The Recipe Room

Have you ever tried eating chicken with a chocolate sauce? I was looking for a sauce that really used chocolate as a main ingredient, rather than one where a token piece of chocolate was thrown in, and this chicken thighs with a chilli chocolate sauce dish is what I ended up creating.  I’m sure there’s much room for improvement as I experiment with the idea of using chocolate with chicken, but I’ll share this one with you for now, so that you can try it and see what you think.  The combination of flavours is certainly unusual and could well be an acquired taste, but I enjoyed it! Not sure you will? You could also give this versatile sauce for both meats and fish a go.

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken thighs, skin on
• 6 cloves
• 2 small red chillies, de-seeded and chopped
• 1tsp cinnamon powder
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2-3 wine glasses of white wine
• 2 tbsp light olive oil
• 3-4 shallots, or 1 small onion, finely sliced
• 2 tbsp dark chocolate powder
• 2-4 tsp good balsamic vinegar, according to your taste
• 1 tbsp soft dark sugar
• 1 tbsp sweet natural yoghurt

Steps:

1. Preheat the oven to 190ºC and roast the chicken thighs for around 40-45 minutes or until they are cooked throughout.  As always, check this using a skewer to the thigh to ensure that the juices run clear.
2. Halfway through the chicken’s roasting time, begin to make the sauce.  Heat the oil and fry the shallots with the cloves and cinnamon in a shallow-based pan on a medium heat until the onions are really soft.
3. Add the minced garlic and fry for a few more minutes.
4. Add the white wine, the chocolate powder, the brown sugar and the balsamic vinegar and bring up the heat until the sauce is very close to the boiling point.  Reduce the heat immediately and simmer the mixture to a viscous reduction over about 10 minutes.
5. Add the yoghurt and stir it in.  Scoop out a little of the sauce onto a teaspoon, let it cool a little and taste it.  Add more yoghurt or sugar to taste if necessary.
6. Remove the skin from the roast chicken, and drizzle the chocolate sauce over the hot chicken to serve.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Duration: 15 minutes to prepare, 45 minutes to cook

Recipe for: 2 servings

Tags: balsamic vinegar, chicken, chicken recipes, chicken thighs, Chicken Thighs with a Chilli Chocolate Sauce, cinnamon powder, cloves, dark chocolate powder, garlic, olive oil, red chillies, shallots, sugar, sweet natural yoghurt, white wine

This entry was posted on Tuesday, 3 April, 2012 at 12:00 pm by Charlie Locke and is filed under Less than 1 hour, Main Courses, Meal for 2 people. You can follow any responses to this entry through the feed RSS 2.0. You can leave a comment, or make a trackback from your own blog.