For the past 20 years or so, on and off, I’ve been hanging out with a group of friends during happy hour and playing Buzztime trivia at local pubs in the area. Various people have come and gone from this group over the years, but we’ve always had a core group of eight of us who’ve been together since the beginning. Two of them were my buddy Wayne and his wife Dorothy, two retirees from Texarkana, TX.
Occasionally one of us would cook up a batch of his/her specialty dish and bring a bunch of it to share with the group. Wayne’s specialty was his chili. He would always bring some for all of us whenever he made it, and it was always delicious, but for some dumb reason he would never reveal the recipe. Idk why it’s not like he owned a restaurant and that was on the menu but that was just his thing. But it was really good chili, best I’ve ever had in fact, and I really love chili.
Wayne had been living with bladder cancer for the past couple of years and we thought he was in remission a couple of times and was going to beat it. Sadly, his condition worsened toward the end of 2019 and he passed away earlier this year about a month into the lockdown. He was a good guy who is terribly missed.
On a positive note, a couple months ago I brought his widow a batch of my bean soup which she and Wayne used to love, and out of the blue she busted out Wayne’s chili recipe. She told me that Wayne had meant to give it to me but never got around to it. She also said it was mostly a gag that he was keeping it “secret” and to feel free to share it with whomever I wanted, just to make sure to dedicate the first batch I made to him, which I gladly did when I finally got around to making it yesterday.
Anyway, without further ado I give you Wayne’s Texas-style Chili:
1- large white onion, chopped
2- large bell peppers, chopped
4- lbs. hamburger meat
24- Oz. beef broth
3- 14 Oz. cans tomato sauce
3- 14 Oz. cans diced tomatoes
2- cans Rotel tomatoes
3- packets McCormick’s chili mix
1- packet Old El Paso taco seasoning
Cayenne pepper, crushed red pepper, salt, black pepper (Wayne’s handwritten quantity on all of these four items was “handful” lol obviously this means different things to different people depending on the hand, I used [2] tablespoons of each)
Combine the ingredients in a large pot. Brown the hamburger meat, drain and add. Simmer on low heat for 2-3 hours until onions and peppers are fully cooked, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking. This will make a lot of chili so be prepared to eat it for days, or have a lot of people in mind to give away to who like chili, or have freezer space to save leftovers.
It was fantastic, but spicy 
! If you prefer less heat, I’d suggest using mild Rotel tomatoes and cutting back or cutting out altogether the cayenne and crushed red pepper.
Mine turned out great! I think old Wayne would have approved.
