado Ranch Dressing is the closest thing I could find. It’s more ranch-forward than the Taco Bell version, but, like Taco Bell’s avocado ranch, it’s creamy, avocado-y, and lacks any weird artificial flavor.
Chipotle Sauce: Good & Gather Creamy Chipotle Sauce
This is not an exact one-to-one, but they are very similar. Think of them as cousins, not twins. This sauce is a little smokier than Taco Bell’s version, but I am not mad at that. This is a great option, especially considering the fact that most of the other creamy chipotle products at the grocery store are mayo.
Dupe Fail
Creamy Jalapeno Sauce
I could not find a dupe even close to this. I’m sorry. I will keep trying.
Red Sauce
There are lots of good red sauce taco sauces out there. Taco Bell’s just happens to be extra cumin-y. I haven’t had a convincing dupe yet so please stay posted.
Bonus Tip!
Guacamole
Taco Bell’s guacamole is so bad that I don’t want to provide you with a dupe. Instead, buy one of these guacamoles or one of these avocado salsas and thank me later.
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