Beef with Spicy Cocoa Gravy
Howard L. Puckett
CATEGORY WINNER Entrées. "The unsweetened cocoa gives the broth a rich texture and heartiness. Serve with egg noodles, rice, or couscous." -April Sims, Denton, TX
How to Make It
Step 1
Combine unsweetened cocoa and next 7 ingredients (through cinnamon) in a large bowl. Add beef; toss to coat. Remove beef from bowl. Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Add flour to cocoa mixture; stir with a whisk. Return beef to bowl; toss to coat.
Step 2
Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add beef mixture to pan; sauté 5 minutes, turning to brown on all sides. Remove beef from pan. Add onion and green bell pepper to pan; sauté 5 minutes or until tender. Add red wine and tomatoes; cook 3 minutes. Stir in beef broth, salt, and black pepper; return meat to pan. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 1 hour and 10 minutes or until beef is tender, stirring occasionally. Garnish each serving with fresh oregano, if desired.
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Debbie17's Review
I am sorry to not agree with the other cooks, but my family found this underwhelming. We expected the flavors to pop and be very interesting, but found it to taste very similar to a regular beef stew,
tdschweikart's Review
This was an amazing dish! Wonder flavors. I used chilpotle diced tomatoes (instead of fire roasted) and a crock pot instead of dutch oven. Would recommend everyone to try this dish.
horrorgroupie's Review
Made this last night. I used stew meat (next time I'll use a more tender cut to go with this decadent tasting entree)...even after forgetting to coat the meat in flour, and having to put the flour directly into the sauce (I used whole wheat by the way), the sauce still cam out amazing and rich tasting. I served it over some whole wheat noodles and, for just the two of us, it was VERY filling. Will have to keep that in mind and maybe half the recipe and serve it with a salad. But still a BIG yummmmm!!!
laureninmtns's Review
Mmmmmmhhhh!!! Now that's comfort food! I used different amounts: 1 tablespoon for all spices thru dried oregano, ½ tsp cinnamon, 1-14oz. can beef broth plus ½ can water , ¾ c. ea. of bell peps and onion (used the whole things). Had to sub ground chipotle for the ancho. Other stuff as specified. Stirred in remaining flour and brought to bubble, then reduced heat to about 2.5 out of 10 (Low simmer) and it smelled and tasted sooooo good. If I liked sweet sauces, I would have added brown sugar as suggested but we liked it just like this. It was fast setup, maybe 15 min., then we had wine on the patio while it cooked down. Served with quinoa cooked with veg bouillon and quick finely chopped carrots and a dash of curry. Weâll make this a regular! Sorry, I know I deviated some (we like a lot of spice and it was faster to use just one spoon), but the overall combo worked really well
NMarie's Review
I really enjoyed this, and I'm not a big beef fan. It takes quite a while to make, but I think it's worth the effort.
platypus's Review
First time I made it, I went by the recipe and simmered covered for 70 minutes or until beef is tender. Believe me, 70 minutes is way too long. We liked the sauce so much that we decided to try it again. When we did, I cut the simmering back to 20 - 30 minutes and it came out great.
ilovemyderricks's Review
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Basset_Hound's Review