Cooked up a pot of AAC's chili this weekend, with some modifications: about half the number of dried chiles, only one regular can of tomato sauce with a cup of beef stock, half head of garlic, one poblano instead of jalapenos and omitted the cayenne pepper. Obviously I was concerned about the amount of heat and I think my modifications were spot on for my taste.
The only thing I might do differently next time is the garlic was still too much for me. I made the chile paste with orange juice and was a little concerned about the sweetness, but it gave off a really nice initial sweet note followed by the heat. I used butter and rendered pork belly fat for the fat to sear the meat and while cooking pork belly made my kitchen smell like ass the sweet goodness that comes off it is pure gold. I also cooked everything in one pot (except steeping the chiles), I'm not sure why the meat and the aromatics need to be in different pots, it turned out fine using the same one.
Lastly, I'm not sure if it helped or not but I marinated the diced chuck in beer, worcestershire and a dash of smoking liquid overnight, had to drain off extra liquid during the sear but it gave off this amazing beer smell while cooking and that extra liquid was repurposed for the water in the recipe. (btw - HEB diced the meat for me)
I can safely say that not only was this the best pot of chili I have ever made it is easily the best chili I've ever had!! It took damn near all day but was so totally worth it! I wish I'd made a double-batch.