Chicken Mole

Here's another savory dish made with cocoa. I've made this before so wanted to try something new first (hence the magic chocolate flan cake), but made this again tonight and it's too good not to share!

I simplified a recipe from Cook's Illustrated Soups, Stews & Chilis cookbook and honestly it's really a pretty easy meal. I made a huge batch tonight (doubled the recipe) so I could stock up our freezer and have some to share with my frozen dinner club. The mole is rich and spicy. The first time I made it, I served it over rice, but tonight we just had it in tortillas.

I've also made Amber's chili recipe two times already (it's excellent and really is award-worthy!) and this weekend plan to make Nancy's mocha crinkle cookies - can't wait!

CHICKEN MOLE
Adapted from Cook's Illustrated Soups, Stews & Chilis

Serves 6 to 8

4 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded*
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 medium onion, minced
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup almond butter
1 ounce bittersweet chocolate
1 teaspoon minced chipotle chili in adobo sauce
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 tablespoon cocoa
2 ancho chilies, stemmed and cut into pieces (I bought dried anchos in the Mexican section at Safeway)
2 tablespoons sesame seeds, plus extra for serving
2 cups chicken broth
1 (14.5) ounce can diced tomatoes
1 teaspoon brown sugar
2 green onions, sliced for garnish

*I threw frozen chicken breasts in the crock pot, covered with chicken broth and cooked on high for 3 hours. They shredded perfectly. But I'm sure you could boil them for quicker results or just use a rotisserie chicken!

Directions: 

1. Heat diced onion and oil in a large pan or dutch oven over medium heat, about 5-10 minutes. While it's starting to cook, pull out the rest of your ingredients.

2. Add everything else (except the green onions) to the pot and simmer on low for about an hour.

3. Blend in batches, careful - it will be hot! Return to pan.

4. Stir in the shredded chicken and let simmer for at least 10 minutes.

5. Serve in a tortilla or over rice and garnish with green onions and sesame seeds.

I didn't have any green onions! 

Mocha Crinkles

Fabulous Beauty Emily asked me to provide a blog post this month, in lieu of my sister Megan, who is literally gallivanting across Africa at the moment.

I had initially thought to try something a bit different - like Amber did in using cocoa in chili, which looks fantastic BTW - but decided to attempt a more traditional recipe.  When I was in college, I wasn't able to get home to my parents in Nebraska, and so started a new tradition - going to my Aunt Donna and Uncle Smitty's.  While my grandmother was still alive, I would pick her up, and we would road trip together.  We would usually spend our few days together - in additional to eating, drinking and visiting by the fire - baking all kinds of Christmas goodies.  We would send them off to friends and family, and had a great time experimenting with different cookies and candies.  While we don't do that exact same thing anymore, we do usually try to get together and at least eat, visit - and bake!

This year we had Thanksgiving at my house, and ended up with about 10 different cookies and candies.  My contribution was a cookie we hadn't tried before - its called a Mocha Crinkle.

Mocha Crinkles

1 1/2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup of vegetable oil
1/4 cup low fat sour cream
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup unsweetend cocoa powder
2 tsps instant espresso or coffee granules
1 tsp baking soda
1/3 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Mocha Crinkle ingredients.  While the wine is important to cookie making, it is not a cookie ingredient. :)

In a medium bowl, beat the brown sugar and oil.  Add the sour cream, vanilla, and egg.

In another medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, instant espresso, baking soda, salt and peppar

Add the flour mixture to the brown sugar mixture.  Mix well, and refrigerator for 3 - 4 hours (I didn't have 3-4 hours, so I used the freezer, which worked just as well).  Note:  The dough will be really wet and sticky, but don't be concerned.

Preheat the oven to 350.  Place powdered sugar in a shallow container.  Set aside.  In about 1 inch pieces, roll the dough into balls.  Coat in powdered sugar.

Raw doll - rolled.  

Rolled in powdered sugar, ready to be baked!

Bake on ungreased cookie sheets 10 to 12 minutes or until the tops of cookies are firm to the touch.  Do not over bake.

Baked cookies - aren't they pretty?

 It is a great cookie - it looks really pretty and it is super easy.  Make enough to share.  Hope you enjoy them!

Magic Chocolate Flan Cake

I was browsing through my latest issue of Cook’s Country magazine and came across a recipe with three of my favorite things: caramel, chocolate and cream cheese. AND it called for cocoa, so I knew this was the recipe I wanted to try for November’s challenge.

It’s a layer of chocolate cake, topped with flan and dripping in caramel. The cool part is when it goes in the oven the chocolate cake layer and flan layer switch places, hence the magic.

I know I preached thinking outside of the {dessert} box when using cocoa as an ingredient, but I couldn’t resist this! It was a simple recipe and really delicious - I love anything swimming in caramel. Plus who can resist magic?

MAGIC CHOCOLATE FLAN CAKE
Recipe from Cook's Country, Serves 16

CAKE
½ cup caramel sauce (I used Trader Joe’s salted caramel sauce and had a jar of Fran’s caramel sauce to drizzle on top when serving)
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa
½ teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
4 ounce bittersweet chocolate, chopped
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
½ cup buttermilk
½ cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

FLAN
2 (14-ounce cans) sweetened condensed milk
2 ½ cups whole milk
6 ounces cream cheese
6 large eggs plus 4 large yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. FOR THE CAKE: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 12-cup nonstick Bundt pan. Microwave caramel until easily pourable, about 30 seconds. Pour into pan to coat bottom. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in bowl; set aside. Combine chocolate and butter in large bowl and microwave at 50 percent power, stirring occasionally, until melted, 2 to 4 minutes. Whisk buttermilk, sugar, eggs, and vanilla into chocolate mixture until incorporated. Stir in flour mixture until just combined. Pour batter over caramel in prepared pan.

2. FOR THE FLAN: Process all ingredients in blender until smooth, about 1 minute. Gently pour flan over cake batter in Bundt pan and place pan in large roasting pan. Place roasting pan on oven rack and pour warm water into roasting pan until it reaches halfway up side of Bundt pan. Bake until toothpick inserted in cake comes out clean and flan resisters 180 degrees, 75 to 90 minutes (I did 75 minutes and next time would try a little less). Transfer Bundt pan to wire rack. Let cool to room temperature, about 2 hours, then refrigerate until set, at least 8 hours. (Remove roasting pan from oven once water has cooled.)

3. Place bottom third of Bundt pan in bowl of hot tap water for 1 minute. Invert completely flat cake plate, place platter over top of Bundt plan, and gently turn platter and pan upside down. Slowly remove pan, allowing caramel to drizzle over top of cake. Serve with extra caramel sauce drizzled over the top.

Amber's Award Worthy Chili

It is seriously stormy outside. Like stormy, stormy. The kind that turns an umbrella inside out, the kind that makes the middle of the day look like midnight, the kind that makes you want to say, "Ef off, work" so you can go home and cuddle by the fire, watch a movie, and drink a hard cider while a steaming pot of chili cooks on the stove… Do you see where I’m going here?

When Emily posted this month’s ingredient “Cocoa” I was a bit uninspired. I know, call me a crazy person. Can I even call myself a woman? But I just love love love savory food and dessert is usually a thing I do only because everyone else is doing it. But then I ran into Andrew Robinson, a fellow parent at the daycare where I take my kids, who also loves to cook who also happens to be a BATF follower, and we had an inspiring conversation, whilst peeling off children’s coats and hanging out by the sign in sheet. “Chili,” he said. And I was sold.

Turns out, like, all of the famous and award winning chili recipes have cocoa in them. That’s what all the people on Google tell me--it's like the secret ingredient to chili success. So I found a few ‘award-winning’ recipes and made up my own. Some had all beans and some had all meat and I thought to satisfy the carnivore in my husband and the herbivore in me, I’d do a little bit of both. And to satisfy the beer lover in both of us, I chose to add a bit of that too. It was super delicious. My 5 year old ate his entire bowl (mixed with a lot of sour cream to minimize the spice) and my 2 ½ year old only had one bite. So, there’s a 50/50 chance your kids will like it. And if you don't have small children, I recommend you add a lot more spice to this recipe! Some hot sauce, chili peppers, and anything else you can find.

My verdict on the cocoa: Though it wasn't noticeable at all, I have chosen to believe my chili wouldn't have been as good without it. Now, can I call my recipe "award-winning" too? Next up, a chili cook-off so I can officially add that to the title.

Amber’s Award-Winning Chili

Ingredients

1.5 lb. lean chuck, ground

1 lb. lean pork, ground

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 finely chopped onion

8 oz. hunts tomato sauce

1 can diced tomatoes

1 can pinto beans

1 can kidney beans

1 cup water

1 can beer

3 Tablespoons chili powder

2 tablespoons instant beef bouillon (6 cubes)

2 Tablespoons ground cumin

2 teaspoons paprika

2 teaspoons oregano leaves

2 teaspoons sugar

½ teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa

1 teaspoon cornmeal

1 teaspoon flour

1 Tablespoon warm water

Directions:

1)      In a large saucepan, brown meat. Drain the fat.

2)      Add onion and garlic and soften

3)      Add the tomato sauce, tomatoes and beans and mix well

4)      Add water, beer, chili powder, bouillon, cumin, paprika, oregano, sugar, coriander and cocoa

5)      Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer for at least 2 hours.

6)      In a small bowl, mix cornmeal and flour, then add warm water and mix well.

7)      Stir into chili and cook, covered for an additional 20 minutes

Garnishes

I chose to add all of the below garnishes, just to add a bit more fun and flavor.

1)      Sour cream

2)      Shredded cheddar cheese

3)      Chives and/or green onions

4)      Heavy dash of hot sauce

Yow! Lookin' hot.

Sides

Tortilla chips or sourdough bread! This would have been excellent in a bread bowl.