Homemade chili powder is easy to toss together. Cheap chili powders often include modified food starch, sugars, and MSG, and non-organic chili powder is usually irradiated. That’s bad.
Make chili powder with no fillers or scary stuff with this simple recipe. You probably already have everything you need to make homemade chili powder in your pantry! Modify the ingredients to your own taste, obviously. (I use a tablespoon of cayenne instead of a teaspoon.) Scroll down a bit for the recipe if you don’t need any clean eating on a budget tips, or just Pin it to read later.
I’ve added Amazon links to bulk organic spices in the recipe. You can buy a ridiculous stockpile of organic spices on Amazon way cheaper than at Whole Foods and exponentially cheaper than buying tiny 1–4 oz bottles at the grocery store every few weeks. A pound of cayenne may seem excessive, but you’ll save money in the long run.
However, most of us are not about to spend $120 on bulk spices in one go! As usual, I’ve done the nerdy math so you don’t have to. To compare how much I save by buying bulk spices, I figured the cost per ounce of each bulk spice, and multiplied that cost per ounce by the normal weight of a small bottle of each spice. (I used the small bottle weight from the Simply Organic brand sold at Kroger stores.) Always double check that the price per pound of a normal spice (i.e. not saffron) is around $15; Amazon sellers sometimes jack up prices wildly. (That’s why I always check my Subscribe and Save order before it ships!)
If I had to pick one spice to start with, I’d buy:
- Paprika, because it’s the largest ingredient by volume in this recipe.
- Cayenne, because hot peppers are sprayed with particularly nasty pesticides, so cayenne is a great start when you want to upgrade to organic.
- Tumeric, because even the stupid FDA has issued a warning about imported tumeric because of the elevated lead content; several brands subsequently recalled tumeric. No lead has been found in organic tumeric. If you don’t have organic tumeric, just omit it in this recipe.
These would be the prices of small spice bottles at the grocery store if you could pay the Amazon bulk spice price for the small bottles. Could you buy a small bottle of any of these organic spices at your grocery store for these prices? (If so, please share your store in the comments!)
- Paprika $2.58
- Garlic powder $3.17
- Onion powder $1.77
- Cayenne $2.66
- Cumin $2.13
- Tumeric $2.00
- Allspice $3.83
- Oregano $0.58
[Affiliate links are provided for your convenience, and they usually point you to Amazon products I love—with free shipping! Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial
Homemade Chili Powder Recipe
Makes about 2 oz of chili powder. I use this in my homemade enchilada sauce—recipe here: Organic Easy Enchiladas Recipe and Homemade Organic Enchilada Sauce Recipe
- 1/2 cup paprika
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp cayenne
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp tumeric (always buy organic due to lead issue in tumeric)
- pinch of allspice
- pinch of oregano
Pin it so you’ll always have the chili powder recipe handy:
More Clean Eating on a Budget Tips:
The Clean Eating Secret Nobody Tells You
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30 Minute Meal Prep 1: Grilled Chicken Salad
Would You Pay 81 Cents to Avoid the Dirty Dozen? Going Organic at Winco
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