Here's How To Recreate Taco Bell's Discontinued Lava Sauce Through A Secret Menu Order

Mild, Hot, Fire, or Diablo? This is the question that divides Taco Bell fans, with everyone having an opinion on which of the chain's sauces is the best. But to some customers, those plastic packets can't hold a candle to one dearly departed condiment: Lava Sauce. Luckily, you can create a pretty convincing substitute by mixing Taco Bell's nacho cheese and Fire sauce together.

Taco Bell is something of a king in the realm of discontinued fast food items that still have cult followings, and Lava Sauce has been sadly missing from the chain since the mid-2010s. The creamy condiment was much like a spicy nacho cheese sauce. There's no word yet on if and when Lava Sauce will come back for good, but Taco Bell still sells gooey cups of nacho cheese that can be ordered on the side and poured over any item. Add some heat from two or three packets of Taco Bell's Fire sauce, and you have a Lava Sauce taste-alike for under two dollars. 

While this hack for ordering at Taco Bell couldn't be simpler, it's harder to faithfully recreate the menu items that made Lava Sauce famous, such as the Volcano Double Beef Burrito, Volcano Taco, and Volcano Nachos. These were all part of Taco Bell's discontinued Volcano Menu, which was brought back to the U.S. for a brief moment in 2023 before vanishing again. However, using your DIY sauce, you can whip up a reasonable facsimile of these three spicy entrees.

Lava Sauce first debuted in 1995 on Taco Bell's Volcano Burrito, which was also stuffed with a double serving of ground beef, Mexican rice, red tortilla chip strips, sour cream, and shredded cheese. To recreate this cult classic, order a cheesy double beef burrito, which has the same ingredients, save for regular nacho cheese in place of Lava Sauce. Unroll the burrito, drizzle in your DIY Lava Sauce, and wrap it up again. It'll be cheesier than a true Volcano Burrito, but just might satisfy a craving.

The Volcano Taco featured a spicy hard taco shell full of beef, lettuce, shredded cheese, and Lava Sauce. The best substitute would be a nacho cheese Doritos Locos Taco with ersatz Lava Sauce on top. But before you try to recreate this one, just be forewarned that it made our list of discontinued Taco Bell items we don't miss at all. Finally, the Volcano Nachos were a glorious mess of tortilla chips, ground beef, beans, red tortilla strips, jalapeños, nacho cheese, sour cream, and Lava Sauce. Unfortunately, this item is the hardest to recreate. Your best bet is to pour the Lava Sauce over an order of Nachos Bellgrande, which are missing a few ingredients, but don't have distracting extras like guacamole.

If this two-ingredient Lava Sauce isn't close enough to the original in your eyes, Mashed has a copycat Taco Bell Lava Sauce recipe that's almost as easy. Others point out that the ingredient list for the sauce has oil and egg yolks, meaning it likely contained mayonnaise. Try replacing some of the nacho cheese base in your recipe with mayo.

Static Media owns and operates Tasting Table and Mashed.