There is a lot of controversy surrounding the origins of chili as well as how to make the dish. It all seems to come down to how you like to dress up your favorite chili recipe. If you ask anyone for a chili recipe these days, chances are that you will get a different recipe from every person.
All chili recipes have changed over time with new recipes being created on a daily basis. But where did it all start? There are people that believe in the 1840's Texas cowboys pounded beef fat and dried beef with chili peppers and salt to make a sort of trail food for their treks to the gold fields. They would boil this concoction to make a dish they called chili.
A variation on the cowboy origins of chili recipes says that cowboys would plant oregano, chiles, and onions along their well travelled trails in patches of mesquite to keep foraging cattle from eating them.