Chicken en Mole

This authentic mole is better than any I've had in a restaurant. It takes some time to make, but it is well worth the effort. Serve this with shredded chicken or over burritos, and you'll love it!

5 from 1 vote

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Course: main dish

Cuisine: Mexican

Diet: Low Lactose

Prep Time: 45

Cook Time: 2 10

Total Time: 2 55

Servings: cups

Calories: 131kcal

Author: Michelle

Ingredients

5 New Mexican chiles
2 Guajillo chiles
3 chipotle chiles
5 ancho chiles
1 ounce sesame seeds about 2 tablespoons
1 ounce peanuts
1 teaspoon peppercorns
1 ounce almonds
1 quarter large onion large chopped
6 cloves garlic
1 piece bread
1 tortilla
1 pound roma tomatoes
1 stick cinnamon
1 ounce raisins
1/2 tablet Mexican chocolate
1 cup grapeseed oil ok, so I used olive because I was out of grapeseed - totally worked fine
2 tablespoons chicken stock
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup sugar

Instructions

Begin boiling a pot of water, approximately 2 1/2 quarts.
Destem and deseed all the chiles except the anchos. Toss the seeds, ribs and stems, leaving only the body. To do so, use a knife to cut the chili in half lengthwise and shake out the seeds. If the chili breaks while you're doing it (which it will do as it ages and dries out more - the flavor is still fine, so don't worry!), that's fine and sometimes actually makes it easier.
5 New Mexican chiles, 2 Guajillo chiles, 3 chipotle chiles
Destem and deseed the anchos, but save these seeds! Place the ancho seeds into a small saucepan, along with the sesame seeds, the peanuts, the peppercorns, and the almonds. Toast over medium head for a minute or two, shaking to stir them up periodically. When you can smell them toasting, they're done. Set them aside.
5 ancho chiles, 1 ounce sesame seeds, 1 ounce peanuts, 1 teaspoon peppercorns, 1 ounce almonds
Meanwhile, dry toast the chiles on a cast iron grill (or in a saute pan with a little grapeseed oil) on medium heat. Turn them once after a minute and a half or so.
Drop the toasted peppers into the boiling water.
You'll be using that cast iron grill pan (or saute pan) a lot, so keep it on the stove. Start toasting the onion you rough chopped, along with the cloves of garlic. Turn them after a minute, just like the chiles. Add them to the boiling water, too.
1 quarter large onion, 6 cloves garlic
Toast the slice of bread and the tortilla in the grill pan until lightly browned. Add to the boiling water.
1 piece bread, 1 tortilla
You'll go through the same routine with the roma tomatoes, cinnamon stick, and raisins. Toast them on the grill pan, then add them to the boiling water.
1 pound roma tomatoes, 1 stick cinnamon, 1 ounce raisins
Next up is the Mexican chocolate. You cannot just use "normal" chocolate for this. It has a different texture and taste, and it's perfect for this. I rough chop the chocolate, then add it, the grapeseed oil (or olive oil this time around), chicken stock, and salt to the pot of boiling water. At this point, you're probably going to start wondering if you did something wrong because it does not look pretty. You didn't.
1/2 tablet Mexican chocolate, 1 cup grapeseed oil, 2 tablespoons chicken stock, 2 teaspoons salt
Turn the heat down so that the mixture simmers. Cook for about an hour, and it's still questionable looking, but hang in there with me. I promise it's worth it.
Let it cool, and remove the cinnamon stick. Put it into a blender in batches. I would generally puree a sauce like this in the pan, but I truly want it pulverized and pureed as finely as possible, so I actually use my blender for this one. My standard warm/hot liquid blender cautions remain: never fill it more than 1/3 full with hot liquids. Use a potholder or kitchen towel to hold the top on so that it doesn't pop loose and spray the kitchen or burn you.
When I do this, I pull mole from the pot then blenderize it. I pour it back into the pot on one side, then pull out more mole from the other side until the entire pan looks like it's a a single color and consistency. This means that some parts of it get blended more than once, but I'm fine with that. I really want this to be fairly smooth.
Cook it uncovered over low heat. Add the scant one cup of sugar, and simmer until it thickens. It will darken in color, too. Stir it periodically, as it will develop a skin, but it stirs away. This will take forty-five minutes to an hour, but feel free to simmer longer to make it even thicker.
1 cup sugar

Equipment

Grill Pan

Blender

Immersion Blender

Notes

These are all dried chiles that I find in our grocery store in the ethnic section. I sometimes run low on one type of chili or another, and that's fine. I just sub in one of the other chiles making sure the heat is similar (go by size of the chili - the smaller the pepper, the hotter it is!).
Treat this like a condiment. My favorite way to use it is to poach chicken, shred it, and serve the mole over rice and the shredded chicken, but get creative and have fun with it!
For more tips and tricks, be sure to read the full article above.

Nutrition

This site uses an online source to provide nutrition estimates as a courtesy. If you need exact values, please calculate yourself.