Chicken in Chocolate-Chilli Sauce for Busy Weeknights
I’ll admit I was skeptical the first time someone told me to put chocolate in a chicken dish. Then I tasted it. The sauce is dark and a little smoky, with a slow burn from the chili and just a hint of sweetness at the end. It’s now one of the dinners I make when I want people to be impressed without much effort.
A Quick Bit of Background
The idea comes from Mexico, where cacao went into savory food long before it ever became a candy bar. The famous example is mole poblano, a sauce made with dried chilies, nuts, spices and chocolate. Families serve it at weddings, festivals and Day of the Dead celebrations. The Aztecs were already mixing cacao with chili, and for them it was more ceremony than snack.
Real mole can take days and call for dozens of ingredients, and every region swears its version is the right one. This recipe skips all that. It’s inspired by mole, not a replica, and everything fits in one skillet.
What to Gather
For four people you’ll need four chicken breasts, one onion, two garlic cloves, one or two red chilies, a few scallions and a lime. From the pantry: oil, rice, a spoonful of tomato paste, a 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes and half a cup of ground almonds. For spices, use a quarter teaspoon of anise, half a teaspoon each of cinnamon and smoked paprika, plus salt and pepper. Finally, 1.5 oz of dark chocolate (70% cacao is ideal) and some cilantro for the top.
Cooking It
Chop the onion, garlic and chili finely. If you’d like less heat, pull out the chili seeds first. Slice the scallions, squeeze the lime and cut the chicken into bite-sized chunks.
Warm half the oil in a big skillet and brown the chicken until golden, then set it aside. Add the rest of the oil and cook the onion, garlic and chili over medium heat until they turn soft and glossy. Stir in the tomato paste and the spices and give them a minute to wake up. Put your rice on now so it finishes at the same time as the sauce.
Next, pour in the crushed tomatoes and stir in the almonds, which make the sauce thick and velvety. Let it simmer about ten minutes. Drop in the chocolate and stir until it disappears into the sauce, then season with salt, pepper and lime juice. Taste as you go, because every can of tomatoes is a little different.
Return the chicken to the pan and let it simmer gently for 10 to 15 minutes. Serve over rice with cilantro and scallions scattered on top.
A Few Things I’ve Learned
Don’t overdo the chocolate. You want depth, not dessert. Squeeze the lime in at the very end, since it lifts the whole sauce. Leftovers are even better the next day, and the sauce works nicely on pork or roasted vegetables too.
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