Cocoa Chili

Cocoa in chili is an old competition trick. A few tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder stirred alongside chili powder, cumin, and oregano behave like mole paste, darkening the sauce and giving the spices a richer, more roasted backbone. No chocolate flavor reads on the finish. Just depth.

Four pounds of ground beef get browned hard with onion, then dropped into canned tomatoes, juice, and water along with bay leaves, garlic, and cayenne. The pot simmers a long, lazy two and a half hours, plenty of time for the collagen in the beef to soften and the flavors to marry. A flour slurry goes in at the end to body the sauce up, and fresh cilantro gets the last half hour to keep it bright.

Pro Tips

• Use Dutch-process or natural unsweetened cocoa, never sweetened drinking cocoa or hot chocolate mix. Sugar and milk powder will turn your chili into a confused dessert.
• Brown the beef hard in a separate skillet rather than in the pot. The fond from the skillet and the Maillard crust on the meat both matter for depth.
• Skim the fat before the final flour slurry. Flour binding to liquid fat creates a greasy gravy instead of a clean, silky sauce.
• Let the pot sit overnight if you can. Chili with cocoa gets markedly better on day two as the bitter edge rounds off.

Variations

• Swap a tablespoon of the chili powder for ancho or chipotle powder for smokier heat.
• Add a can of drained black beans in the last 30 minutes for a heartier pot.
• Stir in a shot of strong coffee with the cocoa for even more roasted depth.