Chicken Mole Recipe
Chicken mole is a delicious Mexican recipe using the most exotic and flavorsome combination of Mexican chilies in conjunction with dark chocolate and spices. Mole chicken is a festive dish of Mexico served at any special occasions, be it birthday, weeding or family get-together.
It is fair to say that I am obsessed with Mexican cooking. Believe me, I am no expert at it, but just love experimenting. Last weekend, after visiting a modern contemporary Mexican bistro and sampling so many tasty finger-food style dishes accompanied with just one too many Mojito – I decided to make this recipe the next day!
Serve this dish alongside freshly made guacamole, rice, bean, tortilla and tomato salsa.
Happy Cooking!
P.S this recipe feed 5-6 amigos. So adjust the ingredients to your requirement or freeze the extra.
Ingredients – Chicken
- 2 kg chicken cut into serving pieces
- 1 onion – chopped
- 1 garlic – chopped
- Salt – seasoning
- Oil or lard
- Toasted white sesame seeds & fresh coriander to garnish
Ingredients – Mole Sauce
- 6 Ancho chillies
- 4 Pasilla chillies
- 4 Mulato chillies
- 1 drained can of chipotle in adobo sauce – seeded and chopped
- 2 onions -roughly chopped
- 2 garlic – roughly chopped
- 450g of tomato – peeled and cut into quarter
- 1 stale tortilla (or 1/2 piece of stale bread) – torn into pieces
- 50g sultanas
- 115g ground almond
- 50g white sesame seeds
- 1/2tsp coriander powder
- 1 tbsp of Ceylon cinnamon powder
- 1 tsp of anise – ground
- 1/2 tsp of black peppercorns whole
- 4 tbsp of oil/lard
- 40g unsweetened bitter dark chocolate
- 25g soft brown sugar – you may need some extra
- 1 tsp of salt – extra salt of seasoning
Method
- Put chicken pieces into a saucepan large enough to hold them in one layer. Add onion, garlic and salt. Cover with water. Bring to boil and simmer for 35-40 minutes.
- Remove the stalk and seed from all chilies. Tear the chili pods into pieces and soak in a small bowl of boiling water for 20 minutes until soft. The chilies should be covered with water.
- In a food processor, add the soaked chilies and 1/4 liquid along with all other ingredients. Process to a fine paste.
- Heat the oil in a non-stick saucepan with cover. Remove the chicken pieces from stock liquid and add to the pan. (remember the oil will be splattering, so have the lid nearby to cover immediately)
- Once the chicken pieces are lightly browned, remove from saucepan and set aside.
- To the same saucepan, add the homogenized mole paste with the remaining oil. Saute, whilst stirring, for 15 minutes until fragrant.
- Now add 475ml of chicken stock to the mixture. (make it up with water if necessary). Add chocolate, salt and pepper. Cook on low heat until the chocolate is completely melted. Then stir in sugar and cook for further 5minutes.
- Add the chicken to the mole sauce ensuring it is immersed in the sauce. Cover and cook on low heat for another 30-45 minutes until all the flavors have come together and chicken is cooked.
- At the final stage, adjust the sugar and seasoning.
- Garnish with the fresh coriander and toasted sesame seeds.
Nush-e-Jan! (Enjoy!)