Chili powder

One US cup of chili powder weighs between 94.6 and 128 grams (3.3 to 4.5 ounces), depending on how the cup is filled and which source measured it. Use 128 grams (4.5 ounces) as USDA weighs a tablespoon. Every figure behind it is below, with the method each source used.

Also called chilli powder, chili seasoning powder, American chili powder, chili powder blend, mild chili powder.

A teaspoon of chili powder weighs between 2 and 2.7 g, and a cup between 95 and 128 g (3.3 to 4.5 oz). USDA's 2.7 g teaspoon is the working figure. Chili powder is a blend, and how much salt, garlic and cumin a brand puts in moves its weight.

American chili powder is not ground chile alone. It is a blend of ground dried chiles with cumin, oregano, garlic powder and often salt, made for chili con carne, tacos, enchiladas and rubs. Ground single chiles, such as ancho or cayenne, are sold separately; this page covers the American blend.

USDA's record for chili powder weighs a teaspoon at 2.7 g and a tablespoon at 8 g, 128 g a cup. Chef's Resources, a foodservice table, gives chili powder at 3.76 oz per cup, 106.6 g. A Japanese site that photographs spoonfuls on a scale weighs a level teaspoon at 2 g and a tablespoon at 6 g, 94.6 g a cup. The sources span 35%, past the 10% this site allows for spices, so the page publishes the range with USDA's figure as the working figure.

Labels sit inside the range. McCormick prints a quarter teaspoon at 0.6 g and Signature Select at 0.5 g, 96 to 115 g a cup, but a quarter teaspoon rounded to a tenth of a gram carries up to a tenth of rounding, so they are listed without figures. Penzeys' jar and bag sizes come to 125 to 142 g per cup of container; a powder settles in a jar, so a container weighs more than a spooned cup.

King Arthur Baking's chart has no chili powder row.

The physical check: the blend's own ingredients bracket the range. Ground paprika, the mildest ground chile, weighs 109 g a cup on this site, ground cumin about 96, and garlic powder and salt are heavier: garlic powder 127 to 155 g and table salt 292 g a cup. A blend that is mostly chile with some cumin and oregano lands near 100 to 110 g; one with salt and garlic among its first ingredients lands nearer 125 to 130. That is the spread the sources show, so the range reflects real differences between products rather than measuring error.

Practical guidance: use 2.7 g per teaspoon and 8 g per tablespoon of chili powder, and about 128 g per cup, or check your jar: if salt is among the first ingredients, the higher figure fits; a salt-free blend weighs closer to 2.2 g a teaspoon. For chili and taco meat measured by the spoon, the difference is mostly about salt and heat, so taste before adding more salt.