Thanks for the info yall, the chili contest is for a cowboy day here in our town so am gonna go with a no beaner recipe I believe.

I would say yes. My suspicion is that the folks she managed to beat, used off the shelf regular run of the mill spices.

^^^Spice blends are probably better than store bought but if have your own concoction maybe not.. its all relative. I use a chuck roast smoked for a few hours cube it and throw it in the crock pot add all my goodies and beans. Beef to bean ration is around 3:1. family and friends have me making two variants one for everyone and the batch I would rather make that only a few can eat. The roast is what I believe makes the chili.

Jim Ivy's 1985 Terlingua World Championship Chili:

http://www.dallasnews.com/lifestyles...ship-chili.ece