In the chili pot, not a tortilla lesson
Serious Eats’ Texas method puts optional masa at the end. The Kitchn, citing Drummond: mix masa with water, stir in toward the end, give it at least ten minutes. Southern Living prefers cornmeal for Southern pots and names masa harina as the finer cousin. Avoid coarse polenta in chili. That is finish and body. It is not a branded Orlando bowl.
Wheat flour is a stew thickener. Masa is chile-adjacent because the corn note sits next to dried chile, not on top of it like raw flour.
Slurry thickness
How many tablespoons per quart is cook’s taste, not a USDA table. Start with a small slurry, simmer, retaste. This guide will not invent a house ratio. After the pot is done, USDA leftover rules still apply: two hours to the fridge, shallow containers, not one giant mass of thickened chili cooling slowly.
Thickening in context: chili vs stew. If the pot ran hot, masa is starch and mass, not magic: heat.
Masa kit
Nixtamalized corn flour plus the tools to slurry it.