The elements of a chili powder blend. (c) Taz on Flicker*
(Robin:) Are chili powder and ground chile the same thing?
The short answer is a resounding NO. While they both add flavor and “heat” to a recipe, chili powder and ground chile are very different things, and it’s important to know the difference. The two ingredients are definitely not interchangeable in recipes.
Chili Powder
Chili powder (or chilli powder) is a mix of ground dried hot peppers (often including the cayenne variety) with salt and other spices and/or herbs (usually cumin, garlic, and maybe onion and oregano). The recipe varies, as does the piquancy of the blend, depending on the ingredients used and the proportions of each. The commercial brands all use their own particular formulations, and you will see the ingredients on the label. You can also make your own mix at home, thus controlling what goes into it.
Despite what many people assume, this ingredient is not a part of authentic Mexican cooking. You will find it in the cuisines of the southwest United States, such as Tex-Mex and New Mexican. One of chili powder’s main ingredients is ground cumin, which is little used in Mexico itself; whole—often toasted—cumin seeds are the norm in that country for dishes calling for the herb.
Traditional chili powder is most often used to make what is known as chili con carne or chili soup, a southwestern dish made with ground beef and pureed tomatoes, with or without beans. (See my recipe for Autumn Vegetable Chili.) It is infrequently used in the preparation of other dishes (soups, dips, marinades, etc.)
In recent decades, other chili powder “specialty blends” have been developed and marketed for a variety of uses, such as seasoning grilled or stewed meats or poultry.
Ground chipotle pepper. / (c) Spice Sherpa on Flickr**
Ground Chile
Ground chile (or ground chilli or ground chili pepper or powdered chile pepper) is simply that: pulverized dried hot peppers, with nothing else in the mix. Most familiar to the majority of readers will be ground cayenne pepper, but others are becoming more and more available. It is not too hard nowadays to find ground piquin (also called pequin) pepper or ground chipotle or ancho chile, either in the spice section or the Hispanic aisle of large supermarkets or in little Mexican stores. You can, of course, make your own by simply pulverizing dried hot peppers.
Since ground chile is 100% hot pepper, it adds much more “heat” to recipes than chili powder (which is hot pepper combined with and diluted by other elements). Be careful when using this ingredient; you can always add more, if you need to, but it is difficult to walk a dish back from “too spicy” to palatable.
Ground chile is used occasionally in authentic Mexican cuisine, although the whole peppers (fresh or dried) are much more common.
Jicama prepared in the common Mexican way with lime, salt, and ground chile. / (c) Nikchick/Flickr cc***
Some Common Varieties of Ground Chile (and What They Are Used For)
Cayenne: The cayenne pepper is usually long, thin, and red, and is quite spicy. It can be used fresh, but is very often dried and ground to make powdered cayenne pepper, which then becomes an ingredient in cuisines around the world, from South America to Louisiana to India and beyond. Cayenne is often what is used when combining hot pepper with chocolate, making what has become known in some circles as “Mexican chocolate.”
Paprika: This is basically dried ground red pepper. It can be smoked or not. Most paprika sold in the United States is very mild, which is why this spice is used as a garnish to fancy up light-colored foods such as deviled eggs and cooked cauliflower. Much spicier/richer paprikas do exist, however, and they are common in kitchens in Spain, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe (where Hungarian paprika forms part of that country’s most famous dishes).
Piquin (or pequin): These small and very piquant peppers are common in the kitchens of southern Mexico and parts of Central America. When they are dried and ground, they are often used in Mexican cuisine—together with salt and lime juice—to add flavor and heat to raw foods for snacking; for example, these elements are sprinkled on potato chips (other, similar crispy fried snacks) or fresh cut fruits and veggies such as mango, pineapple, jicama, cucumber, melon, etc.
Ancho and Chipotle: These moderately spicy dried peppers are very common in authentic Mexican cooking, used whole or chopped for their distinctive flavors in stews, soups, and sauces. Ancho chiles are dried poblano peppers, while chipotles are dried, smoked jalapeños. The ground version of these chiles is not common in Mexico itself, but they are becoming increasingly easy to find in North American supermarkets. Ground ancho and/or chipotle chile can be used quite successfully to add piquancy and depth of flavor to many Latin-inspired cooked dishes.
Full photo credits:
*Chili powder blend: (c) Taz/Flickr, Creative Commons 2.0 license, no modifications made
**Ground chipotle chile: (c) Spice Sherpa/Flickr, Creative Commons 2.0 license, no modifications made
***Prepared jicama: (c) Nikchick/Flickr, Creative Commons 2.0 license, no modifications made
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