Is Your Chili Powder a Standout?

Healthy sounding food labels can fool you.  Even seemingly straight forward labels are sometimes not what they seem.  Take chili powder.  When you buy chili powder you don’t always know what type of chili was used or where the chili was grown.  It is often a mix of chili types.  Santa Fe chili powder is different than the chili powders often used in Indian foods which is different than the chili powders used in Mexican food.  The list of unique chili powders is long.

Unique to Mexican dishes is a chili powder called ancho chili powder.  Ancho chili powder is crafted from 100% dried poblanos. Tasting ancho chili powder will immediately send you into the flavor profile of great Mexican food. Don’t believe me?  You can test it out for yourself as making ancho chili powder is pretty easy.  Buy some poblano chili peppers… remove the stems and seeds and then grind the remaining.  Boom.  Ancho chili powder.  Or, look in the store for pre-ground varieties. 

All that said, ancho chili powder does not bring a great deal of “heat”. It can be pretty subtle but clearly can contribute to an overall flavor profile that will bring a culinary grin to your face.