Pollo con Mole (Chicken with Mole Sauce)

About This Recipe

Pollo con Mole is one of the great achievements of Mexican cuisine — a dish in which dozens of humble ingredients, through toasting, soaking, frying, and slow cooking, transform into a sauce of profound complexity. Mole (from the Nahuatl 'molli', meaning sauce or stew) is not a single recipe but a family of preparations, with mole negro from Oaxaca and mole poblano from Puebla being the most celebrated. What unites them is the method: dried chiles are toasted and soaked, combined with roasted tomatoes, charred onion, nuts, seeds, spices, stale tortilla or bread as a thickener, and dark chocolate, then blended to a smooth paste, fried in hot fat to deepen the color, and diluted with broth into a glossy, deeply flavored sauce. Chicken pieces braise in this sauce until impossibly tender, absorbing the mole's complexity from the outside in. The flavor profile of mole is genuinely unique — simultaneously smoky, chocolatey, earthy, faintly sweet, and spicy, with no single element dominating. It is the dish served at Mexican weddings, baptisms, and Day of the Dead celebrations, and receiving a bowl of mole is understood as an act of deep hospitality. Paired with white rice and warm corn tortillas, this is Mexican cooking at its most magnificent.

Ingredients

Serves 6

• 1.5 kgchicken pieces(bone-in thighs and drumsticks)
• 4 driedmulato chiles(stemmed and seeded)
• 3 driedancho chiles(stemmed and seeded)
• 2 driedpasilla chiles(stemmed and seeded)
• 2 driedchipotle chiles in adobo
• 70 gMexican dark chocolate(Ibarra or Abuelita brand preferred)
• 3 mediumtomatoes(roasted until charred)
• 5 clovesgarlic(roasted unpeeled)
• 1 largewhite onion(quartered and charred on a dry griddle)
• 60 gblanched almonds
• 2 tbspsesame seeds(plus more for garnish)
• 2 tbspraisins
• 1 piecestale corn tortilla(torn into pieces)
• 1 tspcumin seeds
• 0.5 tspground cinnamon
• 3 wholeblack peppercorns
• 2 tbsplard or vegetable oil(for frying mole paste)
• 800 mlchicken stock
• 1.5 tspsalt

Instructions

1. 1

   Toast the Dried Chiles

   Heat a dry comal or heavy skillet over medium heat. Toast each dried chile for 15–20 seconds per side, pressing with a spatula, until they darken slightly and smell fragrant. Do not let them blacken. Transfer immediately to a bowl of hot water. Soak 30 minutes until softened.

   Toast chiles one type at a time — they have different sizes and toast at different rates.

2. 2

   Toast Nuts, Seeds, and Tortilla

   In the same dry pan, toast almonds until golden, about 3 minutes. Add sesame seeds and toast 1 minute, stirring. Toast cumin seeds and peppercorns 30 seconds. Toast the torn tortilla pieces until deep golden. Set all aside in a bowl.

3. 3

   Blend the Mole Paste

   Drain soaked chiles, reserving soaking water. In a blender, combine drained chiles, charred tomatoes, peeled roasted garlic, charred onion, almonds, sesame seeds, tortilla pieces, raisins, cumin, cinnamon, chipotle, and 300ml chicken stock. Blend in batches until extremely smooth. Pass through a medium sieve pressing hard.

   Blend in batches and blend each batch for at least 90 seconds for a truly smooth paste.

4. 4

   Fry the Mole Base

   Heat lard in a heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat until very hot. Pour in the blended chile paste all at once — it will splatter. Fry, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, for 8–10 minutes until the paste darkens several shades and the fat visibly separates at the edges.

   Use a splatter screen. This step is non-negotiable — frying removes the raw chile flavor and caramelizes the sugars.

5. 5

   Add Chocolate and Stock

   Break the dark chocolate into the pot and stir until melted and fully incorporated. Pour in remaining 500ml chicken stock. Reduce heat to low and simmer 20 minutes, stirring often, until the sauce coats the back of a spoon. Season with salt.

6. 6

   Braise the Chicken

   Season chicken pieces with salt. Nestle them into the mole sauce. Cover and braise over low heat 35–40 minutes, turning pieces halfway through, until the chicken is cooked through and beginning to pull from the bone.

7. 7

   Rest and Serve

   Remove from heat and rest 10 minutes with the lid on. Serve in deep plates, spooning extra mole over the top. Garnish with sesame seeds and thinly sliced white onion. Serve with Mexican red rice and warm corn tortillas.

Variations

• •

  Mole negro oaxaqueno adds charred dried chile negro and a piece of burned tortilla for an even darker, more complex sauce.

• •

  Turkey in mole (guajolote en mole) is the original celebration version — turkey's richer fat makes an even more decadent sauce.

• •

  Mole amarillo uses yellow chiles and no chocolate for a bright, fresh-tasting sauce popular in Oaxaca.

Storage

Mole sauce keeps refrigerated for up to 5 days and freezes excellently for 3 months. Reheat gently with a splash of chicken stock to loosen. Chicken in mole keeps refrigerated 3 days and improves with resting.

Frequently Asked Questions