I made a pot of my basic chili a few weeks ago, which uses my homemade chili seasoning, so I wanted to post the homemade chili seasoning blend by itself to highlight the fact that it can be used for so much more than just chili.
How to Make Homemade Chili Seasoning
How to Use Homemade Chili Seasoning:
This homemade chili seasoning is equivalent to one store bought chili seasoning packet. This homemade chili seasoning will be enough to season one 6 serving batch of chili, or a batch of chili that uses one pound of ground beef or ground turkey.
Brown the ground beef or ground turkey first, drain the excess fat if needed, then add the homemade chili seasoning. Continue to sauté the seasoning with the beef for about a minute more, which will toast the spices and make them a bit more pronounced. Continue making your chili by adding diced tomatoes, beans, or whatever else you prefer (see my Easy Chili Recipe).
In addition to making a big pot of warm and comforting homemade chili, you can add this chili seasoning to vegetables, meat, or fish before roasting or grilling (check out my Chili Roasted Potatoes), or even sprinkle a little into your mac and cheese. I mean, what can’t you do with chili seasoning?!
Homemade Chili Seasoning
Servings 1 recipeIngredients
- 1 Tbsp chili powder
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp approximately freshly ground pepper
Instructions
- Add all of the ingredients to a bowl and stir to combine. Store in an air-tight container, away from heat and moisture for up to six months.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Notes
Nutrition
What is “chili powder”?
Chili powder is a blend of spices used to season chili, which is commonly sold pre-mixed in the United States. So, in effect, you could use just that alone to season your pot of chili, but my homemade chili seasoning takes it up a few notches.
Chili powder can vary in heat from brand to brand, so make sure to give yours a taste before making your chili. If the chili powder you are using is spicy, you can reduce or eliminate the cayenne pepper from this recipe.
The chili powder pictured above (Kroger brand) is spicy, as the label indicates, but not every brand is nice enough to let you know ahead of time if their blend is spicy. If you’re looking for a mild, not-spicy blend, check out McCormick’s chili powder. They also make a “hot Mexican” chili powder, which is quite spicy.
Can You Use Taco Seasoning for Chili?
They’re quite similar, but not exactly the same. For my Homemade Taco Seasoning, I use a slightly smokier blend of spices and add a little oregano. I do think you could use them interchangeably in a pinch, if needed, but prefer this slightly more simple blend for chili.
What is the Best Secret Ingredient for Chili?
The answer to this is subjective, of course, but in addition to your basic homemade chili seasoning you can add some fun “secret ingredients’ to your chili. Here are some fun secret ingredients for chili:
- Cocoa powder or dark chocolate, which gives an earthy flavor
- Beer: light Mexican or dark beer, like Guinness
- Brown sugar or molasses (sweet makes a great contrast to spicy!)
- Cinnamon, goes nicely with savory flavors as well as sweet!
- Red wine (for beef chili)
- Coffee or espresso (similar to cocoa, this provides a deep earthiness)
What are your favorite chili seasonings? Share in the comments below!
Used a little brown sugar and a a half a cup of dark chocolate chips with double batch of spices and added a half cup of Jack Daniels at the end. 10 cups of Astronomical Chili. Served with Sour Cream and Goat Cheddar Cheese
Is this recipe equivalent to 1 chilli packet?
Yes roughly one packet. Per the recipe above, it’s good for one pot of chili.
It’s was zero degrees and I needed a chili seasonsing mix and this fit perfectly for making Sunday dinner.
I’ve just begun making seasonings from spices at home and this was a great recipe with lots of flavor. We went heavy on the heat as we like chili with a bit of a kick. Thank you!
Thanks Marcia!
Literally beat spice blend I e ever used! So delicious!
Thanks Angie!
I am (slower than I like) moving away from prepackaged foods and seasonings; especially seasonings. I am 125 pounds over weight; high blood pressure and high risk for heart disease, thus i am removing salt from my diet as much as possible (and adding in healthier options).
I finally got some of my peppers growing this year and next year will have a much larger selection of homegrown seasonings; so I came looking for basic season mixes. Yours sounds absolutely delicious and it is being made today for ten people.
THANK YOU
Thank you Daniel!
Good luck, Daniel. I’m on a similar journey and low salt can be hard. I’m on a taco and chili binge right now. I use the chili and taco mix without salt (started half and half) and use 7% fat ground turkey and drain the fat out. Makes great meals. – Sandy
Just what I needed. Thank you!
I found this recipe by googling Gluten free chili seasoning. I made it and my chili turned out amazing! I can’t use the spice packets anymore because of bad food allergies, so this recipe will be used from now on. Note to self: Use less cayenne pepper, lol. The heat tasted good, but less next time. Thank you!
Happy you found us Jennifer!
Same scenario here. Started to make Chili and realized I didn’t have a packet of Chili spices. Used your recipe and it was a hit. No more packets for me
That’s fantastic!
Wanted to make chili but didn’t a chili packet and too lazy to go the market. This is a great recipe. I substituted a bit by adding a bit of ketchup and sautéing onions because didn’t have onion powder. Like the idea of adding cocoa powder, hmmmmm
Happy to hear it worked!
I like! My secret ingredients are cocoa powder and cinnamon, not too much. No one should know they are in there. Just enough to round out the earthy flavours.
How much do you use of each?
Royetta – I had no chili seasoning pack and searched for a seasoning recipe. I tried this one and it was awesome! My husband likes a little sweet to his chili so all I added was a little sugar to the recipe.. Thank You
My husband is diabetic and store bought always contain sugar, this is a life saver! Chilli is back in the menu and is.delicious
Use Truvia sweetner as a substitute. I have been using it for several years now and love it.
Vantast. This helps those of us that are sodium shy.
I too normal use the chili pack but realized I didn’t have one when making a batch of chill, so searched homemade chili seasoning and for this recipe ( all ingredients on hand). I am eased to say no more store bought packs for me!!!!