Getting Ready to Make More Chili--Home Made Chili Powder

To give credit where credit is due: I copied this recipe from Alton Brown's chili powder, substituting the chiles that I had in the house. I only made a 1/3 of the recipe because I needed a 1/4 cup non-commercial chili powder for the Old West Jerky Chili I'm planning to make. The jerky already has plenty of salt so I need a chili powder without any salt, thus an excuse to make a home made chili powder which I was planning on starting to experiment with anyway. And who else to riff off of than AB? He's one of my reliable starting places for beginning my own experiments in the kitchen and one of the few food network cooks that I have much use for.



Ingredients:

• 2 guajillo chiles
• 1 chipotle chile
• 2 tsp whole cumin seeds
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1/3 tsp sweet paprika (since it was in the house and since I was using chipotles for a smoky flavor)

Directions:

• Place all the chiles and the cumin into a cast iron skillet over high heat.
• Cook, moving the pan around constantly until the cumin becomes fragrant and starts to pop.
• Set aside and cool.
• Once cool place the chiles and cumin into a coffee grinder along with the garlic powder, oregano and paprika.
• Process into a fine powder.