Being a huge chocolate fan I have always wanted to dabble with adding to savoury dishes. I decided to brave it and came up with my own unique adaptation of this rich, bold and unique Venezuelan dish. I honestly do not think that I have tasted anything like it before, and not in a yucky way but in a… um… very tasty way! It is best served with either sweet potato mash or sweet potato wedges as the sweetness compliments the bitter tones of the cacao. If you want to adapt this as a vegan dish then simply just replace the chicken with 500g of cubed sweet potato!
Serves: 4
Prep Time: 30 mins
Cooking Time: 30 mins
Ingredients:
1 tbsp coconut oil/1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 bulb garlic mashed
1/2 onion diced
500g chicken cubed (or 500g sweet potato cut into small cubes)
2 tbsp coconut sugar
2 green chillies/jalapeños diced
1 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp hot smoked paprika
1/4 tsp Himalayan pink salt
1 tsp lime powder (can subsititue with 1 tsp lime juice)
1 tbsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp ground cumin
3 small (preferably Valencia or blood) oranges juiced with the pulp
Zest of 1 orange
1 tin chopped tomatoes (400g chopped tomatoes)
40g cacao or 50g of 90% dark chocolate
1 cup fresh coriander roughly cut
Method:
- Heat the coconut oil in a large deep pan over medium to high heat.
- Add the diced onion and garlic and stir until softened, this should take roughly less than a minute.
- Add the chicken pieces and coconut sugar, stirring every now and then until slightly browned.
- Add the paprika, smoked paprika, salt lime powder, ground coriander, allspice, cumin and chillies, stir and return to a low heat.
- Add the orange juice, pulp and zest, cover with a lid and reduce to a simmer for 2 minutes.
- Add the chopped tomatoes and stir, bring to the boil and leave to simmer for 5 minutes.
- Add the cacao and stir into the sauce, cover and leave to simmer for a further 5 minutes.
- Remove from the heat, stir in the fresh coriander leaves and serve!
4 Comments
louisjbianco
23rd September 2014 at 2:17 pmSounds delicious, but damn look at all the ingredients!
greensofthestoneage
23rd September 2014 at 2:20 pmHaha but it won’t be as delicious without them 😉
NSum
17th March 2015 at 10:08 amHave you tried this with a firm mild fish or seafood?
I am not concerned with the ingedient list because I have most of the items on hand and none of the others are difficult to find in my area.
Do you always measure each spice individually? Sometimes if I am using a particular mixture often I will premix a larger quantity, do the math for the portions and put it in a glass jar with a (usually masking tape) notation.
I had four kiddoes myself and learned to shortcut where I could.
greensofthestoneage
17th March 2015 at 7:10 pmHey no I haven’t tried this with fish. I don’t think a fish would work so well with this. King prawns however will work quite well.
As for measuring out large batches of course you could do so. Personally I don’t find it takes me too long measuring individual spices. I also quite like grinding up certain elements to keep fresh!