Mole Negro Oaxaqueño

About This Recipe

Mole negro is the most cathedral of Mexico's seven Oaxacan moles — a thick, glossy, near-black sauce built from charred chilhuacle, mulato, and pasilla chilies; toasted seeds and nuts; Mexican chocolate; raisins; charred onion and garlic; and a stack of warm spices. The classic recipe contains around 30 ingredients and traditionally takes two days. The result is paradoxical: deeply savoury but with whispers of fruit and cocoa, smoky but not burnt, spicy but not aggressive. It's served at weddings, funerals, and baptisms; ladled over poached turkey or chicken; mopped up with warm corn tortillas. This is a project recipe — not a weeknight dish — and the reward is one of the most layered sauces in world cooking.

Ingredients

Serves 10

• 8chilhuacle negro chilies (or extra mulato)
• 8mulato chilies
• 6pasilla chilies
• 4guajillo chilies
• 1 smallMexican avocado leaf (or bay leaf)
• 2 tbspsesame seeds
• 2 tbsppumpkin seeds
• 30 galmonds
• 30 gpeanuts
• 3 tbspraisins
• 1 stalecorn tortilla
• 1 slicestale white bread
• 1 ripeplantain, sliced
• 2 smalltomatoes
• 3tomatillos, husked
• 1 largewhite onion, quartered
• 6 clovesgarlic, unpeeled
• 1 stickcinnamon (Mexican canela)
• 4whole cloves
• 6allspice berries
• 8black peppercorns
• 1/2 tspdried oregano (Mexican)
• 1/2 tspdried thyme
• 70 gMexican chocolate (Ibarra or Abuelita), chopped
• 2 Lrich chicken or turkey stock
• 6 tbsplard or neutral oil, divided
• salt and a little sugar to taste
• 1 wholepoached chicken or turkey to serve

Instructions

1. 1

   Char the chilies

   Wipe the chilies. On a dry comal or cast-iron skillet over medium-high, toast each chili type until very dark and smoky — for chilhuacle and mulato, let them blacken almost completely (this is the source of the negro color). Stem and seed; keep some seeds to char separately.

2. 2

   Burn the seeds for color

   On the same comal, toast the reserved chili seeds until they smoke heavily and turn black — almost burning. This is traditional and essential for the deep color of mole negro. Do not skip; do not be timid.

3. 3

   Soak chilies

   Cover the toasted chilies and burnt seeds with hot water. Soak 30 minutes.

4. 4

   Toast seeds, nuts, and spices

   On the comal, separately toast sesame, pumpkin seeds, almonds, and peanuts until golden. Toast cinnamon, cloves, allspice, peppercorns, and the avocado leaf briefly until fragrant. Set aside.

5. 5

   Char vegetables

   On the comal, char onion, garlic (still in skins), tomatoes, and tomatillos until blackened in spots, about 10 minutes. Peel garlic.

6. 6

   Fry the bread, tortilla, plantain, raisins

   Heat 3 tbsp lard in a heavy pot. Fry the tortilla, bread, plantain slices, and raisins separately until golden. Drain on paper.

7. 7

   Blend in batches

   In a blender, puree the soaked chilies and seeds with a little soaking liquid until very smooth. In separate batches, puree the charred vegetables, the seeds-nuts-spices, and the bread-tortilla-plantain-raisins. Pass each through a fine sieve.

8. 8

   Fry the pastes

   Heat 3 tbsp lard in the same heavy pot until shimmering. Add the chili puree carefully — it will spit. Fry, stirring, for 10 minutes until darker and a layer of fat surfaces.

9. 9

   Add remaining pastes

   Stir in the vegetable, nut-spice, and starch purees one by one, frying each into the previous for 5 minutes. The mole should look glossy and dark.

10. 10

    Simmer with stock

    Pour in the hot stock 250 ml at a time, stirring after each addition. Bring to a gentle simmer.

11. 11

    Add chocolate and finish

    Drop in the chopped Mexican chocolate. Stir until melted. Simmer uncovered, very gently, for 90 minutes, stirring often so the bottom doesn't catch. The mole should coat the back of a spoon thickly.

12. 12

    Season and rest

    Season with salt and a teaspoon or so of sugar — only enough to round the bitterness. Cover and rest at least 30 minutes (overnight is better).

13. 13

    Serve

    Reheat gently. Pour generously over poached chicken or turkey breast. Garnish with sesame seeds. Serve with warm corn tortillas, white rice, and pickled red onions.

Variations

• •

  Vegan mole negro: use vegetable stock and replace lard with avocado oil; double the toasted nuts for richness.

• •

  Mole coloradito: a redder Oaxacan cousin with fewer chilies, no burnt seeds.

• •

  Use the mole to make enmoladas — corn tortillas dipped, filled, and rolled.

Storage

Refrigerate up to 5 days, or freeze in portions up to 3 months. Mole improves with rest — the second-day mole is famously the best.

Frequently Asked Questions