I am in the middle of making this for editors' pick and as I was putting it together, I realized that there was no chili powder or chiles other t...

I really think that the red onions are the ingredient that is making the recipe sweet. Most recipes call for yellow onions because of that.

OK, here's my report. Two days later and it was still really sweet. I was able to rescue it a little and I'll put my comments with the recipe. It has great possibility--it just needs to be tweaked a bit. Thanks to all of you for your help.

Hi there...
Apologies for the late reply. You're right in that this is not a SUPER HOT chili, but rather a milder one. Nikki has advised that the fresh chilies she used were the very small, really hot ones. After tasting halfway through, she did then add some chilli powder and red chili flakes for more heat. Ideally, this would be done at the beginning with the dry spices.
Chocolate used was the darkest you have ie at least 50-70% cocoa. This is also definitely better the next day!

I think if the recipes specifies fresh chiles, there is not a dried substitute. The fresh contributes to texture and mouth feel as well as flavor and heat. Get thee to the grocery and get a couple of jalapenas or other small chiles, but not bell peppers.

I think cayenne with add some true heat. You can regulate that to your taste.

I want to thank you all for your help. I continued to follow the recip, let it cool, and will see how it comes together when I heat it up for dinner tonight. I'll let you know what happens!

babs, p.s. i also see that she has only 2 tsp cumin for 3 pounds of meat ,and 2-3 ounces of dark chocolate. 2 tsp cumin is very little for that amount of meat.
Maybe as an editor's note you would want to suggest that other cooks attempting this recipe- might want to begin by leaving out the brown sugar and increasing the______, until it has cooked awhile and they have tasted it and decided what to adjust.

babs, i'm looking at the ingreds to figure out what made yours taste sweet. I see brown sugar and dark chocolate.It could be that she used a darker 'dark choc' than you did. I also see that she is very vague in her description of green chiles- both variety and size. So you could be comparing your apples to her oranges there as well. She does call for spices that combine to taste like chile powder, so you could add more of them(particularly cumin , paprika and cayenne) to overcome the sweetness, and include that 'needed addition' in your editor's notes.

The recipe does call for chilis - not chili powder in the format we are used to in this part of the world. My recommendation is follow the recipe and taste tomorrow. Spices in chilie do need time to blend. The Communal Pantry is an amazing group of people - this may be a match made in heaven.

As the meat kinds of falls apart and it all blends together, it does taste good, but I still think it needs some heat. I'll wait till tomorrow and will let y'all know. Thanks for weighing in!

I have found that the heat of jalapenos can be in the little to none range. Maybe you could sneak in a hotter pepper, even crushed chiles (pizza style) or pickled jalapenos.

Cumin Powder + Cayenne Powder + Paprika Powder is my go-to when I have no Chili Powder. Leaving out the Cayenne Powder would be okay, but if you can stand it a little will go a long way.