Chilli - make it better?

[loki]

Originally Posted by Will

I don't find it does at all. Pure cacao powder gives it a fantastic rich taste and amplifies the chilli flavours IMO.

Agree with you there Will. I made a Chilli from scratch last week and the addition of a few blocks of good chocolate (Min 70% Cocoa) and corriander certainly made a big difference to a slightly hotter Chilli

[Wryel]

Originally Posted by Jonny69

Minus the wine, coriander and worcester sauce and it's the same as my chilli recipe. Keep it simple.

Don't add chocolate. It's a fad and that's it. I've tried the adding chocolate trick to a lot of food and all it does is make it taste of chocolate.

I'll experiment. The main thing was the beef to honest, I wanted it nice and tender instead of 'bitty', but it sounds like that is down to cooking for a long time.

[divine]

Beef benefits from long cooking in most forms bar the obvious like steak IMO

[Streeteh]

I've found the best tip i can give is, as others have rightly said, to cook it as slowly as possible and then reduce before serving. To achieve this i purchased a cooking pot with a lid, i mix all of the ingredients on a medium heat hob and preheat the oven to approx 150C (my oven is rubbish though so it's probably more like 125C). Once its ready i stick the lid on an chuck it in the oven for a few hours, once it's been cooking for a while i take off the lid and stick the rice on the hob so the sauce will reduce while the rice cooks. After the rice is done you'll tend to find the sauce has reduced to a nice thick and gloopy texture which obviously enhances the flavor.

I slow cook everything i can in my oven, curries, bologneses', pies and caseroles all benefit from it.