Here is a Wendy's copycat recipe I found a few years ago. I get asked to make it every year for Christmas at the in-laws. Original recipe calls for water, draining the beans, pinto beans, and shredded carrots. I changed pinto beans to kidney beans. I found water with the bean liquid made it too thin and just put the bean juice in the pot. Thought on that is the juice will have more flavor than water and will thin it out just a tad. Wife doesn't care for the carrots so we leave them out. I did make it with potatoes once because we had one or two left over and thought what the heck. We also make it and let it sit in the garage or fridge overnight to let the flavors really set in.

Chili
2 lbs ground chuck
29 oz can tomato sauce
15 ½ oz can dark red kidney beans (with liquid)
30 ½ oz can mild chili beans (with liquid)
28 oz can diced tomatoes (with liquid)
4 oz Ortega diced green chiles
Diced medium onion
3-5 stalked of celery chopped up
Small bag of shredded carrots
Fine cubed potatoes (optional)
2 teaspoons cumin powder
3 tablespoons chili powder
1 ½ teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoons salt
Brown chuck, drain, crumble into small pieces. Combine chuck, seasonings, and all other ingredients into pot. Bring to simmer and let cook for 2-3 hours, stirring often.***
***I add the spices in a bowl and mix. Then the mix goes in with the beef. After each addition of ingredients, make sure to mix. Then I add the chilis, tomato sauce, tomatoes, chili beans, kidney beans, and veggies.