Texas Jailhouse Chili - Slow-cooker edition

This recipe was found in the probably biggest german cooking community and recipe website, Chefkoch.de. Or, actually, the recipe I based my variation on. Because, as the savvy reader will have guessed, I lacked certain ingredients, and thought others needed to be added. Seriously, chili without fennel seed?
The following is what I made out of this recipe called Texas Jailhouse Chili.

The first photo is at the start of the slow-cooking process, the last of the finished chili. And those in between - yeah, that's right, from in between!

Jailhouse Chile

400 g lean beef cuts
400 pork minced meat
1 can of tomatoes
2 - 5 cloves of garlic
2 - 5 chilies
2 medium onions

Salt
Pepper
Sweet Paprika
Chili flakes
Cumin
Coriander
Fennel seeds
Majoram
Thyme
Pimento
Unsweetened cocoa powder
BBQ sauce

Start by chopping the onions into fine cubes, and chop the garlic and chili - the measures are a bit fluid, basically from mild (2) to pretty spicy (5).
Heat a frying pan with about 1 tblspoon lard, and cook the onions over medium heat until they turn translucent. Add the pork mince, the garlic and chili, season with salt, pepper, and paprika.
In the meantime, get your slow-cooker ready.
Once the meat has browned a bit, transfer to the slow cooker. Add the can of tomatoes; fill about 1/4 with water to wash out all of the juice, throw into pan to catch all those juices too, and then add to the slow-cooker.
Put another tblspoon of lard into the pan, and fry the beef until it's nicely browned. Add to the slow-cooker.
I used dried majoram and thyme, that's why I crushed them in the mortar together with the pimento corns - about 1 tspoon each, and 6 pimento corns.
Add these and all the other spices, go easy on the salt, as the dish will lose liquid, so you'll want to wait with the final seasoning till it's done. I used about 1/2 to 1 tspoon on pretty much all spices - a little less paprika, a bit more cocoa (a heaped tspoon).
Let simmer on high for about 2 hours, then on low for about 4 more.

Once ready, you can serve with rice or beans or both. Crusty bread works well, too.