10 Fiery Trader Joe's Seasoning Blends For Spicy Food Lovers

Trader Joe's is known for having a fairly limited — but well-curated — selection, with products priced and branded in a way that undoubtedly builds customer loyalty. The store really seems to understand what shoppers want and is especially known for its frozen foods, fun snacks, and affordable wines.

However, if you're a true heat seeker, TJ's likely isn't the first place you think of when you want to stock up on the tear-inducing goods. The store has a fairly limited hot sauce and salsa assortment with plenty of decidedly mild ones in the mix. When it comes to spice mixes, you're probably picturing shakers of Everything But the Bagel and pumpkin pie spice rather than anything that will make you sweat.

But we combed through the Trader Joe's catalog and found a respectable number of spicy seasoning blends. Now, not all of these will make you want to chug a glass of milk, but each one will bring a notable level of heat. Some will turn the volume way up on whatever you're making, and others are milder, ideal for building layers of spiciness into the foundation of a meal and combining with other piquant elements.

Salt makes everything better. Salt makes food taste more like itself. It's essential, transforming elemental vegetables and one-note proteins into something you actually want to eat. If you're the kind of person that feels something is missing if your food doesn't have a bit of heat, this is the shaker of sodium you should be reaching for regularly.

Trader Joe's Spicy Pink Salt with Crushed Red Chili Pepper has exactly the two ingredients you would expect it to have — and nothing more. "I love it! It's replaced regular salt for me!" shared an enthusiastic fan on Reddit. It is this versatility that makes this spicy salt a worthwhile addition to your spice rack. 

Use it, well, anywhere you would use salt. It brings baseline heat but is neutral enough that you can combine it with fresh chile peppers, hot sauces, or other fiery spices. Also, it's a beautiful salmon pink hue, so it's salty, spicy, and pretty — it's perfect for rimming the glass on a shortcut Trader Joe's spicy margarita.

If you say you're a spicy food lover and you haven't tried chili crisp, no, you're not. In the United States, the condiment used to only be found in Sichuan restaurants and the home kitchens of Chinese and Taiwanese families — now it's popping up on avocado toasts around the country. Trader Joe's even carries its own version, but not all savory dishes need a spoonful of a rich, oily condiment. That's where the Crunchy Chili Onion Sprinkle Seasoning Blend comes in.

Just like the jarred Crunchy Chili Onion, the spice mix has onions, garlic, hot peppers, and mild peppers — crispy fried onions, dried roasted garlic, chile flakes, Sichuan pepper, and dehydrated red bell pepper, to be exact. The peppers and alliums in the chili crunch are all just dried, so the roasting and frying definitely adds texture and depth to the seasoning blend. The spoonable condiment doesn't have those Sichuan peppercorns, which bring a unique, tingly, numbing heat and citrus punch. Additionally, the Crunchy Chili Onion Sprinkle contains brown sugar, which adds a notable, caramelized sweetness.

This medium-spicy mix can certainly be used in place of chili crisp in some recipes, but it really shines in preparations where you want texture, heat, and depth without the added liquid. In addition to classic furikake, use it to bring some heat to onigiri. Shake it over popcorn, add it to tuna salad, or sprinkle it on some fresh, crisp cucumber spears.

Aglio e olio — which translates to "garlic and oil" — is the name of a simple but heavy-hitting pasta dish. Though not obligatory, the dish often includes red pepper flakes as well, and that's clearly what Trader Joe's is taking inspiration from with its Aglio Olio Seasoning Blend. It has garlic, flaky salt, parsley, red bell pepper, and red chile pepper. Naturally, this is a great spice mix to reach for when you're trying to amp up the flavor of a jarred red sauce or add a little something extra to dishes like Marcella Hazan's easy five-ingredient bean soup.

One person that tried out the Aglio Olio Seasoning Blend compared the flavor to garlic bread. Others use it to season roasted vegetables, eggs, sauteed shrimp, Caprese salad, and more. "My ultimate recommendation for this seasoning blend is to mix it with the Trader Joe's EVOO (and perhaps an extra pinch of red pepper flakes if you like it spicier, like I do) and use it as a lovely dipping oil for a crusty bread," shared one TJ's shopper in a Reddit post. For even more Italian-inspired heat, combine the Aglio Olio Seasoning Blend with the Italian Bomba Hot Pepper Sauce, which is made with fermented Calabrian chiles.

Chile and lime are best friends forever, life partners, paramours, soulmates — the list goes on. Bright citrus fruits meet fiery chile peppers where they're at — equally punchy but opposite in profile. While lime is acidic, zippy, and cutting, chile is earthy, potent, and full-bodied. It's no wonder that Trader Joe's wanted to sell a product that shows off everyone's favorite couple.

Obviously, the Chile Lime Seasoning Blend is inspired by the classic Mexican pairing that regularly tops fresh fruits, raw vegetables, roasted corn, citrusy cocktails, and more. In addition to the salt, lime juice powder, and chile pepper, this product has some citric acid too, which dials up the acidity without bringing in too many of the bitter and floral qualities of lime juice.

While it might seem like TJ's Chile Lime Seasoning Blend is an obvious Tajín dupe, folks that have tried both feel like they really do taste like two distinct products. People tend to find the Trader Joe's mix to be saltier, but it's still versatile enough to be used in both sweet and savory preparations. Use it to dress up grilled fruit, season raw vegetables for snacking, finish off Trader Joe's corn ribs, or add some spice and acid to pan-seared chicken breasts. If you need more heat, pair it with TJ's Habanero Hot Sauce.

Unlike the rest of the products on this list, Trader Joe's Taco Seasoning Mix comes in a packet instead of a shaker, just like you'd expect from a classic supermarket brand. Unlike many of the standard blends out there, however, the TJ's one is actually solidly spicy. This level of heat was overwhelming and disappointing for some folks, but an exciting discovery for many others.

Indeed, after sea salt and cumin, the third ingredient on the list is cayenne pepper. The rest of the heat is coming from chile flakes and black pepper, and brown sugar, garlic, onion, smoked paprika, and oregano fill out the flavor profile. Naturally, this is a great blend to reach for when you want to quickly put together a nostalgic hardshell taco night with all the fixings. Alternatively, use it in beef stew, vegetarian chili, fajitas, or Tex-Mex casseroles.

Spicy food lovers always have a shaker of classic red pepper flakes in their cabinet — and probably a few more varieties of dried, crushed chiles, too. The Green and Red Hatch Chile Flakes from Trader Joe's definitely deserve a spot in your collection.

This two-ingredient blend has nothing more than real-deal Hatch chile peppers, which come from the Hatch region of New Mexico. The confluence of climate, soil type, and more than a century of selective cultivation has led to a unique chile that undoubtedly reflects its terroir. Hatch chile peppers bring a slow-burn type of heat and are known for being sweet, smoky, and earthy.

Red Hatch chiles are allowed to ripen on the vine, bringing a richer, fruitier flavor to the party. The younger green peppers are brighter and more vegetal. The TJ's blend brings you the best of both worlds, providing a balanced, complex, and interesting medium-level spiciness to whatever you shake it on. They're great with roasted sweet potatoes, braised beef, and cheese quesadillas or in homemade hot honey.

When you're looking for a shaker of something spicy, TJ's Mushroom & Company Multipurpose Umami Seasoning Blend might not be the first thing to catch your eye. While it's definitely on the milder side, this mix still brings a pleasant burn from a combination of red pepper flakes and black pepper. Rather than going in a Southwest or Latin American direction like a lot of spicy blends do, this one gets a boost of umami from two types of mushroom powder: porcini and white button. Porcinis are more full-bodied and nutty, while white button mushrooms are mild and meaty. Accenting those earthy and spicy flavors are salt, dried onions, mustard seeds, and thyme.

Even if you're not a shroom lover, you should still give this seasoning blend a try. It reads as decidedly savory more than mushroomy, and as the name of the product suggests, it really is a multipurpose seasoning. Fans of this TJ's item have used it in stir-fries, burgers, grilled vegetables, eggs, soups, and fried rice. Folks have even added it to butter noodles, cream sauces, and salad dressings. "LOTS of it on EVERYTHING!" exclaimed a Redditor. "I've gone through at least 10 bottles in the last year or two."

We can't talk about spice mixes without touching on the fan-favorite Everything But The Elote Seasoning Blend. From the grocery store that certainly knows how to take advantage of a trend, you can sample a similar flavor profile in corn chips, seasoned nut mixes, chopped salad kits, and the popular Trader Joe's dip that topped our ranking: the Everything and the Elote Greek Style Yogurt Dip. For versatility, however, nothing beats a shaker of this seasoning blend.

It's not just that Everything But The Elote pairs well with elotes (Mexican-style street corn served on or off the cob with accoutrements such as mayonnaise, crema, chile powder, lime juice, cotija cheese, and cilantro); it actually has a mild corn flavor from the combination of cane sugar and corn flour. To bring the elote vibes, the blend also contains chile pepper, parmesan cheese, chipotle powder, dried cilantro, and cumin.

In addition to pairing it with fresh, frozen, or canned corn, fans of this TJ's product like to shake it on fried potatoes, jicama, cucumbers, cream cheese, roasted bell peppers, grilled chicken, avocado toast, and more. Of course, it's also awesome on buttered popcorn. "I like adding this, Chile Lime seasoning, and nutritional yeast to my popcorn!" shared a TJ's shopper on Reddit.

Cuban food is not known for being spicy, but that doesn't mean you should skip over this seasoning blend. Cuban cuisine is based around Caribbean, Latin American, and African ingredients that pair perfectly with fiery components, such as rice, beans, stewed meats, fried plantains, and sauces loaded with garlic and vinegar. The Trader Joe's Cuban Style Citrusy Garlic Seasoning Blend draws on a variety of classic Cuban flavors, including some mild warmth from red peppers and black peppercorns. This mix is complex, herbaceous, and well-spiced from a combination of garlic, onion, bay leaves, coriander, cumin, oregano, cilantro, basil, marjoram, and parsley. It's also bright, acidic, and citrus-forward from citric acid and lime juice as well as lemon, lime, and bitter orange oils.

Use this mix to set a seasoned undertone for marinated pork tenderloin, arroz con pollo (chicken and rice), carnitas, shrimp burgers, seared salmon, and roasted broccoli. Attention spicy food lovers: You'll definitely want to add another layer of heat to recipes you make with the Cuban Style Citrusy Garlic Seasoning Blend. For tangy, straightforward fire, reach for TJ's Bird's Eye Chile Hot Sauce. If you want to introduce some fruity, warming Caribbean spices, go for the Sweet Potato Habanero Hot Sauce instead.

When you look at one of the squat glass jars of Trader Joe's Italian Style Soffritto Seasoning Blend, you can see that it's got a whole lot of goodness going on — both flavorwise and texturally. The heat is coming from red peppers, the garlic and salt bring savoriness, and it has plenty of dried herbs: parsley, rosemary, and sage.

The consistency is what makes this blend something special. Like TJ's Crunchy Chili Onion Sprinkle, it has crispy onions as well as bits of sun-dried tomato. Though you likely wouldn't want to finish a dish with this product, it's amazing when cooked into sauces, beans, and stews. The Italian Style Soffritto Seasoning Blend also loves some fat — which slightly softens the dried ingredients and helps their flavors bloom. Add it to olive oil with a splash of real-deal balsamic vinegar for a delicious dip for warm bread, or stir it into some softened butter along with grated fresh garlic to make garlic toast. Try mixing the blend into mayo to spread on the outside of an Italian-style grilled cheese — bonus point if you fill your sandwich with coins of fresh mozzarella, shaved parmesan, and TJ's Cheddar Cheese with Scotch Bonnet Chili Peppers for a creamy kick.

To put together this list of spicy Trader Joe's seasoning blends, we looked through the online product list for any items that featured red pepper flakes, dried chiles, chili powder, and so on. Products that only had black pepper or paprika didn't make the cut even though they may have a mild, peppery heat level, such as the Salmon Rub Seasoning Blend.

We did not include products denoted as limited time offerings, like the Three Chilis For Your Consideration set (which features sweet paprika, ancho chili powder, and red pepper flakes). Single-ingredient items, such as plain smoked paprika or cayenne pepper, were also not considered. It is important to note that availability of these spicy Trader Joe's seasoning blends will vary across stores and regions.