Recipe: Chocolate Chili Con Carne

• 3 pounds beef chuck
• Feshly ground black pepper
• Gray salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, plus 1 teaspoon
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin, plus 2 teaspoons
• 2 tablespoons chili powder, plus 2 tablespoons
• Masa harina (Mexican corn flour)
• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup lard (Manteca)
• 4 red onions, peeled and minced
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 jalapeno peppers, sliced thin with seeds, stems removed
• 1/4 cup tomato paste
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 2 to 3 (12-ounce) bottles beer
• 1 (12-ounce) can diced tomato in juices
• 1 quart chicken stock
• 3 (12-ounce) cans black beans
• 2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, cut into large chunks

Cut the chuck into ¾-inch pieces. Place the chuck in a large bowl. Season liberally with pepper, grey salt to taste, 1/2 teaspoon of the cinnamon, 1 teaspoon of the cumin, and 2 tablespoons of the chili powder. Mix this well and coat the meat with the masa harina.

Preheat a cast iron Dutch oven on the stove over medium high heat. Add the olive oil and then the coated meat, add the lard.  Brown the meat, this is super important and will make or break this dish.  Once all sides are caramelized, remove the meat from the pan with a slotted spoon and place on a cookie sheet to cool, leaving juices in the Dutch oven to saute vegetables.

Add the onions and garlic and saute for 5 minutes over medium heat until they start to caramelize and get soft. Add the jalapenos and allow to cook for 2 more minutes until soft. Add the tomato paste, the remaining 2 teaspoons of the cumin, 1 teaspoon of the cinnamon, the oregano, and 2 heaping tablespoons of the chili powder. Add beer. Stir to incorporate everything. Add diced tomatoes, and stir. Then add the reserved meat. Add chicken stock. Simmer for 1 1/2 hours until meat is tender.

Strain juice from the black beans, add the beans to the chili pot and bring up to simmer. Then add chunks of bittersweet chocolate. Stir until it melts. Serve immediately.  This also freezes quite well.

Comments

[Sean Sutherland]

I made this last night and it turned out wonderfully. I never add the jalapeno seeds (my wife can't handle that) and I used three different types of beans (pinto, kidney, and black). I also used two cans of beer(fat tire in the can) and sub'd butter for the lard (couldn't find lard in a smaller amount than bucket sized).

This recipe feeds an army so have a big pot.

[Bing]

Run away from the beans!

[Don]

Where are you plagiarizing these from? Uh, I mean, from whence are you gathering your inspirations?

It sounds really good - except for the lard part! If you've got good quality ingredients, there should be no need to add fat to the dish to boost the flavor. I would think that if you were to cut the lard out and make sure you use good, fresh meat, you should hardly notice the difference!

Don

[Sean Sutherland]

This recipe I got from Michael Chiarello. In all fairness it was on the food network site for ages. I also bought the cookbook that has it, which I recommend big time.

The lard is indeed subtle, but mainly rounds out the Mexican flavor which is pretty much contained in the meat part here. I used butter this time and really didn't notice much of a difference. Omitting the butter or lard would warrant a somewhat fatty cut of meat but I usually go that route with this recipe anyway.