Mole poblano

Ingredients

• Chicken — in pieces2 kg
• Ancho chillies6
• Pasilla chillies4
• Mulato chillies4
• Almonds80 g
• Peanuts60 g
• Sesame seeds60 g
• Raisins80 g
• Tomatoes3
• Tomatillos200 g
• Onion1
• Garlic6 clove
• Cinnamon stick1
• Cloves4
• Dark chocolate60 g
• Stale bread2 slice
• Lard120 g
• Saltto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Simmer the chicken with an onion and garlic for forty minutes. Strain and keep the broth.

   45 min

2. 2

   Seed the chillies and toast them on a dry pan ten seconds a side, stopping short of blackening.

   15 min

3. 3

   Cover the chillies with boiling water for twenty minutes to soften.

   22 min

4. 4

   Fry the almonds, peanuts, sesame, raisins and bread in lard, one at a time and separately.

   25 min

5. 5

   Char the tomatoes, tomatillos and garlic on a dry pan until blackened in patches.

   15 min

6. 6

   Blend everything with broth in batches and pass it through a sieve twice.

   25 min

7. 7

   Cook the sauce for an hour on a low heat, stirring, stir in the chocolate and salt, add the chicken and heat it through.

   70 min

About the dish

There are more than twenty ingredients and each is toasted separately: chillies, nuts, seeds, spices, bread. Toasting them together burns some and leaves others raw.

Only a little chocolate goes in, and it does not make the sauce sweet. Its job is to round off the bitterness of the chillies and add depth; mole is a savoury dish.

The sauce is sieved twice and cooked at least an hour. It should darken to the colour of old wood and thicken until a spoon leaves a trail.

Worth knowing

• — The chillies must not scorch. A blackened chilli leaves a bitterness that runs through the whole sauce and cannot be rescued.
• — Mole is made ahead — it is better on the second day. In Puebla it is cooked in large batches and frozen in portions.
• — The sauce should coat the back of a spoon thickly. A thin mole reads as undercooked.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

780 kcal

Protein

48 g

Fat

46 g

Carbs

40 g

More from Mexico

• Guacamole — Avocado, lime, onion and chilli crushed with a fork. No blender and no sour cream: both turn it into a dip rather than guacamole.
• Tacos al pastor — Pork in a marinade of dried chillies and pineapple, seared to caramelised edges, in a corn tortilla.
• Chiles rellenos — Poblano peppers stuffed with cheese in an airy egg batter, fried and served under tomato sauce.