Cocoa Coriander Chili From Jenn de la Vega

Flavor very good. More 'heat' than I'd like. How can heat be reduced?

One awesome chilli. This one stays in my repertoire as I have now made it twice and each time it is just so tasty.

This video has changed the way I will make chili, or any other recipe using hamburger, forever. I didn't make this recipe, but I did use some of Jenn's tips. I did use 2 Tb cream for every pound of hamburger, and increased the seasoning of my meat by adding red pepper flake in the cream and hamburger mixture. I usually use poblano peppers in my chili, but, alas, no poblano peppers in the grocery during these times. The only peppers they had were shishito peppers of which I had never heard so I got a bag out of desperation. I used cherry tomstoes because the Roma tomatoes did not look good. For my beef broth I used Better Than Bouillon (I always add an extra cup of water for each tablespoon because too salty for my taste). And I prefer cuban style black beans from Trader Joe, thoroughly rinsed, before adding to my cooked meat, onions, peppers, garlic and tomato mixture. Simmer for 30 minutes. It was delicious!! Tasted meatier? This week, no shishitos or poblanos so bell pepper. We'll see tomorrow. Thank you for the cream AND for the perspective of seasoning the meat first.

I made this yesterday. I used 4 pieces of bacon as I had that only. Didn't soak the ancho chili. But used all the other spices. I needed to thicken it so added more masa. We really liked it! I think next time I will leave out the bacon, double all the spices, and continue cooking it in the crock pot. Didn't use the chocolate bar on top or at all. Loved it!

I haven't tried to make this w/o the genius tip, so cant compare, but this recipe produced an excellent chili. Froze the leftovers & reheated, even better! Will make this recipe again, and soon. Thx! :)

This was OK- you can scarce go wrong with smoked meat and beans, and that's really what this dish is about; I can see no reason to characterize it as chili, other than perhaps a desire to enter it in a chili cookoff. The reference to "mole" seems like a poor rationalization for the chocolate- it's true that some recipes for mole poblano call for a small amount of chocolate; those dishes contain large amounts of dried chilis, together with various toasted seeds and nuts, and the chocolate helps pick up some of the flavor elements (largely in the bitter range, where much of the unique flavor of the large Mexican chilis lies)- the result is not at all chocolaty. Mole Poblano is a dish originating in south central Mexico; chili, of course, is not a Mexican dish at all, but the roots of the original southwestern chilis are in north Mexican styles of guizado (stews based on dried chilis). Most of the character of those is lost in modern tomato, bean and hamburger concoctions and there's no real historical reason to connect them to mole poblano. However, chili cooks, particularly competitive ones, are heavily into "secret" ingredients, and cocoa is no weirder than a lot of them; it actually balances pretty well in this dish. The grated chocolate bar is pure nouvelle urban fusion, in the "sort of interesting once" category. If you mix cream with into a hamburger patty, you are adding moisture and fat to the patty; if you then break it up, brown it and cook it in a bunch of liquid for a long period, that is lost. It's possible that lactic acid does have some tenderizing effect, but there are better sources for lactic acid than cream- milk, for one. If you really want to increase the delicacy of the meat in this recipe, I would recommend looking into the method of traditional ragu- such as Marcella Hazan's recipe- where the meat (barely cooked, NOT browned) is cooked very slowly in a fairly large amount of milk- this has a marvelous effect on the final product, due largely to the actions of milk proteins, which are denatured in the slow cooking, allowing them to form chemical bonds with moisture and elements of the meat. At any rate, in this dish, the small amount of ancho pepper is merely a background element. The nearly universal additions of cumin and oregano are either token or nonexistent. Also, I think that the coriander is understated for something called "coriander chili". But hamhocks and red beans will carry you through every time.

I'd never made chili before, but I love mole sauce. So I decided this would have to be the one to try. I used yogurt instead of the cream and bacon instead of the ham hock. I didn't have cumin seeds, so I just used ground cumin. Left is sitting in the crock-pot for about 3 or so hours before having the first round. It was really good and we've eaten it for dinner 3 nights in a row with some cornbread muffins. Seriously good. And so easy too.

Wow Jenn! Food52! Must try this recipe. I love Food52. Thanks Jenn, from your Auntie Angie.

This chili was so good! Used the crock pot which worked out well and the house smelled amazing when I returned home. Thanks for a wonderful recipe and for the cream-beef technique!

For the tomatoes, what size can would you recommend to cover "4 plum tomatoes?" 28-oz can?

Can the heavy cream technique work for ground veal and pork? My bolognese recipe calls for ground veal, ground pork and pancetta.

I am definitely going to give the meat/cream thing a try the next time I make Chili.