Easy Tri‑Tip Steak with Chocolate‑Chile Mole Sauce

My husband and I recently visited a newly opened Mexican restaurant in Aventura, Florida, where we fell head over heels for a chicken dish napped in an incredible mole sauce. I couldn’t wait to recreate that experience at home, but I wanted a streamlined, no‑fuss ingredient list. As part of this post, I’ll show you how to make an Easy Tri‑Tip Steak with Chocolate‑Chile Mole. And as I continue cooking my way through the freezer, I discovered a Tri‑tip steak patiently waiting to become dinner. That inspired me to make an Easy Tri-tip steak with Chocolate-Chile Mole, combining tender beef and a rich, flavorful sauce. The sauce is velvety and complex, yet wonderfully hands‑off once everything is nestled into the slow cooker. The meat becomes meltingly tender, perfect served over rice or tucked into warm tortillas.

This is the kind of slow‑cooked dish that fills your kitchen with anticipation long before dinner is served.

This recipe was adapted from Pixley, Stephanie. “Slow Cooker Chicken Mole”. America’s Test Kitchen- The Complete Slow Cooker. Penguin Random House Publisher Services, 2017. I originally made this dish with boneless chicken breasts but it worked very well with the Tri-tip steak I found as I continue to conquer my freezer, one package at a time.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• The sauce is incredibly rich and complex, but requires very few ingredients
• The Tri-tip steak becomes meltingly tender and shreds easily to use as a filling for quesadillas, tacos or burritos

What Makes This Recipe So Flavorful

The secret to this recipe:

• The blend of peanut butter, cocoa, chili powders, and tomatoes creates a deep, velvety mole with layers of flavor that taste like you’ve been tending the pot all afternoon.

Ingredients You’ll Need for Easy Tri‑Tip Steak with Chocolate‑Chile Mole Sauce

• 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 tablespoons peanut butter
• 2 tsps. Chili powder
• 1 tsp. Ancho chili powder
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• Salt and pepper 
• 1 2½ lb. Tri-tip steak
• ½ tsp. sugar
• ¼ cup minced fresh cilantro

How to Make Easy Tri‑Tip Steak with Chocolate‑Chile Mole Sauce : Step‑by‑Step

1. Prepare the sauce
   Add the tomatoes with their juices to your slow cooker, along with cocoa powder, peanut butter, chili powders, garlic, salt, and pepper. Give everything a quick stir.
2. Add the Meat and cook in slow cooker
   Season the Tri-tip steak with a little more salt and pepper, then nestle the steak right into the sauce. Cover and cook on low until the steak is beautifully tender, about 7 hours.
3. Shred the meat
   Once it’s done, lift the Tri-tip steak out and place it on a serving platter. Shred the meat with 2 forks.
4. Puree the mole sauce
   Carefully pour the cooking liquid into a blender, add  ½ tsp. sugar, and blend until silky smooth, about 30 seconds. Taste and adjust the seasoning as needed.
5. Combine the sauce and the shredded meat
   Mix the mole sauce with the shredded Tri-tip steak and finish with a sprinkle of fresh cilantro.

Tips for Success

• Try not to open the slow‑cooker lid while it’s working. Each time you do, you’ll tack on another half hour of cooking.
• Tenderize the meat with a meat pounder prior to cooking. I use a Jaccard mini meat tenderizer, and it works very well without completely pulverizing the meat.

Variations and Substitutions

• Use boneless, skinless chicken breasts and reduce the cooking time to 3 hours on low, shred the meat
• Use bone in chicken thighs, skin removed, cook for 4-5 hours on low. Leave the thighs whole and nap with the mole sauce
• Add 1/3 cup raisins to the sauce mixture in the slow cooker, eliminate the added sugar at the end

How to Store, Freeze, and Reheat Easy Tri‑Tip Steak with Chocolate‑Chile Mole Sauce

• Leftovers will last 3-4 days in the refrigerator in an airtight container
• This dish freezes well for up to 2 months
• Best reheating method: reheat with a little beef broth in a pot on the stove until bubbling and heated through

Serving Suggestions

FAQ About Making Easy Tri‑Tip Steak with Chocolate‑Chile Mole Sauce

• Can I make ahead of time? Feel free to prep this dish in advance. The longer it rests, the more the flavors come together.
• Can I freeze this dish? This recipe freezes well.

Did you make this recipe? Be sure to rate it in the recipe card and let me know how it went in the comments below. Your ratings and feedback help others find and trust my recipes, and they mean so much to me. Thanks for cooking along!

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