- Recipes
- Cocoa Rub for Roast
Cocoa Rub for Roast
Chocolate takes deserts to awe inspiring heights, but to limit such a versatile ingredient to the sweets table is a short-sighted mistake all too many people make. Take a walk on the wild side and see how just a little bit of cocoa powder can infuse an ordinary roast with extraordinary flavor.

- 1
Trim roast of some of the excess fat and pat dry.
- 2
Mix all the dry ingredients together to make the dry rub.
- 3
Using your hands, coat the roast liberally with the rub. You want every inch of your roast to be covered with the blend of spices.
- 4
Allow the roast to sit for at least 30 minutes to let the flavors of the rub start to work their way into the meat.
- 5
Preheat your oven to 425°F.
- 6
In a large dutch oven on a hot stove, pour a couple tablespoons of olive oil. When the oil is hot, place the roast, fat side down, in the dutch oven to sear. Cook the roast on that side for 3 minutes or until it comes up easily. Flip the roast over and cook for an additional 3 minutes or so on the other side.
- 7
Once the roast has been nicely seared, slide into the oven.
- 8
Roast for 10 to 15 minutes per pound (start checking the internal temperature at about 20 minutes for a medium sized roast). Cook until internal temperature in the thickest part of the meat reads 125°F for rare meat, 135°F for medium-rare and 145°F for medium. (The roast in the photo was pulled from the oven at 135°F.)
- 9
Allow meat to rest for 10 minutes before slicing. You can cover it with a foil tent to keep it warm.
- 10
Set the dutch oven back on the stove. Add the wine (red or white), using a wooden spoon to scrape up any roast drippings that have attached to the bottom of the pan to make a nice au-jus sauce.
- 11
Cook on low heat until the alcoholic smell from the wine has evaporated.
- 12
Slice roast against the grain and add any new juices and drippings to the dutch oven.
- 13
Serve roast with au-jus on the side.
Ingredients
- >2-4lb Tri-tip roast or your preferred cut of meat.
- >3 tsp 100% unsweetened cocoa powder (not hot cocoa mix!)
- >2 tbsp Brown Sugar
- > 1 tbsp Onion Powder
- >1 tbsp Chili Powder
- >1 tsp Salt
- >1 tbsp Garlic Powder
- >½ tbsp Ground Cumin
- >1 tbsp Black Pepper
- >1 tsp Smoked Paprika
- > Olive oil
- >¼ cup of Wine
- Recipes
- Cocoa Rub for Roast