When you cast 'good but simple' into the equation,

by JohnKDM, Saturday, September 03, 2022, 12:58 (748 days ago) @ AaronB

I prefer to start with Carrol Shelby's chili kit. It has a separate bags of spices, masa flour, and cayenne pepper. Brown your meat, add (or not) onions, chunky Rotel, tomato juice, different beans, and spice to suit your target audience.

For my wife and I, this means browning venison with onion, then adding the bag of seasonings that comes with the kit, then our home canned chunky tomato (similar to Rotel with habs), black chili beans, red chili beans, mushrooms, enough tomato juice to achieve the desired consistancy, and after it simmers a while, the masa flour is added to a bit of water to dissolve it and added to the chili to thicken it.

It is quick, and tastes great. The good thing about chili is how it can be adjusted to your target audience, adding or subtracting to suit. We like the flavor habs provide, but some people will not touch it. My wife's sister thinks ketchup is spicy..