I needed an additional 15oz can of tomato sauce and also added some Franks Red Hot. Hubby loved it, so all is good! Thanks for sharing!

Remove bay leaf b4 serving. Add more liquid. Skip the rosemary. Included something spicy. Otherwise, a good, basic chili. I followed the recipe as written, w/ the exception of browning the meat w/ the onions, bell peppers, and 3 minced garlic cloves. Also, the consistency in the crock pot was like mega-chunky-pasta-sauce, so I upgraded the 8 oz. can tomato sauce to a 15 oz., as well as an additional 1/2 can of water. I couldn't help but omit the rosemary though, I'm sorry Kas, but I couldn't bring myself to put rosemary in chili. Otherwise, all the other spices and herbs remained in the ratio written. Served our's w/ additional cilantro, green onion, cheese, and fritos, but everyone at the table was grabbing for Sriracha, Texas Pete, and jalapenos to add some oomph. I think this chili's leftovers would be good for festooning a baked potato or a hot dog, and I think I'd be happy to make it again.

awesome

Hubs hurt my feelings tonight. In between mouthfuls of chili he said, "This is the best chili you've ever made." Hmf! MY chili, I thought, was the best! I made a few changes, all of them minor, but the one big change I HAD to make was to add more tomato sauce. I made 1/2 the recipe and, using the amount of tomatoes and tomato sauce called for, I had something that almost resembled the consistency of a casserole! So for this 1/2 recipe I had to add 4 more cups of tomato sauce (used my own, which I had put up from my garden). I would call this quite a discrepancy! Even accepting that individual preferences dictate how thick or thin chili should be, until I "fixed" this it was something you could have eaten with a fork! I can't offer my own review of this, since I am not a fan of chili in the first place, so I would probably not like it no matter what. But hubs said he loved it, said it was "4 star and darn near a 5." For the 1/2 recipe I used the full can of black beans rather than a half can - and I certainly wouldn't call it too "beany." I used more fresh garlic than called for and left out the garlic powder. Finally, I had orange, yellow and red peppers on hand, so used them rather than the green pepper. I thought the addition of rosemary unusual - I could really taste it and didn't like it, personally. I don't think it belongs in chili. But hubs even had a second big bowl of this and instructed me, enthusiastically, to make it again. Looks like "my" chili is history.