Hi, I have a working Debian chroot, just as you describe. It uses Johnx's bootable Debian install, and then, with a small script that mounts the partition, binds /dev and /proc and then chroots into Debian, I can apt-get anything in the Debian armel repositories (which need to be updated in the linked install that I gave you), and run it on the command line or, if I need a desktop, I've installed XFce4 and tightvncserver in the chroot so I can start that up and use VNC Viewer to use the app.

EDIT: I got X applications working, too. They won't be "hildonized" but they work! Check this post for details.