Al pastor seasoning substitutes

The blend rebuilt around achiote, which is the ingredient that makes al pastor look and taste like al pastor.

Best for

tacos al pastor and adobada, marinating pork shoulder for the broiler or grill, al pastor chicken or jackfruit, quesadillas and gringas

The most accurate route by a clear margin. Achiote is the whole trick: it supplies the earthy, faintly peppery flavour and the vivid orange stain that people read as al pastor, and no amount of paprika truly imitates it. Achiote paste (recado rojo) is already salted and acidified with vinegar or bitter orange, so hold back the recipe's salt until you taste. Dissolve the paste in the pineapple juice before mixing, because it is dense and will not distribute otherwise.

The packet reverse-engineered as a dry rub you can keep in a jar.

Best for

keeping a jar for repeat use, dry-rubbing pork before marinating, seasoning ground pork or chorizo-style mixes, roast potatoes, corn and grilled pineapple

Very close to a commercial packet and much fresher tasting, since supermarket mixes are usually mostly salt and cornflour. Ground annatto is sold as achiote molido and is cheaper and easier to find than the paste block; if you can only find whole annatto seeds, grind them in a spice grinder, as they are too hard for a mortar. Still mix this with pineapple juice and vinegar before it goes on the meat, because the dry blend alone provides no acid at all.

The no-achiote version, built from chillies most supermarkets carry.

Best for

cooks who cannot source achiote or annatto, pork, chicken and mushrooms, when you want a smokier result, traybake and sheet-pan versions

A good-tasting taco that looks wrong. Without achiote the marinade is a deep brick red-brown rather than the glowing orange of a proper trompo, and the flavour tilts smoky rather than earthy, especially with chipotle, which also brings noticeably more heat than guajillo. Ancho is the better choice of the two here because it is sweet, raisiny and mild, much closer to the original. If you have turmeric, ¼ teaspoon nudges the colour toward orange without adding much flavour.

The small Latin-grocery packets whose main colouring agent is annatto, which is exactly what al pastor needs.

Best for

a genuinely good shortcut, getting the orange colour cheaply, pork and chicken, cooks who already keep sazon or adobo

Underrated, and the colour is spot on because annatto is the first thing in the packet after salt. The catch is that sazon is mostly salt and often contains MSG and dehydrated garlic and onion, so it is very concentrated: one packet does the colour and seasoning work but almost none of the chilli work, hence the added chilli powder. Do not salt the meat separately. If your packet contains coriander or saffron colouring, the flavour drifts Caribbean, so taste as you go.

A garlic-and-oregano salt blend used as the base, with the chilli character added on top.

Best for

when adobo seasoning is the Latin blend you own, pork and chicken, quick weeknight tacos, seasoning the meat before a wet marinade

Serviceable and easy, but understand its limits: adobo seasoning is essentially salt, garlic powder, oregano, black pepper and turmeric, so it brings none of the fruity chilli depth or the achiote colour that define al pastor. The chilli powder does the heavy lifting; without it this tastes like generic seasoned pork. Adobo is very salty, so the recipe's salt should come out entirely. The turmeric in it does give a small helpful nudge toward orange.

The honest emergency answer when nothing else is in the house.

Best for

dinner tonight with a supermarket cupboard, ground pork or chicken, family tacos, when the pineapple and lime will carry the dish anyway

This makes good tacos that do not taste like al pastor, and it is worth being clear about that. Taco seasoning is cumin-dominant with paprika, chilli powder, onion and often cornflour as a thickener, so the pork comes out brown and cumin-forward rather than orange and fruity. The cloves and oregano help more than you would expect, and the charred pineapple served alongside does the rest of the persuading. Grill or broil the meat hard for colour, since the seasoning will not provide it.