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Venezuelan Chocolate Chile Chicken

by Paul A. Young

read reviews (3)

There are very many versions of chocolate chile chicken, but I chose to include this one as it’s fantastically quick and easy to make. I can’t promise it’s authentic, but it does have the wow factor, and the Venezuelan chocolate adds a deep, rich, glossy finish and flavor.
Serves 4

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chicken legs chicken thighs chocolate more more

4 banana shallots, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 Tbs. light olive oil
4 organic chicken thighs
4 organic chicken drumsticks
Juice and zest of 3 oranges
3 fresh red chiles, finely diced
2 tsp. dried mulato chiles (or any other mild chiles)
1 Tbs. coriander seeds
400 grams canned chopped tomatoes
1 Tbs. dark muscovado sugar
150 grams Venezuelan dark chocolate, broken into pieces
Bunch of coriander leaves (about 25 g)

Heat the oven to 400°F.

In a casserole dish, sauté the shallots and the garlic in the olive oil, then add the chicken pieces and brown on all sides. Add the orange juice and zest, fresh and dried chiles, coriander seeds, tomatoes and sugar and simmer for 5 minutes. Pop on the lid and cook in the oven for 20 minutes.

Remove from oven, lift out the chicken and stir the chocolate into the remaining sauce. Serve with the sauce smothered over the chicken with generous amounts of chopped or torn coriander leaves.

Adventures with Chocolate by Paul A. Young

photo: Anders Schønnemann

October 26, 2011

user reviews

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by hotncookin, 3/10/2013This recipe was going great and smelled fabulous until.......I added the chocolate. It ruined the dish.....it was way too chocolatey......I could not find the type of chocolate the recipe called for, so I used a bar that was 60% cocoa......evidently this was too sweet. It would be nice if an alternative or at least the percentage of cocoa could be suggested. I was quite disappointed, and yes that could have been my fault due to the type of chocolate I used.

by skittlecrack, 11/29/2012this recipe was absolutely horrid. i've never tried such a fail of a recipe. i believe that it calls for WAY too much chocolate (perhaps cocoa powder would've been better) and i think that it would be best to leave the orange out completely. with the amount of chocolate it calls for, it hardly matters how much of any of the other spices you add, it absolutely consumes it and you will not taste your other spices. i ended up having to try to turn this into like a barbecue/sloppy joe (which was still a fail) by adding an entire can of chipotles in adobo sauce and barbecue sauce. did the creator of the recipe accidentally list the wrong volumes of each ingredient? anyhow, i'd say this is an unsalvageable recipe that wasted some expensive ingredients.

by angray8, 6/21/2012I loved this recipe. First-- it is extra easy to make, second-- it's exotic, third--- it is delightfully rich. I made this for my anniversary. My husband bought some nice red qine so I wanted to make a dish that went with the wine. Since i don't like red meat I thought that chocolate would be a perfect match. And it was, it matched perfectly. My only complaint is that some of the indgedients are difficult to fined, but finding substitutes are easy and still taste great. If you want something different and delicious make this recipe.

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