Spice up your chili with a customizable chili powder blend. With a handful of dried chiles, and a blender or grinder, you can create chili powder with a complex flavor. Time to level up that favorite chili recipe with this homemade mix.
What is chili powder anyway?
Good question! “Chile” refers to a class of peppers of varying heat, whereas “chili” refers to an iconic Tex-Mex stew, and chili powder (versus chile powder) is a blend of spices used in chili and other recipes.
I’ve been taking a deep dive into chile peppers and it got me curious about what exactly chili powder is. To quote the ingredients list from the bottle I have on hand, it contains “chili pepper (typo?), spices, salt, silicon dioxide (uh, should we be eating that?), and garlic”. Well, eww, time to make my own chili powder.
Why you should make homemade chili powder, using this recipe as a template:
- It contains pure, whole ingredients
- It is customizable, depending on the dried chiles you choose to use
- It will add smoky, fruity, and spicy tasting notes to your chili recipe (or anything else you decide to use this spice mix in, for that matter!)
- Once you get your hands on the ingredients, it is very easy and quick to make.
- You can make Sofa Dinners’ Vegan Chili with it!
Dried chile peppers 101:
- Chile peppers come in many varieties of heat, with different names (don’t get overwhelmed by that list).
- Dried chile peppers offer more flavor complexity, in all their forms.
- I recently learned that one chile name might refer to another type of chile, in its ripened or less ripened stage, or after it’s been smoked.
- It is often recommended to toast dried chiles in the oven or pan before using them in a recipe or grinding them to bring out a more complex flavor.
- At my local food COOP, they are sold in bulk, with the other bulk spices. I think you might also find them in the produce area with other dried mushrooms, etc, or you can buy them online.
A bit about the dried chiles to choose from:
Honestly, in keeping with the mission of my work here :), I chose 1 Guajillo and 3 Arbol Chiles because that is what I had on hand (leftover from a mole recipe I made) but you could choose any you like. I believe New Mexico Chiles are more mild, as are Guajillo and Ancho. The Arbol Chile, however, is very hot. It’s got a great heat (more on that below).
Unless you like your chili and other recipes to really “pack a punch” you might choose a dried chile variety less spicy than the Arbol. I also included Dried Ancho Chili Flakes that I kept from some dried Anchos we used for the mole, and once toasted, they had a nice smokey and mild flavor, so I included them. They sell red pepper and jalapeno chili flakes in the grocery, which you can try as well. Ancho chiles are the smoked version of Poblanos, which are both on the milder side.
What is Mexican oregano?
Mexican oregano is not the same as Mediterranean oregano used in a lot of Italian recipes. It has more fruity/floral notes, whereas the Mediterranean oregano is part of the mint family of herbs. The fact that they are both called “oregano” is a misnomer- they are completely different herbs. Mexican oregano actually is grown in Mexico and its flavor notes pare really well with chilis and moles.
The pyramid of flavors for this chili spice blend:
As a lover of cumin, I wanted this blend to be “cumin forward” if you will, hence it forms the base of this blend’s flavor pyramid, and as accents, after reading up on the variety of accent spices that can be used in chili and chili powder I chose black peppercorns and a tiny grab of cloves, and I am happy with the results.
How to use this deeply flavored chili powder:
When you make this blend, you will need to take time to taste along the way, and you will have a wonderful finished product, that will surely deliver on taste, I assure you. How you then use it in your recipes will depend on your sense of adventure in the realm of chile “heat”. I think your blend will be much spicier than your run-of-the-mill bottle of store-bought chili powder, so take care when deciding the dose of heat you want to give your next recipe.
The risk is there, but the reward on taste will be complex and well worth it. My blend has a strong heat and a toasty and smokey flavor. I love it, but have to be careful with the amount added. This has inspired a new way to flavor your chili…stay tuned for an upcoming post on that with a new recipe as well.
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Homemade Chili Powder Spice Mix
Kitchen Tools
- 1 small pan, to toast chili peppers
- 1 spice grinder, or coffee grinder, or mortar and pestle
- 1 kitchen gloves, to keep chili oils off fingers
- 1 bowl, to mix ground spices together
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp cumin seeds
- 2-4 ea dried chiles (i.e. Ancho, Guajillo, New Mexico or Arbol)
- 1 tbsp chile flakes (i.e. Ancho, Jalapeno, red pepper)
- 1 tbsp black peppercorns
- 8-10 ea whole cloves
- 1 tbsp Mexican oregano (use typical oregano if needed)
Method:
- Consider using kitchen gloves while handling the dried chile peppers. If you do not, be sure not to touch your face while handling them, and wash/scrub your fingers as soon as you are done.
- Destem and deseed the dried chile peppers. You'll need to cut open larger chiles to remove the seeds, but you can simply dump out the seeds from smaller chiles.
- Toast the chile peppers and flakes in a pan over medium heat, watching closely, and tossing regularly, until you can smell them, and the skins begin to blister. Take care, however, not to burn them. They are dark to begin with and you may feel they aren't turning color. The change is subtle. Remove from pan and set aside.
- Add the cumin seeds to the pan, toast, and set aside. Keep separate from chiles.
- Add the peppercorns and cloves to the pan, toast, and set aside. Keep separate from chiles and cumin seeds.
- Allow all the toasted chiles, flakes, and whole spices to cool, then blend them one by one. Keep each separate after grinding. I used my coffee bean grinder, which I first, wiped out thoroughly to remove the coffee bean smell (although a tad of that might actually add to the spice blend!). A high-speed blender should also work. If you are a mortar-and-pestle kind of cook, you could use it but the dried chiles you would need to break/cut up first before attempting to pound them into oblivion. It's worth a shot.
- Finally, create the blend, mixing the powdered spices/chiles together in a bowl. You will want to dip your finger into the dried chile powder to sense its spice level, and then add in the other powders to arrive at the flavor profile you like.
