[dafischer]

My only two rules about making chili:
1. No beans added during cooking, as the starch in the beans mucks up the flavor of the chili. I serve it over a small helping of beans warmed seperately.
2. Never use ground beef, always use cubed Angus chuck. When chili was first made, there certainly wasn't a supply of ground beef on the chuck wagon.

I use chili spice "kits" available from various spice vendors, such as Penzey's or Pendery's, and go from there. I add beer, chicken broth, tomato sauce, canned stewed tomatoes (after a shot in the blender), chipotles in adobo, various hot sauces, red & green pepper, onions, and habanero pepper. I usually cook it for 2 1/2 - 3 hours, and the meat is super tender.
It always gets rave reviews from our guests.
YMMV.