Mole Poblano
Puebla's complex sauce of dried chillies, chocolate, nuts, seeds and spices, served over chicken or turkey. Twenty-plus ingredients; days of work in restaurants; here a faithful weekend version. The most labyrinthine sauce in Mexican cooking, and the one most worth the effort.
Overview
Multiple dried chillies (mulato, ancho, pasilla) toast and rehydrate, then blend with toasted nuts, seeds, dried fruit, spices, fried onion and garlic, plantain, dark chocolate and a slice of toasted bread or tortilla into a thick paste. The paste cooks down with chicken stock into a glossy mahogany sauce, served over poached chicken with rice and warm tortillas.
Ingredients
Mole base
- 4 dried mulato chillies
- 4 dried ancho chillies
- 4 dried pasilla chillies
- 2 dried chipotle chillies
- 100 ml vegetable oil
- 1 onion (chopped)
- 6 garlic cloves
- 1 ripe plantain (peeled, sliced)
- 50 g blanched almonds
- 50 g raw peanuts
- 30 g pumpkin seeds
- 30 g sesame seeds
- 100 g raisins
- 1 corn tortilla (torn)
- 1 thick slice white bread
- 1 ripe tomato (chopped)
- 2 tomatillos (quartered) (or another tomato)
- 1 stick cinnamon
- 4 cloves
- 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- ¼ teaspoon ground anise (or 1 star anise)
- 60 g good-quality dark chocolate (70%)
- 1 litre chicken stock
- Salt
- 1 tablespoon caster sugar
Chicken
- 1 whole chicken (1.6 kg) or 8 thighs/legs
- 1 onion (halved)
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1 bay leaf
- Salt
To serve
- Cooked rice
- Warm tortillas
- A scatter of sesame seeds
Method
Stage 1 - Poach the chicken
- Place the chicken in a large pot with the onion, garlic and bay leaf. Cover with cold water; salt generously.
- Bring to a simmer; poach 35-40 minutes until cooked through.
- Lift out; reserve the broth (use as your chicken stock for the mole).
Stage 2 - Prep the chillies
- Wipe the dried chillies with a damp cloth. Slit each open and remove stems and seeds.
- Toast in a dry pan over medium heat for 30 seconds a side until fragrant. Don't burn.
- Soak in just-boiled water for 20 minutes to soften.
Stage 3 - Toast and fry
- In a heavy pan, heat 3 tablespoons of oil. Fry the nuts, seeds and raisins separately until golden, transferring each to a blender as done.
- Fry the bread and tortilla until golden; add to the blender.
- Fry the onion, garlic and plantain until golden; add to the blender.
- Briefly toast the cinnamon, cloves, peppercorns, oregano and anise in the dry pan; grind to powder; add to the blender.
- Add the soaked chillies (drained), tomato and tomatillos to the blender.
Stage 4 - Blend the paste
- Pour in 200 ml of the chicken broth.
- Blitz everything to as smooth a paste as possible (in batches if needed).
- Pass through a sieve, pressing hard on the solids; the texture should be silky.
Stage 5 - Cook the mole
- Heat the remaining oil in a large pan; fry the mole paste for 5 minutes, stirring (it spits).
- Pour in 800 ml chicken broth; stir to combine.
- Drop in the broken chocolate; stir until melted.
- Simmer 30 minutes, stirring often. The sauce should thicken to a glossy, lava-like consistency.
- Season with salt and sugar; the chillies need a touch of sweetness.
Stage 6 - Combine and serve
- Shred or cut the cooked chicken into pieces.
- Add to the mole and warm through 5 minutes.
- Serve over rice with warm tortillas. Scatter sesame seeds on top.
Notes
- Three chillies minimum: Mulato (raisin-fruity), ancho (sweet-mild), pasilla (deep-bitter). Replacing all three with one type gives a flat sauce.
- Toast everything: Every ingredient - chillies, nuts, seeds, spices, bread - gets briefly toasted or fried. This is what builds the layered flavour.
- Chocolate is the binder: A small amount, and not the dessert kind. 70% dark, no added flavours.
Storage
- Improves over 2-3 days. Keeps 5 days refrigerated.
- Mole paste freezes 6 months; thaw and add chicken stock to revive.
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