Shoot! In Illinois they even make chili/chilli with ground meat, a custom translated from the Wendy's recipe book which seems to include green (bell) pepper along with beans (often those godless "Kidney beans").

Fixed that way, Chili becomes little more than that famous US Navy breakfast dish served atop cold toast, ".... on a Shingle"/"SOS".

I did once eat some pretty good chili with added tomato. The cook throwed in a bottle of otherwise undrinkable Bloody Mary Mix, and we drank the vodka neat. I have another friend whose chili uses black coffee, but then we're transgressing upon the broad general category of "Mole", and I guess a little dark chocolate would work too.

I once, in my youth, met Wick Fowler. He was a PR man, and even Frank Tolbert claimed his knowledge of Chili was purely promotional. Anyway. by the time you drive the long dusty road to Terlingua, you can tolerate all sorts of culinary excess, even if you stop for a dip and a sixpack at Balmorhea.