Mole-Inspired Chocolate Chili
Oaxacan mole negro is one of the most complex sauces in the world — dozens of ingredients, chocolate and chiles and spices all melting into one dark, mysterious whole — and this chili borrows its best trick. Cocoa, a little dark chocolate, a pinch of cinnamon, and a surprising spoonful of peanut butter go into a straightforward beef chili, and together they build a sauce with genuine mole-like depth: rich, rounded, faintly sweet, impossible to pin down. None of it reads as "chocolate chili" in the novelty sense — it just tastes deeper and more interesting than it has any right to. Don't let the ingredient list scare you; every piece is pulling toward the same delicious end.
per serving
A squeeze of lime and some cilantro brighten all that richness; avocado or crema cool it.
Use natural peanut butter and a good dark chocolate (70%). Almond butter subs for peanut. The flavors deepen overnight, so it's a great make-ahead.