Recipe: Chicken in Chocolate Sauce

Critical readers are now raising an eyebrow. Chicken in chocolate sauce? Haven’t we moved past that sweet-and-savory trend yet? Is this the ultimate expression of everything-with-sea-salt-caramel? Wasn’t it bad enough having to fish pomegranate seeds, apricots or prunes out of every stew? Think again.

A sauce with chocolate is a traditional Mexican mole. The chocolate gives the sauce a deep flavor and a beautifully creamy texture. There’s nothing sweet about it, because you use dark chocolate. What’s more: this Mexican chicken with chocolate sauce was the favorite dish of artist Frida Kahlo. So do as Frida does, relax your monobrow and get cooking.

How to make chicken in chocolate sauce

• Preheat the oven to 200 °C.
• Cut the onion and tomatoes into quarters and place them in an oven dish. Place the garlic cloves between them and roast in the oven for half an hour.
• Melt half of the butter and coat the chicken legs with the butter. Place them in another oven dish and season with pepper and salt. Put them in the oven with the vegetables and cook for three quarters of an hour.
• Grind most of the almonds finely in the food processor. Melt the remaining butter in the pan, fry the ground almonds and raisins in it. 3 minutes.
• Remove the vegetables from the oven and let them cool slightly. Squeeze out the roasted garlic, add it and the vegetables to the almonds and raisins. Add the cinnamon and oregano.
• Pour in the chicken stock. Is the sauce still too chunky? Use a stick blender and purée part of the sauce.
• Roughly chop the chocolate and stir it into the sauce until melted. Season the sauce with chili pepper and, if necessary, salt. Place the chicken in the sauce and garnish with the remaining almonds.

Read also:

• Stock your Mexican pantry like this
• The Mexican street food you didn’t know yet
• Horchata: Mexican refreshment