My former wife and her family were from East Texas and regarded chlili as "jail food." This was a way to serve meat that would not otherwise be edible. Their recipe was simple:

Take a large chunk of the toughest, cheapest beef you can find. Throw it in a pot of water to which you have added chili powder to taste and boil it down to a paste. You can add cornmeal to thicken if necessary. It was like eating thick spicy gravy, very filling, good though -- Tom