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Braised Beef with Chilies and Mexican Chocolate
Making authentic Mexican mole is a labor of love. This recipe, though, captures some of flavors of mole negro and pairs them with a fork-tender pot roast. Tablets of Mexican chocolate flavored with sugar and spices usually are used for making Mexican hot chocolate; here we add some to the pot to enrich the sauce with rich, bittersweet notes. Look for Mexican chocolate sold in small hexagonal boxes; Ibarra and Abuelita are common brands. Serve the beef with warmed tortillas or rice.
4 to 6
Servings
4½ hours
15 minutes active
Ingredients
-
2
large yellow onions, halved and sliced
-
2
ancho chilies, stemmed, seeded and torn into pieces
Pardon the interruption
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April 11, 2024
Winner!
I've made this several times and we love it! The first several times, the sauce wasn't very sauce-like and was somewhat scorched on the bottom. Then I read something somewhere that made me think I was being too aggressive in trimming the beef, so the next time I made it, I left some of the fat, and I had a perfect sauce and an easy to clean pot.
November 20, 2023
Really good-great leftover
This is a great and easy recipe. I was leery about it due to using Mexican hot chocolate, but it really works well, super easy to throw together and works really well as a left over. Two items, I used peanut butter instead of almond (too expensive right now) and I added a can of diced tomatoes (14.5 ounces). My roast was about 3.1 pounds, and the extra liquid from the tomatoes just right. Without it, I think I may have suffered from scorching. Plus, the combo of peanut butter and tomatoes worked really well for the peanut chicken stew on this site (also highly recommended) so it also seemed like a no brainer here, too.
November 6, 2023
Amazing depth and a major hit with all!
I made this dish for two different gatherings within 10 days. It was just that good! I did add a can of tomatoes per some other reviews and glad I did that. For my teens, I’ll thin the sauce down after removing beef as they prefer that. But for adults, well - just make this!
Hi Travis -
The note about the chocolate is in the introductory paragraph of the recipe above. I've copied it below:
Tablets of Mexican chocolate flavored with sugar and spices usually are used for making Mexican hot chocolate; here we add some to the pot to enrich the sauce with rich, bittersweet notes. Look for Mexican chocolate sold in small hexagonal boxes; Ibarra and Abuelita are common brands.
Best,
The Milk Street Team
Hi David -
We don't have a pressure cooker version of this recipe, but you could try to adapt one of our Fast & Slow recipes for braised beef using these ingredients. I checked in with Rebecca Richmond, the recipe developer, and she said she thinks peanut butter should work. A lot of recipes actually call for peanut butter and it is a fairly small amount (1/4 cup). She did say that unsweetened would be preferable, however.
Best,
The Milk Street Team
Hi Jeannine -
We aren't sure what might have caused the sauce to burn onto your pan. Did you find that the sauce was the right consistency? If you felt it was too thick, you might want to add a little bit of water before you put it in the oven to prevent scorching. It's possible that your roast wasn't as juicy as the ones we tested the recipe with and/or your almond butter is a bit thicker. I'd also make sure your onions are large enough. The onions release a fair amount of liquid that loosens the sauce. Hope that helps!
Best,
The Milk Street Team
Just made this tonight, then meat was wonderfully tender, but what was really incredible was the depth of flavor in the sauce. The juices from the meat provided plenty of liquid, I did use tinfoil under the lid to ensure a tight seal. Dutch oven cleaned up easily to my surprise. The family wants a repeat performance soon. Paired it with the arugula and avocado salad and the charred corn with coconut, chilies and lime. A fiesta of flavors. Picture here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CKu5wCxFfQ5/?igshid=13zupjnntbbju
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I have made this twice. The first time the sauce was too thick but meat was very good (tender). The next time, I have added half of roasted canned tomatoes (14 oz) and that made it perfect. It tasted just like molly at the Mexican restaurant we go to. Thank you for the recipe.