• 10 to 15 pounds of chuck...unless you can find a cheaper, fattier cut of beef somewhere, in which case, use that.
• 4 cloves elephant garlic
• 1 pint water
• ¼ cup dark, extra virgin olive oil
• 1 dozen fresh cubanelle peppers (more, if you like your chili temperate or sweet)
• ½ dozen fresh jalapeno peppers (more if you like your chili hot)
• 3 dried cayenne peppers
• 1 large fresh habanero pepper (green if you're looking for serious throat-scorchingly hot chili, othewise, fully ripe golden-orange)
• 1 Hungarian Wax Pepper
• 2 or 3 Portuguese hot peppers, roasted till black and nearly crispy
• 3 small, dried hot Thai red peppers
• 5 large white onions
• 4 or 5 plum tomatoes (feel free to leave these out – they are mostly for color)
• 6+ tablespoons Tones dark chili powder §
• 3+ tablespoons cumin §
• 1 tablespoon coarsely-ground black pepper
• 1½ cup yellow cornmeal
• 1 pound thickly sliced bacon, cut into 1" squares
• Optionally, a few of any other kinds of chili peppers you might find in the garden , the produce store or wherever you aquire your goodies. When it comes to adding variety and character to your chili, anything from the capsicum family is OK! But no beans, dammit!

§ It should be noted that the "+" following the amounts of chili powder and cumin is quite variable, according to taste. I usually end up with upwards of 10 tablespoons of chili powder and at least 4 or 5 of cumin.

Cooking Instructions

1. Trim any fat thicker than ¼" or so from the beef, then cube the beef (½" to 1")
2. Press the garlic and sauté it with a few pieces of the fat cut from the beef. If you don't have any fat trimmed from the beef, you bought too expensive a cut of meat. Go to jail...go directly to jail...do not pass go, and do not collect $200. Add another half-pound of bacon to the recipe to make up for the dryness. Toss a couple strips into the pan now to get things rolling, then add a strip or two every half hour or so as the pot stews. Don't let it happen again next time. When the garlic has browned nicely, leave it and the drippings in the pan and discard any remaining solid fat.
3. Crank the heat up a bit and brown the beef cubes in the frying pan with the sautéed garlic. Don't worry about the garlic burning–it's supposed to.
4. Put the water, the olive oil, the browned beef cubes, the burnt garlic and the drippings from frying into a large, covered pot, set on low heat. A crock pot's OK, but I prefer a big old enameled pot set on a heat dispersing grate over the lowest setting I can get the burner to on the gas range. Scrape every last bit of burnt stuff out of the pan and get it into the chili pot. It adds character to the chili.
5. Peel and dice 3 onions. Add to pot.
6. Finely chop all peppers (food processor is fine) except a few cubanelle and the blackened Portuguese. Add to pot.
7. Puree or mash tomatoes. Add to pot.
8. Mix cumin, black pepper and 4 tablespoons of the chili powder into the pot.
9. Simmer (loosely covered) for 2 hours (stirring occasionally), then mix in cornmeal and 2 more tablespoons of chili powder.
10. While chili pot simmers, fry the bacon. Half of it should be burnt to a pleasing, black crisp, the remainder should be barely browned.
11. Allow to simmer (still covered) at least 4 to 5 more hours. Taste occasionally, adding additional chili powder and cumin to taste. It’s chili when it’s impossible to pick a piece of meat out of the pot without it falling into shreds, but the longer you can stand to cook it instead of eating it, the better it will be.
12. Approximately ½ hour before serving, dice the remaining onion and chilies and add them, along with the bacon, to the pot. Stir in thoroughly with a large fork, shredding any remaining chunks of beef as you stir.
13. If the chili seems too liquid, leave the cover off and raise temperature slightly for a half-hour or so. If too thick, you didn’t use enough peppers and onions … add some now and increase the simmering time. You can adjust viscosity with cornmeal or water if pressed for time, but simmering adjustments are better.

You'll also find this chili to be superb as the primary flavor-maker in a casserole of brown rice and orzo, with Monterey Jack melted in and topped with broccoli.
For a special occasion, use it instead of tomato sauce and meat in your favorite lasagna recipe!

Or how about chili-stuffed bell peppers? Chili-filled pierogis? Chili-pot-pie , anyone? They are ALL delicious.