Chili with Chocolate

(sorry for the shoddy photo)

Last night after I made up the weekly menu, S and I hit the grocery store, and by the time we returned home we were both more than ready for dinner. I may have even ripped open a box of cookies and eaten one before putting the rest of the food away, but let's not dwell on that, shall we? So I wanted to make one of the quicker recipes from the week's menu, and Chili with Chocolate is what I chose.

This recipe is an amalgamation of several red chili with chocolate recipes I found online, made super convenient by being built on the skeleton of a chili recipe I got from a chili spice-mix packet. The chocolate I chose was a baking bar of Hershey's special dark, which is labeled a "mildly sweet chocolate." Any dark bitter- or semi-sweet chocolate would work, and I'm sure you could also use unsweetened chocolate as well, though the result would be a little different.

A note on spices: except when baking, I don't measure salt and pepper into my recipes, and I rarely even add salt, as ingredients like broth usually salt things plenty for my taste. Your taste may differ, though, so all of my recipes are salt and pepper to taste. When I made this particular recipe, I somehow wound up with nearly all no-salt ingredients, and had to add a few teaspoons myself, but please taste yours first!

Chili with Chocolate
(4 servings, total time: ~20 minutes)

1 pound ground beef
1 small onion
1 jalepeno
1 packet red chili seasoning (not one with 'sodium' as the main ingredient)
1 (15oz) can dark red kidney beans
1 (14oz) can diced tomatoes
2 (8oz) cans tomato sauce (no spices)
~2 ounces bittersweet dark chocolate
S&P to taste

1. In a fairly large pot, brown beef over medium-high heat.
2. While the meat is browning, dice the onion and jalapeno. When the beef is almost fully browned, skim, pour, or spoon out the excess fat from the pan, and add the onion and jalapeno. Continue to cook until beef is done.
3. Add all of the remaining ingredients except chocolate. Thin with a little water, if necessary,
and add S&P to taste. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 10
minutes.
4. Chop the chocolate into pieces (unless you're using chocolate chips). After 10 minutes is up,
turn off the heat, and stir in chocolate until fully melted and combined.

The result should be a dark, rich, chili that is neither sweet nor too spicy, but definitely unusual. Enjoy!

P.S. I forgot to take any photos of the chili until I had already eaten some, hence the quickly-taken, and not very well set up shot. Oops.