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Easy Tri‑Tip Steak with Chocolate‑Chile Mole: Rich, Complex, Delicious

Recipe by Eileen

  • Total Time8 hours
  • Yield8-10 1x

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

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained with ½ cup juice reserved
  • 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 3 lb. Tri-tip steak
  • ½ tsp. sugar
  • ¼ cup minced fresh cilantro


Instructions

  1. 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. 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. Once it’s done, lift the Tri-tip steak out and place it on a serving platter. Shred the meat with 2 forks.
  4. 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. Mix the mole sauce with  the shredded Tri-tip steak and finish with a sprinkle of fresh cilantro.

Notes

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.

  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Cook Time: 7 hours
  • Category: Dinner, Lunch
  • Method: Slow Cooking
  • Cuisine: Mexican