AH-HA! Now I’m Cooking With Broadband

Over the last few days I have been working on perfecting my chili recipe, perfection may never happen but I’m starting by making my own chili powder and using that in the most basic chili recipe I have to see the difference it makes. For those of you interested in just the recipe skip to the bottom. Chili powder is made from dried ground chiles and other spices. After looking around at some other recipes I settled on Ancho chiles, New Mexico Chiles, Pequin Chiles, Chipotle Chiles, Hot Hungarian Paprika, Garlic Powder, Cumin, Mexican Oregano and for a unique, smoky, taste: Lapsang Souchong Tea. The addition of dried tea leaves is unusual as far I I know but Lapsang Souchong is a unique tea. It’s made by smoking black tea leaves over a pine fire. If you have ever been camping and smelled your clothes after you get back then you know the smoky odor of Lapsang Souchong. It has a very pungent smell and a unique taste. Honestly I wasn’t overly fond of drinking it and it has been sitting in a cabinet for a while now. But when I wanted to add a smoky taste to my chili powder I figured it would work perfectly.
Dried Ancho chiles are a staple of chili powder. They have a sweet-hot taste and smell that I always see described as similar to tobacco. I usually describe them as spicy raisins.
New Mexico chiles are your standard dried chiles, the same you see in ristras. They are hotter than the Ancho chiles and have a more earthy taste.
Pequin chiles are small hot chiles, hot enough that I haven’t eaten one alone to get the exact flavor. They can be replaced easily with Chile de Arbol. I use the Pequins only to add heat to the recipe.
Chipotle chiles are dried, smoked Jalepeno chiles usually found canned in Adobo sauce. I added these for their smoky flavor and heat.
Hungarian Paprika comes in two varietes: sweet or hot. I used the hot because that’s what I have around the kitchen. Hungarian Paprika has a better flavor than the stuff you usually get in the little McCormick’s jar. It has a sweet flavor and gives an excellent red color to the chili powder and the finished chili. There is also a Spanish variety of Paprika that is smoked and is generally regarded as having a better flavor.
The garlic powder is the normal kind that everyone should have in their kitchen and I added it for flavor. Yes, fresh garlic is better for flavor but for any dry recipe garlic powder just works better.
I used a fair amount of dried cumin because I love the flavor of cumin and it really enhances the flavors of the chiles.
Mexican Oregano is a distict variety from the normal Greek Oregano that most people use. Mexican Oregano has a stronger flavor than Greek Oregano and pairs well with garlic, cumin and strong chile flavors in the powder. Mexican Oregano is also a common ingredient in chili powder recipes.

Now for the Preparation…
I started by taking the dried chiles and removing the stems and seeds, this is a little more difficult with the smaller chiles. The only Chipotles I could find were canned in Adobo sauce so I rinsed them, stemmed and seeded them, washed them again then split them and laid them out flat. I heated the Chipotles in a dry non-stick skillet to get them mostly dried. I split the Ancho and New Mexico chiles and laid them out flat with the Chipotles on a baking sheet. Good dried chiles still have a little moisture in them so you have to completely dry them out first. I toasted them in a 300 degree oven until they were fragrant and completely dry but not burnt about 5-10 minutes (you can take some of the smaller pieces early). Be careful when handling the chiles because the oils in them can burn you quite badly. I didn’t have any problems handling them but I was careful to wash my hands often and not touch my face or any other body parts (I learned my lesson with a hot Anaheim and my nose). Also be careful about opening the oven to take them out, the fumes and have quite a kick. Once they are dry break the chiles up into smaller pieces and blend them in a food processor with the other ingredients until you have a fine powder. I keep it in a sealed container in the freezer so it should last a while.

Now for my Opinion…
In all honesty I don’t think it’s that much different from a good store-bought powder. It does have a smoky aroma but that doesn’t come through very much in the finished chili. It is also pretty mild for my tastes (be warned, I like my food VERY hot). I think that adding more Chipotle and Chile Pequin would help the heat and add a little more smoky flavor to the powder. More Lapsang Souchong could also help.

Now for the Recipe…
4 Dried Ancho Chiles
4 Dried New Mexico Chiles
4 Dried Chile Pequin
4 Dried Chipotle Chiles (see Now for the Preparation if you can’t find them dried)
2 Tbsp Hot Hungarian Paprika
1 tsp Garlic Powder
1 tsp Cumin
1 Tbsp Mexican Oregano
1 Tea bag’s worth of Lapsang Souchong Tea (about .5-1 Tbsp)

Stem and seed all of the chiles.
Split the Ancho, New Mexico, and Chipotle Chiles, lay them flat on a baking sheet and bake them at 300 degrees for 5-10 min or until completely dry removing the smaller pieces early.
Combine all of the ingredients in a food processor and blend until you have a fine powder.
Use the powder anywhere you would use store-bought chili powder.
Store the powder in an airtight container in the freezer.