Chuck Wagon Chili

Sizzling Skillets & Other One Pot Wonders, by Emeril Lagasse

Of course, when my husband is given the opportunity to pick a recipe he beelines for the chili. Not to mention, we need to perfect a recipe (with a 'je ne sais quois') for a Thanksgiving weekend chili cookoff. In my opinion, what made this dish was the meat. Kevin picked up a beautiful cut of boneless short rib meat already cut into stew-sized chunks. He prepared the meat while I chopped and diced the veggies, prepared the beans and sorted out the dozen or so herbs and spices that went into this recipe. after searing off the meat and cooking down some of the vegetables, we methodically mixed in the remaining ingredients. Kevin happily glugged a bottle of dark beer into the mixture (and another into his belly). 
As usual, Emeril surprised me with the addition of several spices I wouldn't normally use in a chili recipe-- cinnamon and cumin to name two. And in the end, I could actually taste hints of both. We let it slow cook as long as we could humanly hold out. It smelled divine! It was traditional enough tasting, but with a few unexpected flavors that made it unique. It was even better the next day. 
This was the last recipe we made and this was the most traditional slow cooked recipe I made from Sizzling Skillets... truly a one-pot wonder... well, maybe two if you count the frying pan in which we seared the meat.