Elevate Your Next Steak Dinner With A Velvety Chocolate-Infused Sauce

It's a shame more people don't consider whipping together a homemade sauce when they cook a beautiful piece of steak. Sure, it takes a bit more work than picking up something from the grocery store. But if you do it justice, you end up with a flavorful accent to the beef that blows any steak sauce from Kroger out of the water. The best part is there's a plethora of ingredients you can experiment with that can take that meaty, umami-laden palate-pleaser to the next level. According to the executive chef at Impression Moxche by Secrets & Secrets Moxche, Orlando Trejo, there's one ingredient in particular that too many people are sleeping on.

When creating a sauce for any dish, it should complement the flavors featured in the star of the show. With that in mind, Trejo recommends using chocolate to create the perfect partner for a juicy steak. "Chocolate has flavors such as wood, black pepper, and spice," Trejo told The Takeout. "Which, if we think about it, are flavors that anyone could enjoy in a cut of meat."

In the same way that chocolate pairs perfectly with bourbon thanks to its notes of oak and smoke, the flavors Trejo described would be more than welcome accompanying the meaty char on a steak. However, you don't want to make your beefy entree a secret dessert. Balancing sweetness with acidic ingredients and using the correct type of chocolate is key to creating a winning steak sauce.

It may sound a little odd tossing something typically revered as a top-notch dessert ingredient into a steak sauce, but don't think you're going to be melting down a milk chocolate Hershey's bar to make this sauce. One goal you're trying to achieve is to mask some of the traditional sweetness so the sauce is balanced. Starting with a type of chocolate that's already less sweet makes the task a lot easier.

Trejo described to us how he would create a liquid chocolate accompaniment to steak, indicating he would choose a chocolate similar to what mole sauce calls for. "I would make it based on a good reduction of beef broth, red wine, a good sherry vinegar, and 70% dark chocolate to make a sauce with smoky flavors and a touch of acidity on the palate," he said. Not only are dark varieties less sweet than your typical milk chocolate, but their rich, complex profile contributes to a harmonious sauce.

Another thing to consider when using chocolate to flavor a steak sauce is that you don't want it to burn while melting it. Adding a touch of butter to the pot and stirring constantly or using a double boiler will allow it to liquify without sticking to the pot. Once melted, add the rest of the ingredients of the sauce until you're tasting a symphony of flavors that get you excited to dig into that juicy steak.