Chili con carne, also known as "chili", is the favorite meal in Texas. This dish is a stew of beef, chicken, turkey, or venison meat mixed with chili peppers. There are also vegetarian chili recipes (chili sin carne) that skip the meat all together. Many recipes call for beans, tomatoes, onions, brown sugar, chocolate and much more. Classic recipes include white chili, green chili, cincinnati chili, and texas chili.

Whether chili was originated in Mexico or the American West is debatable. Certainly, many cowboys had a chili recipe they would use on the trail. Chili recipes were also good for the poor in these days because meat was able to go a long way.

This dish has since become an American favorite and there are hundreds of different chili recipes. In fact, there is a whole industry built up around chili recipe competitions. Competitive purists usually skip the beans in their recipes.

San Antonio even has a "Chili Queens" festival to commemorate the Mexican women who served chili in the streets during frontier days.

Hot peppers are used in chili recipes often, usually quenched with ice cold beer.

Quote:
"Goddamn, this is good chili!"
-George W. Bush