🛒 Ingredients
- 4 dried mulato chiles
- 4 dried pasilla chiles
- 2 dried ancho chiles
- 2 chipotle chiles
- 100g dark chocolate 70%
- 500g red tomato
- 2 onions
- 5 garlic cloves
- 50g pumpkin seeds
- 30g sesame seeds
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
- Salt
👨🍳 Step-by-step instructions
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Dry-toast the mulato, ancho, and pasilla chiles. Remove seeds and veins. Soak in hot water for 20 minutes.
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Fry in lard: tomatoes, garlic, onion, almonds, raisins, peanuts, chile seeds, and spices.
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Blend the rehydrated chiles with the fried mixture and some of the soaking water until smooth.
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In a large saucepan, fry the mole paste in hot lard for 10 minutes, stirring constantly.
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Gradually add chicken broth while stirring. The sauce should become thick.
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Add chopped dark chocolate and sugar. Cook for 30 minutes over very low heat, stirring frequently.
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Adjust salt and sugar. The mole should be well-balanced between sweet, spicy, and bitter.
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Serve over cooked chicken pieces, sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds.
💡 Chef's tip
Toast each ingredient separately before grinding — chiles, seeds, spices and chocolate all have different timing. Mole improves overnight and freezes perfectly.
📝 Our take
Mole poblano is the most complex sauce in Mexican cooking: over thirty ingredients — dried chiles, dark chocolate, peanuts, spices and herbs — toasted and combined over hours. Not a Tuesday recipe, but when you have time and genuinely want to cook something serious, the result is unlike anything that comes from a jar.
🍷 Wine & food pairing
Reposado mezcal or añejo tequila with hibiscus water or cold sparkling water. For wine, a full-bodied Argentinian Malbec has enough structure to hold up against the mole without being lost.
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