The Texas BBQ Forum

I have decided to make Mrs Coates winning chili recipe for 1991. However I do NOT want to use McCormic
products and some things seem to be reduntant in the recipe.

Problem: Getting the spices and understanding why.

In her recipe (Step Two).

It calls for 2 tbsp of McCormick "Mexican Hot Chili powder" and
2 tbsp of McCormick Texas Style Chili powder".
When I look up these two, they are chili powder mix's, not just ground chili's.

In her recipe (Step Three).

It says to add 1tbsp of Chili powder. No brand just Chili powder.

QUESTION: All 3 of these "Chili powders" are "chili powder mixs", just plain good Chili powder mix.

So, in all 3 of these steps, what should 1 do? Just add a good chili powder mix in all "3 callings" and forget the names she mentioned or what? Was she trying to hide the actual recipe? very confused!

My 2 cents:

Chili powder is a blend, chile powder is pure chile powder, although you still need to know the type. Almost every Chili Powder (at least the ones you find in the grocery store) is a blended product, however some are dark, some light, hot, mild...ect. Most have small amounts of other spices too like, garlic, onion..ect.

-> Mrs Coast didn't share all the secrets of her recipe as he type of chili or chile powder is very important to the final taste. She left out the most important parts ha ha.

I would just pick a couple and experiment, Penderys is a great place to shop online. San Antonio Red, Ft Worth Light and Penderys Original are very popular. All of those are still blends. Gebhardts is another great blend. Blends provide consistency because pure chiles tend to vary from crop to crop - you have prolly noticed some jalapenos are hot, others are mild. In any case they will be much more flavorful than what you get off a grocery store shelf due to quality and freshness.

Experiment with some quality blends, you love the results.

If you find Gebhardts your lucky CONAGRA Foods stopped production in Jan. I buy Pods and grind my own In a Coffee grinder to get the heat and flavor I want.
If you like Gebhardts heres a clone it is too close to call:

Gebhardts Chili Powder

1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
2 tablespoon paprika
2 tablespoons ground cumin
1 tablespoon Mexican oregano
2 tabelspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons ancho chili powder
2 teaspoons NM chili powder

Directions:

Mix all ingredients. Store in a sealed container

San Antonio Red from Penderys is a close match to Gebhardts.

I found Gebhardts Chili Powder at the store tonight...at Walmart no less...I bought two bottles

Check these folks out. They're big time chili heads.

http://www.mildbills.com/

E Town wrote:Check these folks out. They're big time chili heads.

http://www.mildbills.com/

I love the mild bills products. Delivery is fast also
I always stay stocked up on
1. Ancho chile powder
2. New Mexico hot chile powder
3. San Antonio red
4. Cadillac cowgirl chili powder
5. Mexene chili powder
6. Jalapeño powder, A very good ingredient to add if you like it. This stuff is Hott