Gluten-Free Mild Chili Powder Recipe: You Control the Spice

Give an authentic southwest tex-mex flavor using this hearty blend of spices to create your own mild chili powder. Best of all, you can control the spice level. Great for seasoning meats, beans, and sauces and it’s naturally gluten-free.

I love the flavor added by a mild chili powder, but we have yet to find one that really satisfies, so Jeff made his own.

Today, I am happy to say Jeff has agreed to share his (no longer) secret mild chili powder recipe with the world.

It’s so easy it barely seems worth writing about. However, it enhances our flavor enough that we can barely keep a jar around. We go through it so fast.

This mild chili powder blend ticks all of the boxes

• Gluten-free, vegan, paleo-friendly, and keto-safe
• Easy to make when you need, or in advance and store for regular use
• Uses only four ingredients (plus two more optional ones)
• Prepared from common spices already in my pantry
• Gives the chef complete control over the level of spice

What you need to make chili powder

• Ground cumin
• Oregano
• Sweet paprika
• Smoked paprika

If you want to add a kick, optional adds include:

• Cayenne pepper
• Chipotle powder

Health benefits of the spices

Disclaimer: Statements regarding health benefits are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or health condition.

Cumin may lower cholesterol, help control blood sugar, improve memory, reduce inflammation, and improve digestion. Source: Healthline.

Oregano has anti-inflammatory properties and, according to Organic Facts may also aid in digestion and relieve depression.

Paprika, as well as cayenne and chipotle, contain capsaicin (found in peppers) that has been found to improve natural immunity, alleviate gas, and reduce risk of heart disease and certain cancers. Source: WebMD.

How to make our mild chili powder

This recipe is all about proportions. In the recipe card below, we added specific measurements that will yield about 7 servings (or one pot of our favorite Tex-Mex meat and bean chili).

However, more or less can be accomplished using these simple proportions. In this case, one unit is any measure you choose (teaspoon, tablespoon, cup, etc.) as long as you use the same unit for calculating each spice.

• Ground cumin – 1 unit.
• Oregano – 1.5 units
• Sweet paprika – 3 units
• Smoked paprika – 2 units

To spice it up*:

• Medium level achieved with adding ¼ unit of either cayenne or chipotle.
• Hot level achieved with adding ½ unit of either cayenne or chipotle.
• Firey hot level achieved with adding 1 unit of either cayenne or chipotle.

*Choose cayenne for a more piquant flavor or chipotle if you want to enhance the smokey flavor.

Simply mix the spices together in the proper proportions. That’s it. So easy.

Serving and storage suggestions

As we love the flavor, we tend to use it in lots of recipes. However, we did originally create it for our meat and bean chili, but also love it in our Mexican fried rice or in our shakshuka recipe.

Storage

Importantly, while you can make this one as you need it, we generally make this in advance and store it in a spice container on our spice rack.

Unfortunately, we don’t know how long it lasts, as we use it too quickly. We have made large batches that held their flavor for about 8 months before we used it all up. We imagine it would last much longer.

Too lazy to make your own mild chili powder?

It doesn’t get much easier than this recipe, but for those who really can’t be bothered, we don’t mind this mexi-blend.

Our mild chili powder recipe

This recipe was contributed by Jeff Albom.

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Will you make your own mild chili powder?

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