A Birthday and Old Dogs (Chili Powder, Chili and Lime Chicken)

Last Wednesday was my 54^th birthday and I had a bit of a revelation.  I suppose you could start the jokes about old dogs and new tricks.  You see, I’ve always insisted on blending my own spices.  When I need herbes de Provence, I go to the garden or in winter, blended the herbs we dried from Cathy’s summer plot.  Szechwan pepper salt was always around to season Chinese fried chicken.  For paté, duck confit and rillettes, we have a house blend of quatre épices.  Well then, why have I never made my own chili powder?   

There may be a number of valid reasons.  You could put it off to laziness.  That’s where my daughter would go first and she might be right.  I tend towards sloth unless properly motivated.  I’d prefer to treat myself more charitably and suggest that commercial chili powders can be quite good when fresh.  It’s when they sit around that they get a funky, acrid, flat flavor.  Part of the excuse is that only in the past few years have high quality dried chilies become affordable and easily obtained.  Most likely, I just never thought of it.  Lots of stuff slips by these days.

What happened is that I am preparing to teach a Mexican cooking class.  After looking back on all the Mexican food that I’ve enjoyed over the years and remembering the lessons that I learned from innumerable Latino colleagues, after going back to Rick and Deann Bayless’ encyclopedic Authentic Mexican, after a shot of really cheap tequila to forget Rachael Ray’s cheddar ranch waffles with spicy chicken, I realized that I needed play with spices in a different way if I wanted to cook respectable Mexican food.  In that type of cooking, flavors are built by marination, searing and complex spicing, something that I am used to as a French chef, but the techniques are different enough that I’d have to pay attention to get authentic results.

The first step would be to do what every good cook does, try to control every variable in the preparation.  Making chili powder, an individualistic batch of seasoning, would be essential.  I settled on a reasonably uncomplicated mix of three chilies with black pepper, salt and cumin.  As always, there is a bit of technique to pay attention to, but beyond that, this is an easy recipe that results in a chili powder that has bright, vibrant flavor, mild aromatics and a rich complex chili hit that is not so spicy that it will overwhelm your food.  This is the stuff that certainly would have set Cool Hand Luke on the road to freedom.  And an old dog has learned a new trick.

Chili Powder (about 3 cups)

6 Ancho dried chilies

6 Pasilla dried chilies

8 Guajillo dried chilies

1 tbs. cumin seed

1 tbs. black pepper, coarsely ground

2 tsp. kosher salt

In a large, heavy sauté pan, toast the cumin seeds over a medium heat for five minutes while stirring constantly.  The cumin will begin to brown and may pop.  Transfer the seeds to a food processor.  Add the salt and black pepper.  Process on high speed for am minute, until finely ground.

Using the same sauté pan on medium heat, toast the chilies in batches until they begin to color, only about a minute per side.  Press down on each of the chilies with the back of a spatula, so that most of their surface browns.  Move the toasted chilies to baking sheet to cool.

Carefully remove the stem and the seeds from the chilies.  It is unlikely that you will get all the seeds, but don’t worry.  Break the chilies into roughly 1 inch squares.  Put them into the food processor with the other seasonings.  Process until the chilies have powdered, at least 10 minutes.  Store in an airtight jar.  Shake before using to remix the chilies, cumin, salt and pepper.

*This method will not produce chili powder that is as fine as the commercial variety.  If you want finer chili powder, sift the processed mixture through a fine strainer, and then return the coarse chilies to the processor for more chopping.

Try this easy recipe.  Cut up a frying chicken into 8 pieces.  Marinate the chicken for 1 hour in the juice of 2 limes, 2 chopped garlic cloves, 4 tbs. of olive oil and  3 tbs. of your freshly made chili powder.  Broil or grill the chicken pieces as usual.