Mole Poblano

Each kind of chilli fried on its own, because they do not soften at the same rate, then ground with seeds and chocolate.

Chicken. Not vegetarian — contains chicken, lard.

Ingredients

the chillies

• 6 mulato chillies, stalks and seeds removed
• 4 ancho chillies, stalks and seeds removed
• 4 pasilla chillies, stalks and seeds removed
• 2 chipotle chillies
• 150 g lard, for frying

the body

• 60 g sesame seeds
• 50 g almonds
• 40 g raisins
• 2 tablespoons pumpkin seeds
• 1 slice stale bread
• 1 corn tortilla, as on its own page, dried hard
• 300 g tomatoes
• 1 onion, quartered
• 4 cloves garlic, unpeeled
• 1 small cinnamon stick
• 4 cloves
• 6 black peppercorns
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 60 g dark chocolate, at least 70%
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt

to serve

• 1 whole chicken, jointed and poached, with 1.5 litres of its broth
• corn tortillas, as on their own page

Method

1. EACH KIND OF CHILLI IS FRIED SEPARATELY BECAUSE THEY DO NOT SOFTEN AT THE SAME RATE. A mulato is thick and leathery and wants forty seconds; a pasilla is thin and will blacken in fifteen. Tipped into one pan together, some are scorched and some are still stiff, and a single scorched chilli makes the whole pot bitter in a way nothing corrects -- not sugar, not chocolate, not another hour on the stove. One kind at a time, lifted out the moment it puffs and goes fragrant, and the lard reused between them. It takes five minutes longer and it is the difference between a mole and a disappointment.
2. THEY ARE FRIED IN LARD AND NOT TOASTED DRY. Dry toasting is for seeds and spices. A chilli in hot fat puffs, goes pliable and releases its oils into the lard, which then goes into the sauce; dry on an iron pan the same chilli tightens and the step from fragrant to burnt is a few seconds wide.
3. THE BREAD AND THE TORTILLA ARE THE THICKENER AND BOTH ARE USED. Fried until dark and then blended in, they give the sauce its body -- a mole poblano is not thickened by reduction. Flour would do it and would taste of flour; the tortilla contributes toasted corn, which is a flavour the sauce wants anyway.
4. THE CHOCOLATE GOES IN AT THE END AND THERE IS NOT MUCH OF IT. Sixty grams in a pot for eight, stirred in off the boil. It is there for bitterness and body, not for sweetness, and a mole that tastes of chocolate has had three times too much. Added early it catches on the base and turns grainy.
5. IT IS SIMMERED FOR AN HOUR AFTER EVERYTHING IS IN, AND THAT HOUR IS NOT OPTIONAL. Straight from the blender the sauce tastes of twenty separate things. An hour at a bare simmer, stirred often because it catches easily, and they stop being separate. The sauce also darkens noticeably over that hour, from red-brown to near-black.
6. The lard melted in a frying pan over a medium heat.
7. Each KIND of chilli fried SEPARATELY, 15 to 40 seconds depending on thickness, until it puffs and smells fragrant. Lifted out at once. NONE allowed to blacken.
8. All the fried chillies covered with hot water and soaked 20 minutes, then DRAINED and the water discarded.
9. In the same lard: the almonds, pumpkin seeds, raisins, bread and dried tortilla fried in turn until dark. Lifted out.
10. The sesame seeds toasted DRY on a separate pan until pale gold, 2 tablespoons held back for the top.
11. The tomatoes, onion and unpeeled garlic charred on a dry griddle 12 minutes until blackened in patches. The garlic peeled.
12. The cinnamon, cloves, peppercorns and oregano toasted dry 30 seconds and ground to a powder.
13. Everything except the chocolate, sugar, salt and reserved sesame blended with 500 ml of the chicken broth, in batches, until very smooth.
14. STRAINED through a sieve into a heavy pot, pressed through with a ladle.
15. Brought to a bare simmer with another 500 ml of broth and cooked 1 HOUR, stirred often, until it darkens from red-brown to near-black.
16. The chocolate, sugar and salt stirred in OFF the boil until melted. Tasted.
17. The poached chicken added and warmed through 10 minutes.
18. Served with the reserved sesame scattered over, and tortillas.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Mexico · All recipes