Mexican · Main · Hard
Mole Poblano
A deep, complex sauce of chiles, chocolate, and spices over tender chicken. Mexico's most celebrated dish.
The whole recipe in 60 seconds
Mole Poblano, in 5 ideas
- Toast, do not burn, the chiles. Burnt chiles turn the whole mole bitter.
- Blend longer than feels reasonable. Silky texture is the goal.
- The chocolate is for depth, not sweetness. Do not add extra.
- Mole always tastes better the second day. Make it ahead if you can.
- Strain the sauce if your blender leaves it gritty. Worth the extra step.
What you need
Ingredients
- 3 lbs bone in chicken thighs
- 9 dried chiles (ancho, pasilla, mulato), stemmed and seeded
- 1/2 cup sesame seeds, plus more for garnish
- 1/3 cup peanuts
- 1/4 cup raisins
- 1 corn tortilla, torn
- 1 onion, quartered, plus 4 garlic cloves
- 1 tsp anise seeds
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp cloves
- 2 oz Mexican chocolate, chopped
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil and salt to taste
How to make it
Directions
- Simmer the chicken in salted water 25 minutes until cooked through. Save the broth and shred the meat.
- Toast the dried chiles in a dry skillet 30 seconds per side until fragrant. Soak in hot water 20 minutes, then drain.
- Toast the sesame seeds, peanuts, and tortilla pieces until golden. Set aside.
- Blend the soaked chiles with the toasted nuts, seeds, tortilla, raisins, onion, garlic, and spices with 2 cups broth until as smooth as possible.
- Heat the oil in a large pot. Fry the blended sauce 10 minutes, stirring, until it darkens.
- Add the remaining broth and the chocolate. Simmer 30 minutes, stirring often, until thick enough to coat a spoon.
- Add the shredded chicken and heat through. Serve over rice with sesame seeds and warm tortillas.
Dried chiles are cheap at Latin markets, often a third of supermarket prices. Stock up when you go.