A celebrated dish in Mexico, this entree is all about the mole sauce — made with cloves, cinnamon, anise, coriander, dried chiles and chocolate. Incorporate toasted sesame seeds into the sauce and as a garnish for deep nutty flavor!
| Level: | Easy |
| Total: | 2 hr |
| Prep: | 50 min |
| Cook: | 1 hr 10 min |
| Yield: | 4 servings |
Ingredients
- 1 chicken (3 to 4 pounds), cut into 6 pieces
- 5 black peppercorns
- Kosher salt
- 1/2 cup sesame seeds
- 5 whole cloves
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1/2 teaspoon anise seeds
- 1/4 teaspoon coriander seeds
- 6 dried guajillo chile peppers
- 4 dried ancho chile peppers
- 6 tablespoons canola oil
- 1/4 cup raisins
- 1/4 cup whole blanched almonds
- 1/4 cup hulled pumpkin seeds
- 2 6-inch corn tortillas, torn into pieces
- 1 2.7-ounce disk Mexican chocolate, broken into pieces
- Pinch of sugar
Instructions
- Put the chicken and peppercorns in a large pot, cover with water and season with salt. Bring to a gentle simmer over low heat and cook until tender, about 40 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a large plate and set the cooking liquid aside.
- Toast the sesame seeds in a dry skillet over medium heat, tossing, until golden, about 5 minutes. Set aside 2 tablespoons for garnish and transfer the rest to a blender. In the same skillet, toast the cloves, cinnamon stick, and anise and coriander seeds until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Add to the blender.
- Remove the stems and seeds from the dried chile peppers. Heat 4 tablespoons canola oil in the same skillet over medium heat. Add the chiles and fry until lightly toasted, about 2 minutes. Transfer to a bowl, cover with hot water and set aside to soak until pliable, about 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, add the raisins, almonds, pumpkin seeds and tortilla pieces to the oil in the skillet and cook, stirring, until the seeds and tortillas are golden brown, about 2 minutes. Add to the blender along with the oil from the skillet. Add the softened chiles and puree, pouring in 2 to 3 cups of the soaking liquid to make a thick, smooth sauce.
- Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the chile sauce and fry, stirring, until thickened, 5 to 6 minutes. Add 4 cups of the reserved chicken cooking liquid and simmer until the sauce starts to thicken, about 20 minutes. Add the chocolate and simmer, stirring frequently, until the chocolate melts and the sauce reduces, about 20 more minutes. Add the sugar and season with salt.
- Add the chicken pieces to the sauce and warm through over low heat. Garnish with the reserved sesame seeds.
- Photgraph by Con Poulos
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 4 servings |
| Calories | 1170 |
| Total Fat | 87 g |
| Saturated Fat | 19 g |
| Carbohydrates | 43 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 10 g |
| Sugar | 17 g |
| Protein | 62 g |
| Cholesterol | 202 mg |
| Sodium | 1195 mg |
Reviews
The deep smoky flavors are fantastic! Hub and I made this as a “together” thing today and we didn’t feel the need to make many changes at all. Exception being I used dried cranberries (on hand) and added a few different dried peppers to the mix. I used heavily salted water for the broth and added a few tablespoons of Better than Bouillon Roasted Chicken and several garlic cloves and bay leaves to the broth. I also steeped all of the fried dried peppers right into the broth before adding them to the blender. Really really good! Not an “all day” recipe but being prepared with all of the ingredients at the ready is the best way to make it properly.
Kind of weird to add the raisins and all the unnecessary seeds and stuff, kind of makes it less “Mexican”, but its still a good recipe
Use ready-made stock and grill the chicken. Also, the sauce freezes incredibly well.
Found this recipe and tried a couple of times, added a little more time here and there just to make sure to have the frequance.
The left overs we made chicken mole tamales,
FANTASTIC
Solid 4 havent tried it but sure looks pretty good
This was such a disappointment . The flavor was really off and nothing like the moles that I have enjoyed in the past.
I made this the other day and it was soo good. The only thing I didn’t have were the star anise seeds. I just toasted the star anise and popped one in the blender. I also used ready made stock and grilled my chicken. I was a little afraid of all the chocolate going in but put in the exact amount and a little salt and sugar at the end and it was amazingly good. This is a keeper for me. Oh, I also didn’t have enough white sesame seeds so I used a mixture of white and black.
This came out pretty good with a few mods. I substituted cashews for almonds for richness which worked well. It did need more of the chile soaking liquid to get it to blend properly. I used closer to 4 cups. I also added a tiny bit of lemon juice to counter some bitterness from the chiles. Since I only made the sauce I used a good quality chicken stock rather than the liquid from poaching the chicken and added the pepper corns the toasted spice mixture.
Despite blending in a very powerful blender for a long time there was still a slightly gritty texture so I added the step of running the whole mixture through a sieve before adding the chocolate and reducing. This produced a velvety texture.
I used a bit more chocolate (75g total) and as such the added sugar was unneeded.
All in all very tasty.
Love this recipe!!! Really easy!
Delicious. Smokey, spicy, interesting. A lot of work. But well worth it! My hubs and I are excited to eat the left overs! I would Not boil the chicken again. Grill or bake it. Use a chicken stock in place of the chicken boiling water. But overall maybe the most DEEPLY flavorful meal I’ve made…maybe ever (and I’m a pretty good cook).