Homemade Chili Seasoning Mix

Making your own homemade chili seasoning is so easy and so much better than many of the store-bought pouches. It uses ground spices that you probably already have in your pantry and you can customize them to your taste. Once you make your own chili blend at home and see how delicious it is, you will never buy store-bought again.

Homemade Spice Mix For Chili

We make a lot of chili in our house from our Dutch Oven chili, and brisket chili to our Texas chili (which uses real chile peppers) and we never get sick of it. For years I did buy those chili seasoning blends at the store because I did not know how easy it could be to make at home.

About 5 years ago, I began making my own homemade chili seasoning and it is so much better than those packet blends. I am going to share our favorite chili seasoning blend with you along with tips to adjust the seasoning blend to your taste. Trust me, this will really elevate your chili game.

This chili seasoning recipe makes enough for one large pot of chili with one pound of ground beef.

What You Will Need

• Chili powder. This gives a deep rich flavor. Chili powder (not chile powder with an "e").
• Sweet paprika. This gives a wonderful sweet background.
• Ground cumin. This is the classic chili flavor in chili.
• Kosher salt.
• Garlic powder. Make sure it is not garlic salt.
• Onion powder.
• Cayenne pepper. If you like your chili spicy, go ahead and add more.
• Black Pepper

How To Make Homemade Chili Seasoning

For this chili seasoning recipe, just add all of the spices to a small bowl and mix well. This is so easy and has such big rewards in terms of flavor.

• Add spices to a bowl
• Mix well
• Use right away or store in an air-tight container for up to 3 months.

This chili seasoning recipe makes enough for one pot of chili with one pound of ground beef which is perfect for my family of four. If you want to make more so you have extra for another night, you can easily double or triple the recipe.

How To Adjust The Spices

I wanted to write this section so that you can learn how to adjust the different spices in homemade chili seasoning to suit your taste. In addition to individual tastes, sometimes the tomatoes used in chili are more acidic or a little sweeter, depending on the year, season or who manufactures them.

This will impact the flavor of the chili causing you to need to add or take away spices. Here is what I have learned from making my own seasoning at home and balancing it out:

• Chili powder and sweet paprika: These two spices should always be increased together. If your chili is missing that classic chili flavor, it probably needs more chili powder. Make sure to also add a little more paprika to balance out the bitterness of the chili powder.
• Cumin (ground coriander): If your chili is tasting too tomatoey (if that is a word), try adding in a little more of this. It adds a wonderful depth of flavor and a classic chili taste.
• Kosher salt: Tomatoes really absorb lots of salt, make sure to add enough to really wake up the flavors of the chili and the tomatoes.
• Garlic powder and onion powder: I have almost never needed to adjust these two spices. Usually, when the chili tastes like it is missing something, it will be one of the spices listed above.

Flavor Variations

Chili seasoning is only one way to add amazing flavor to chili. You can add so much depth of flavor to this classic dish by adding in some of these:

• Add chocolate: I love adding a little dark chocolate or cocoa powder for depth of flavor.
• Make it smokey: Try using smoked paprika instead of sweet for a smoky flavor.
• Add herbs: A little oregano adds a delicious flavor to the chili.
• Masa Harina. Masa is a natural thickener and great for making a thick chili. It also imparts an earthy flavor. If you need to thicken your chili and do not have this, you can also use a butter and flour thickener to thicken the chili.

Ways to use chili seasoning

There are of course other uses for this homemade seasoning blend if you want to double the recipe and have some on hand for another meal. Here are my favorite uses:

• Stovetop chili recipe
• To season hamburger patties
• Seasoning Seared pork chops.
• A little sprinkle over roasted cauliflower and potatoes.
• Or anything else that needs a little boost of flavor.

Storing

If you would like to make a larger amount of this chili seasoning and store some for a later date, just make sure to store the chili seasoning in an air-tight container and keep it in the pantry.

Dried spices like this stay fresh for up to one year. After, you will start to lose some of the potency of the spices.

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