Chocolate in Chili!!

[BibbidiBobbidiBOO]

Never heard of this until the past week. A Martha Stewart recipe in our newspaper and a show on TV both called for CHOCOLATE(one said Mexican Chocolate) to be added to chili con carne ! Am I out of the loop? Does not sound "right" to me!

 

[nativetxn]

It's good. A couple of tbsps of cocoa really addes to the flavor of chili con carne

 

[BibbidiBobbidiBOO]

I figured it must be a regional thing? I cannot imagine. What does it do to the flavor?? Still sounds icky to me...
I have some chili simmering right now, without cocoa...

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

<font color=navy>Chocolate is pretty common in Mexican chile -- chicken mole, for example has it. It's different, but it tastes good.

 

[gina2000]

I believe most cookbooks call it Cinncinnati Chili. I don't know if it's a regional addition or if they just call it that. Never had it, though.

 

[Jeafl]

Most of the Mexican recipes I've seen that require chocolate call for unsweetened chocolate.

 

[BibbidiBobbidiBOO]

Interesting...
Now what in the world is chicken mole

 

[Kermit]

I thought everyone put cocoa powder in their chili. I was raised in Dallas, so my chili isn't Cincinnati style. You just put a tiny bit in. No one can taste the chocolate. It's just that authentic Mexican cooking has lots of different flavors and spices in it. The cocoa somehow deepens the other flavors. The chili power you buy at the grocery store has lots more besides ground chilis in it. I think it also contains cocoa, or maybe it's cinnamon. There's definitely something in there that most people would associate with sweets.

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

<font color=navy>Chicken Mole (pronounced mo-leh)

Some recipes w/mole

http://www.stevenfromholz.com/cookbook.htm

http://www.geocities.com/dee58123/chickenmole.html

http://www.uq.net.au/~zztwelfo/recipes/chickenmole.htm

http://www.mindspring.com/~kimall/rec/mole.html

 

[BibbidiBobbidiBOO]

Thanks Mary Jo !
I used Carroll Shelby's original Texas Brand Chili Kit and there is NO cocoa in the ingredients list.
I use V8 instead of tomato sauce. It is very good. Will have to give the chocolate a whirl sometime...maybe...perhaps... !

 

[disykat]

I thought the Cincinatti Chili ingredient was cinnamon. I like to add a bit of cinnamon to my chili.

 

[Cindy B]

Yep, I have seen it all the time, the chocalate offsets the "KICK" in the hot sauce...

 

[Sandy51]

I add a tablespoon of grape jelly to my chili. I read somewhere that it helps to cut the acidity of all the tomato ingredients.

Sandy

 

[Micca]

I have made chili with cinnamon and cocoa(not in the same batch). I believe you would find that the restaurant at Epcot's Mexico pavilion uses cocoa in some of their recipes.

 

[Boots]

This is so strange. DD and I were looking at the new Good Housekeeping cookbook that I got her for Christmas today. It had two chilies in it that called for chocolate or cocoa. One was the Cincinatti chilie and the other was 5 alarm chilie. We had never heard of doing this either and comented on it.

 

[MerryPoppins]

I knew a lady that added crushed Oreos to her chili! I almost died when I saw her adding them, but you couldn't taste it once they were mixed in. I don't want to add the extra calories and I don't think it's necessary, but it really didn't taste bad.

 

[BibbidiBobbidiBOO]

Thank you Boots! I don't feel like such a freak now
BTW, I do add a small pinch of sugar to spaghetti sauce to cut down on acidity, never thought about it in chili!