Thanks, everyone, for the thoughts and ideas. I've decided to make a batch tomorrow, and I'll post pictures of the ingredients and the finished chili. I just got back from the local supermercado with a supply of dried peppers: anchos, costanas, chiles de arbol, guajillos, and New Mexico. I'll supplement this with chipotles in adobo and a bit of cayenne powder. That brings the recipe up to 7 different types of chiles.
The remaining ingredients moderate the heat from the chiles but allow the individual flavors of the peppers to come through. I have gone overboard with the pepper heat in the past, as
Torch&Tone
describes, to the point where some won't eat it, but that just leaves more chili for me
! Regardless, if you decide to try a batch, I'd recommend not adding more peppers than the recipe calls for, at least the first time you make it.
There are a lot of ideas here, and I appreciate them all, but I decided to only vary the meat from browned to smoked this time to see how it turns out. It may take me several batches of chili to try all the ideas mentioned here, and that's a good thing!
I will put a pan under the chuck to catch any drippings. I'm hoping that will make up for some of the flavor I won't get from the browning process.
Thanks again to all for the thoughts, ideas, and suggestions.
I like
WaterRat
's suggestion about oxtails and shanks, but I couldn't find any of those. I will try those in a future batch.
I will cook the chuck roast like a brisket but to an IT of 180 per
kawboy
and cube it after cooking. That seems simpler to me than cubing it in advance and using
Sowsage
's over-the-top method, but that method is certainly in my future plans. I like the prospect of having bark on all surfaces of the meat.