Picking a Winner

I've already noted that I don't have secret recipes. So when it came to participating in a chili cookoff, I had nothing "off the shelf". Time to hit my trusty cooking website: cookinglight.com. I searched for chili and a number of recipes popped up. How to choose? Some have chili powder, some have actual chilis, there could be tomatoes and wine or black beans and beer, cocoa powder or melted chocolate, chicken, pork, beef or chickpeas. There are a large variety of chili ingredients but it's the right combination that is key.
On cookinglight.com I found Southwestern Chili, Black Bean Chorizo Chili, Twenty Minute Chili and more.
Southwestern Chili had cajun sausage, chipotle pepper, yellow hominy and beer. I rejected it because it had garbanzo beans and red kidney beans. Too many beans.
Black Bean Chorizo Chili had the title ingredients plus lime juice, corn, and semi-sweet chocolate. Sounds too sweet and sour.
Twenty Minute Chili had ground turkey, canned tomatoes, and boil in bag rice. No chili should be done in twenty minutes.

On epicurious.com I found a great short ribs recipe with a green chili sauce, to be made at a later date.

Finally on recipezaar.com, I found a chili recipe that sounded delicious. It had tons of spices, different types of chilies, it was easy to make in the crockpot, and was made with beef stew meat instead of ground beef. Something about the combination of cumin, oregano, and fennel seed made my mouth water. I made the chili and it was spicy! Luckily I only had to compete against three other chilis and my entry managed to pull ahead in the end to win it. Hooray!

I guess I have a secret recipe now.