Mom's Texas Red Chili With a Kiss of Smoke

I have been making chili for over 45 years now with little or no measuring.I guess you could call it a dump Chili thus the name Chuck Wagon. In the 6 recipes here, I'll be using both leftover and fresh meat that I cut into large chunks. All of our recipes have step by step pictures to show you just how "Easy" they are to make these chilis on your grill. I was torn between doing original Chili which I will give you some history on or just a plain good Chili that is more common today. The first recorded recipes for chili date back to the 1800's with the Chili Queens of San Antonio. Chili con Carne translates into peppers and meat. Chili then was made by the poorest of the poor who had little or nothing in which to make their Chili. They used the toughest meats and whatever peppers and seasonings they could find. Chili in the 1800's contained no tomatoes for that time in history they were considered poisonous. My chili is close to that long-ago recipe. But not quite as I use a lot of peppers and I added little tomato and lots of garlic. Chili Con Carne is often known simply as chili. The name chili con carne is a slight corruption of the Spanish language chili con carne, which means chili (peppers) with meat. The essential ingredients are meat and chili pepper. That's it.... There is no right or wrong way to make chili. Keep in mind that it's history is that it was made by the poorest or the poor using what ever they had.You'll hear folks yelling about "You can't add beans to Real Chili" or "Real Chili has beans".There is "No Chili Police".The beauty of chili is that you can make it how ever you like it!Chili is like salsa, everybody's grandmother has her own recipe that they think is the best they've had...It's just chili, you can't hurt it....