I won't be posting an official recipe, but more like a guideline to create awesome chili on your own. My crock pot is 5-6qt, so the quantities are made for that size, so adjust accordingly.
Meat: All of my chilies so far have included meat or meat and beans. I have used left over turkey from thanksgiving, pulled beef, and ground meats (turkey, chicken, pork, beef, sausage). I like to have my meat precooked because it lends to a less greasy chili. Using leftovers make that easy, but if I use ground meats, I will precook and drain the grease. If making chili with just meat, I use 2-3lbs of meat, if using beans I stick near 1 lb of meat.
Beans: I use canned beans in order to save time and to not have to measure. In a meat/bean combo I will use 2-3 cans of beans. I like to mix it up and use a can of kidney beans, white beans, and black beans. I always drain the beans before adding them to the pot. I do not like the liquid that comes in the cans.
Tomatoes: I use un-seasoned tomatoes (some are chili flavored). I use two of the large size cans of petite diced tomatoes. D enjoys the tomato chunks over just a tomato sauce. D also enjoys a thick chili, so I add small cans of tomato paste until the consistency is right. If I need to add more tomatoes to balance out the other ingredients, I will either add standard size cans of diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, or tomato paste. I keep multiple cans of all these on hand because I tend to vary the amount of other ingredients and never balance it the same way twice.
Fresh veggies: Depending on what is available at the store, I will add some fresh veggies. Mostly I will add one bell pepper and maybe some additional spicier peppers. D enjoys crying when eating his chili, so if the spicy chilies look good, I will add a few. Just a reminder, the smaller the pepper, the spicier the pepper. If I have room I will use fresh onion and garlic, but by this time, I typically am running out of space.
Vinegar: One thing I have learned is that a balance of vinegar gives the chili the right taste. I forgot it once and D noticed that something was wrong. Some people achieve this by adding ketchup, I choose to do it by adding chili sauce. This is not like some spicy chili puree, it is found in the ketchup isle (made by Heinz - or generic) and is called Chili Sauce. It is basically a flavored ketchup. I add the whole bottle. I add it during my tomato phase of making chili.
Spices: First and foremost I use chili powder. This is the foundation of making chili taste like chili and not tomato soup gone bad. I like to control the taste, which is why I don't use preflavored canned tomatoes. I also use a mild chili powder because I like the spice to be controlled either by fresh chilies or added spice later. If I run out of room for fresh onions and garlic, I will add the powdered versions now. I do not use garlic or onion salt. Once again, it might be a dual use product, but then I have no control over the salt content. Next, I will add black pepper, salt, and cumin. Usually I let the crock pot start cooking and mix and taste every 30-60 minutes. Once the chili has had time to let the flavors mix and come out, I will then make adjustments to the amount of chili powder, heat (cayenne pepper), salt, onion, garlic, whatever seems to be missing.
Add ingredients slowly and always keep tasting the chili to find out what you like or don't like.
Happy eating!
Turkey Chili with bell peppers and beans
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