This is chili in the generic Midwestern (Illinois/Michigan) tradition.
Summer Chili (which is actually more like Autumn Chili) would have vegetables in it: corn, zucchini, bell peppers. Winter Chili *could* -- frozen corn, maybe, or winter squash, or even sweet potato, or any combination thereof. But this batch didn't, and didn't miss them.
You could add bacon, too, but we're out :(
Quantities are flexible. This is what I did last night, and wanted to preserve for posterity, because man, is this stuff good.
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound ground beef
3 tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon Mexican oregano (eta: dried)
dashes of cumin, cinnamon, powdered chilies
1 cup beer
1 28-oz can whole tomatoes and their juice
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
2 cups cooked beans (I used fancy heirloom tepary beans b/c I had them, but just about anything in the pinto/red bean/black bean spectrum is fine here, including canned, as long as it holds its shape)
salt
Saute the onion and garlic until soft. Add the beef and cook until its no longer pink. Add the chili powder and other spices and cook for 30 seconds longer. Add the beer, tomatoes and tomato paste, and Worcestershire sauce. Break the tomatoes up with the back of a spoon and simmer until thickened, about 30 minutes to an hour. Stir in the beans, salt to taste, cook another ten minutes or so.
Serve topped with a lot of grated cheese, minced onion if you like it (I don't), and cornbread and/or saltine crackers or oyster crackers. Plus sour cream if the spicy heat is too much.
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